"Oh, cool! You have an Apple Watch!" is (most of the time) followed with... "How do you use it?" .. "What does it do?" .. "Do you like it?" Or more frequently from my photographer friends: "I want one! ... (But I don't know why!)"
Before we go any further, one thing I heard from the photographers when I was out at Heck Yeah Photo Camp was that there's no right way to do things. IT WAS SO GOOD TO HEAR. We all develop our own styles and that's what makes the photo industry so great. There's no right way and there's no wrong way. This definitely applies to this blog post. You can adopt techniques and processes and take little "nuggets of knowledge" based on your own tastes and preferences to develop into who you are as a photographer.
So what does this little gadget do for me as a wedding photographer? I'm glad you asked! It keeps me sane.
"You stay SANE on a wedding day?! Tell me more!"
Don't mind if I do..
In a nutshell: I use a wonderful little app called Clear.
The lovely thing about Apple's hardware/software environment is that everything just simply works; and works together.
When I get a timeline from one of my brides, I copy the entire document into Pages and create line breaks for each line item of the day.
Here's where the magic happens. I then copy the timeline from Pages and paste it into Clear.
Boom.
Every line item is made into it's own "to-do" that can be checked off. So as things happen, you can check them off. You always know what's currently happening and what's next without losing your mind!
I always know what's happening, even in the midst of chaos.
Once I have everything configured within the Mac App, it automatically syncs over to the Watch (and my phone, of course). I manually set Reminders in Clear on my Mac, which then syncs to my iPhone and then to my Watch, so I get notified when an event on the timeline happens, right on my wrist! Hello, Star Command!
Some huge things that I've noticed since I've introduced the Apple Watch to my workday:
- I always know where I need to be.
- I know how much time I have in every shooting situation.
- I'm able to reassure Brides of how we're doing on time (and to keep them calm if their coordinator is missing).
- Not that we should ever play coordinator, but simply having the timeline on my wrist at all times without having to pull out my phone -- get back to the email/pdf app that contains the timeline -- find the spot where we left off -- and finally figure out what's next, has been a life changer. Sidenote: I say the same thing when people ask about my Holdfast MoneyMaker. "It's been life changing". That's all I have to say about that. (I love when people say it looks like a gun holster!)
- I'm not on my phone.. ever. I never have to worry about other people seeing me on my phone and thinking "Why the heck is he on his phone?!".
- It's a conversation starter, everyone loves it!
- It helps me make my coffee. No, seriously, it does.
This isn't just for timelines either. If you have a shotlist or a personal "I want to work on ...this..." list, you can put them on your wrist too. I always have 1 or 2 things that I either want to work on or try with my couples every time I go out to shoot. Things that if they don't happen, no big deal, but if I have the chance, I always want to push harder and experiment to grow as an artist, and it's right there on my wrist to remind me.
One last bit -- I make another list for Family Photos! Just create a new list the same way as the timeline, just substitute the events of the day for the different family arrangements! It makes that obligatory post-ceremony Family Photo Session just a little bit easier and go by a tad faster.
Smaller notes:
Sunset times. (Native on the Watch.)
Rain alerts, with a little help from Dark Sky.
How do you use your Apple Watch?
Thinking about getting a Watch? Did this post help? Let me know!
As always, I'd love to answer any questions! Post them below!
