My Top 5 Tools For 2020
As a professional photographer, the question I get asked the most is
“What camera gear & editing software do you use?”
Answer: I currently shoot on the Nikon D750 with prime lenses & I edit on Adobe Lightroom & I occasionally use Photoshop. For film photography, I used the Mamiya 645 AF with Kodak Portra Film.
But do you want to know a secret?
My camera is one of the tools I reach for THE LEAST on a daily basis in my business. I find that the tools that are most essential to my job are not the ones inside my camera bag (but yes, those are very important too).
Here are my top 5 tools that are essential to helping me run my photography business, all of which I know will be my favorite tools in 2020. Spoiler alert: The first 3 you may have never even heard of.
Top 5 Tools for 2020
Photo Mechanic
For photographers who capture large volumes of images (like on a wedding day) there is a process that happens in between photographing images & then editing them. That process is called “culling”. That’s when we select the best images from the bunch to ensure the images we work on are truly the best of the best. In a nutshell, culling helps reduce the amount of repeated, blurry or unflattering images we get back to the client.
Culling can be done in several ways, some even do that directly in Lightroom. But with Photo Mechanic, large RAW files render at lightning speed, quicker than most editing software, saving so much time & streamlining my editing workflow. Photo Mechanic is not new to my workflow, I’ve used it for years & I love it. But looking at my 2020 calendar I know that I have many weddings, events & portraits to capture meaning I’ll have tens of thousands of images that will fill up my year, but I can rely on Photo Mechanic to get me through that workload efficiently.
Calendly
Calendly is one of the newest additions to my tool belt & I don’t know how I ever functioned without it. They say it best on their website, With Calendly you can “Schedule meetings without the back and forth emails & save hours”. It’s another amazing time-saver & honestly, having Calendly feels a lot like having a personal assistant schedule meetings & shoots for you.
Narrative
Narrative is my newest bestie when it comes to blogging, especially large amounts of images. I have adored using BlogStomp for over 10 years & I was so certain I didn’t need another blogging app, but Narrative proved me wrong. Narrative is a blogging app that simplifies, streamlines & speeds up the blogging workflow. (I’ve got a theme going here: time saving.) In comparison to Blogstomp (sorry Blogstomp, I loved you & you were so good to me), Narrative just does everything better & faster.
If you are interested in trying out Narrative for yourself, let me know how you like it & here a promo code for you to use.
PROMO CODE: irene86
Squarespace
I love, love, love Squarespace. I’ve built numerous websites on different platforms throughout the past 10 years & Squarespace has been hands-down my favorite site builder. It’s so incredibly easy to use, customize & tweak without the need of a site designer, graphic designer or even the need to know coding. My favorite part is having a Squarespace app that allows me to do so much on the go, like blog, tweak my website, or even monitor my site’s analytics/traffic whenever I want.
Honeybook
Honeybook is basically my full-time virtual assistant that manages all my projects & my sanity. Honeybook is what I use the absolute most in my business & it does everything from creating proposals of services, captures payments & contract signatures, to capturing analytical & bookkeeping data to monitor my business’s growth, leads & revenue. It’s a workhorse & a saving grace for solo entrepreneurs because of one word: automation.
If you are a creative business owner & need help getting organized, or want the ease of getting contracts & payments safely sent online, or want bring your clients into a digital workspace that’s more branded & professional than your gmail inbox, Honeybook might need to be your new best friend!
Here’s a discount code just for you for 50% off of your first year .
There you have it, my top 5 tools for my business in 2020.
If you have never used any of these tools prior to this blog post & end up loving these tools as much as I do, I’d love to know! These tools are crucial to my workflow & I’d love to know if that make a difference for you too!
