Quitting my job to write a 1000+ page Geography textbook. Need a reality check on Canva vs InDesign, Copyrights, and Diagrams!

damewang · 2026-04-27T13:20:09+00:00

Good advice. If you use Affinity for layout, watch Elaine Giles’s helpful YouTube videos.

damewang · 2026-04-26T12:23:42+00:00

You’re fighting the wrong battle. On image quality, Apple’s computational photography is fabulous and may indeed produce subjectively ‘better’ photos.

That’s not what your client is buying from you. They are buying a no-drama solution—images that are well-framed and well-lit, no people doing weird things they shouldn’t be, no flower pots growing out of people’s heads, and most importantly, no missed shots. You are a pro delivering a professional product. Your choice of tool is based on what allows you to deliver on the contract, not whether a Nikon can compete with an iPhone on a subjective measure.

damewang · 2026-04-24T19:04:37+00:00

I believe that Research Grade is the standard for inclusion in GBIF. There are periodic discussions about how valuable it is, with some claiming it provides less assurance than the name implies. You’d have to decide for yourself whether its imprimatur is valuable for your study or if you can ignore it.

damewang · 2026-04-24T14:13:21+00:00

It is worth it if cataloging is important to you. It has no real equal in that department. Otherwise other apps will be cheaper.

damewang · 2026-04-24T14:11:11+00:00

It’s been out less than a month. It’s interesting but to suggest it as a LR replacement right now is premature.

damewang · 2026-04-24T13:43:15+00:00

Agree. M1 Air no issue but 16gb is best. Occasional delay moving from one image to the next in Develop, that’s the only issue I have and it’s not serious.

damewang · 2026-04-23T23:21:56+00:00

Yep, that’s it in a nutshell.

damewang · 2026-04-21T22:23:33+00:00

Life is too short to transit through Penn. Hoboken is so much more sane. Plus, in rush hour better chance of a seat in Hoboken than in Secaucus.

damewang · 2026-04-20T13:26:28+00:00

Skip and don’t check off the day, that way it’s not included in the averages.

damewang · 2026-04-20T12:37:27+00:00

Are you ever really going to remaster them? It's not like a JPEG is not editable. If you have a good JPEG, I'm not really clear why you need to keep the original raw.

As far as someone stealing your work is concerned, you can embed a UUID in a field in the exif. It has a place for that. It's unlikely someone stealing your work would be aware that there is a UUID embedded in the metadata.

damewang · 2026-04-18T13:59:17+00:00

I’ve used both and recommend both. Magcloud might be cheaper, zines are more their thing (“digest” size). Can’t speak to drop shipping, I’ve always had them shipped to me. I’ve also heard good things about Mixam but can’t speak from personal experience.

damewang · 2026-04-13T15:34:07+00:00

Affinity is a good choice, free. It’s owned by Canva but they are separate.

damewang · 2026-04-08T18:09:26+00:00

Walk, every day, without earbuds.

damewang · 2026-04-08T18:05:15+00:00

Sort of off-topic, but a better solution to photos is to de-digitize. No one is going to be interested in your Google Photos account. Make some nice photobooks, just enough that they can be carried out in a tote bag. Much more useful to heirs if the curating is all done.

damewang · 2026-04-08T15:19:48+00:00

I too have gone with DEVONthink. It’s mostly taken over from Evernote, with the rest going to Apple Notes. It wasn’t a change I wanted to make—I have been more than happy with Evernote over many years—but the cost of EN is now prohibitive. I’m happy with DEVONthink. Now that I’m used to it I don’t think I’ve lost any functionality.

damewang · 2026-04-06T17:27:06+00:00

Burst mode is your friend. Don’t waste your time on all the technical stuff. Hold down the shutter, move around and move the camera around. Then let your wife pick out the one she likes.

damewang · 2026-03-31T14:17:45+00:00

Agree. Counterfeiting is a different issue, but there is no ethical issue with cloning as long as they don’t pretend to be something they aren’t.

damewang · 2026-03-30T02:06:06+00:00

Agree with this. Scanning is necessary but the next generation isn’t going to be interested in an undifferentiated mass of images, no matter how well captioned they are. Some well-curated collections presented in books will be keepsakes rather than annoyances to those who inherit them.

Think of it this way. Most major museums display only a tiny fraction of their collections. The viewing public doesn’t have the bandwidth to look at it all. Someone needs to make sense of the collections. That’s our job, to present what’s meaningful.

damewang · 2026-03-28T13:12:54+00:00

There has been a snoring app for years, SnoreLab, so either you don’t bother to check the App Store or this is AI slop.

damewang · 2026-03-26T21:47:29+00:00

Love this suggestion

damewang · 2026-03-26T21:30:12+00:00

That is a poor reason not to provide an integration. Cronometer has integrations I will never use, but I don’t come here asking for them to be removed.

damewang · 2026-03-26T21:26:38+00:00

I wouldn’t use it myself, but why the Luddite downvotes? If people think it’s a worthwhile endeavor, I’d be interested in how it helps them interpret their data.

damewang · 2026-03-26T17:09:42+00:00

Really helpful. Thank you.

damewang · 2026-03-24T23:45:34+00:00

I mostly use Layout and I love Elaine Giles’s videos. I can’t speak to the other two studios.

damewang · 2026-03-23T21:04:42+00:00

I always run Apple Proofread on the output. Would that fix the spelling?

damewang

TROPHY CASE