Category Archives: Tools of the Trade

Ever since the first iPad, I’ve thought that it would be awesome to have one (“We need it. For photography. Maybe we can write it off on our taxes.” If I had a dollar for every time my husband and I have said this, I would have at least fifty dollars.). It’s a great laptop replacement in so many respects… one major exception being that we couldn’t really back up pictures from our camera while on long trips.  Because I shoot in RAW, the hard drive space on an iPad gets eaten up pretty quickly and the lack of external hard drive support was always a deterrent in purchasing what would otherwise be an ideal traveling companion.

Enter the New iPad.  The high resolution screen was just too much to resist, so we finally forked out the dough and began basking in the sheer awesomeness of the Apple empire.  With the camera connection kit, I can easily import all the pictures from my cameras, and doing the initial viewing and culling on the iPad is a true joy.  But without a way to connect a hard drive, I was still tethered to my computer for any extended trip from home that would involve multiple photo shoots.  Thankfully, I recently discovered, for me, the perfect solution.

This past month the opportunity presented itself for our whole family to go to Europe for about 4 weeks.  I wanted to travel very light, and my laptop is rather large and heavy.  While browsing the internet for options, I came across the Seagate GoFlex Satellite which is nearly ideal: 500gb, 7 hour battery, wi-fi enabled (they pronounce it wee-fee in Europe which cracks me up every time), the ability to stream movies to multiple devices (let’s face it: only so many Disney movies fit on an iPad, leaving a bleak choice before me: sanity or pictures?).  The Satellite sounded perfect.  The only disadvantage was the inability to transfer files from the iPad to the hard drive – which was a significant disadvantage because that was the main purpose behind getting one (duh!).  Luckily, the good folks over at www.hackseagatesatellite.com developed the perfect solution.  With their easy to install software that replaces the existing firmware on the GoFlex, I gained the ability to transfer photos quickly and painlessly while on the go.

As far as the necessary Apps go, I can use GoodReader to stream movies from the GoFlex to my iPad, and PhotoSync to move my picture files from the iPad to the GoFlex through their WebDAV option.  The files transfer relatively quickly over the local wifi network the GoFlex creates. I was able to move the pictures while watching windmills in the Netherlands, visiting castles in Germany… or while supporting the Leaning Tower of Pisa with ONE HAND (okay, two hands).  At last I found the capability I wanted to easily travel and take as many pictures as I want while leaving my laptop at home.  And let me tell you: that little puppy was worth EVERY PENNY (especially in those moments when we were wrangling two kids in two strollers plus two suitcases, two backpacks…. you get the picture.).

Now if only Lightroom would develop a decent iPad app….