By Charles Bush

This month there are two major events for Nature Photographers using the iPad.

First, the Nature Photographer iPad App is a reality. The screen of the IPad is made for viewing photographs, the high quality images of the magazine simply pop off the screen of the iPad, I find articles easier to read on the iPad screen than I do reading the paper version, if you own an iPad and you're a nature photographer, download the magazine and enjoy!

Second, Apple announced and is delivering (as of March 11, 2011) iPad 2. Thinner, lighter, with the same size screen, price, and battery life, with nearly twice the processor speed, the iPad 2 will make the iPad experience even better. While I don't feel there's enough of a change to replace my current iPad, it is a solid upgrade. One disappointment, while there are 2 cameras built in, the resolution is less than a megapixel, so it's not exciting for still photographers. But if you're in the market for the iPad, this is even better than the original.

 

One of the main purposes I had in mind when I purchased my iPad was to produce an electronic portfolio I could easily carry around. I sell photographs at art shows and I wanted to be able to show all the photographs I had for sale whether or not I had them in stock at the show. I wanted to be able to show potential clients my work in the best possible light and I wanted to be able to rapidly create a new portfolio when I created new images or wanted to impress a client with different work. The iPad screen is ideal for this purpose. The screen is large enough to show off the work, the resolution is great enough to show the detail in the images and the tablet is small enough to carry around. The one really missing element was the ability to craft a presentation that was the equivalent of a good print portfolio using the software on the iPad. The slide show provided with the iPad really doesn't fill that bill. It is very difficult to rearrange the images, there is virtually no ability to customize the display, and getting images into the iPad is time consuming.

Portfolio for iPad (by Britton Photography) is an application that allows you to do just that. You can drag and drop images into the order you want them, you can create custom gallery artwork to promote your photography and make it part of the portfolio display. The slide show function is smooth and you can even embed PDF's and videos into your portfolio. You can even attach a monitor or projector to your iPad and display the portfolio at a large size. I've gotten very good results displaying my portfolio on my digital projector.

One very nice feature is Portfolio's integration with dropbox is an online file transfer service. Using a dropbox application on your pc (Windows, Mac, or Linux) you can transfer your files to the dropbox server. Portfolio allows you to sign on to dropbox and then move images that you have uploaded to dropbox. This provides a quick way to move your images from your desktop to your iPad. If you're using a Mac for your desktop machine, there's also a loader application to collect and move your files.

Using this App I now have a first rate portfolio I can quickly show anywhere.

 

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Find out more about the Nature Photographer Magazine iPad app here!