[General] Workflow

There goes my photography workflow.  It was so easy, so simple.

• I take out my phone, I swipe to camera mode, I shoot. 
• G+ uploads it automatically over my phone's (unlimited) data (thanks WIND Mobile!)
• I go to a computer, to G+ Photos, click a set of photos I want to share, click Share, and I'm done.  (Well, usually I caption them as well.)

But now there's this:

Selfy

Photo by phone

• It does not upload photos instantly to the Internet.  
• I have to manually download them to my computer via USB or SD.
• Then I have to isolate the ones I want to upload
• And then upload them
• All requiring my laptop be available
• It's 12MP instead of my usual 5MP, so they take up way more space
• Oh, I'll need a bigger hard drive :'( or divide space over an external ;_;
• Oh, I might end up needing a job to pay for more photo space on G+ ;_;
• I need to get used to different tools to touch them up
• well, I can actually wait until they're uploaded to still use G+'s tool
• however, now I can use the GIMP or Shotwell or ImageMagick or exiv2 to fix what they're respectively best at.  Maybe even try DarkTable (like LightRoom but worse). 
• I have to remove the battery to let it charge, resetting the clock
• preventing me from taking photos in the interim
• until I buy an AC adapter
• I have to carry separate lenses for different types of shots
• no optical zoom on the current lens

OK, I can't keep this up.  Those are supposed to sound like complaints, but really they're just complications I gladly accept and am happy to deal with them.  I love that this basically gives me many more options.

• I still can take quick and dirty shots to share with my phone, of course
• I already copy all my photos from my phone to my computer, so now I'll just do it earlier (e.g. each evening)
• isolating photos to share locally is sometimes smoother than doing so in a web browser; way quicker to see it at full size to evaluate them
• I don't have to shoot at 12MP.  I actually shot a bunch at 6MP which is still a vast improvement over my phone, mostly due to the much larger sensor size.
• I used to have a 40GB hard drive and fought with that.  Then I had a 250GB HD.  Now I have a 400GB and it's already 73% full.  This trend is largely because more capable computers have enabled me to do more things that make better use of them; I've recorded 100x more video in the last year than the rest of my life before that (mostly for iaido and jodo, so it's purposeful too!), since my current computer (quadcore, 4GB RAM) and software (OpenShot (on Linux)) can actually handle video editing (at least the basic stuff I do).  Basically, it's nice to have a reason to use up all 400GB. 
• Regarding web storage, it doesn't make sense to upload 4000x3000 images just to be viewed online (well, some people might want to save a high resolution copy?) so I can shrink them to something more reasonable, like 2000x1500 for 1/4 the space!
• Using web-based photo editing tools are sometimes convenient, but often limiting; exiv2 is a command-line tool for modifying EXIF data, and is super useful when dealing with things like timestamps; ImageMagick also has a suite of command-line tools that allow awesome batch editing things for cropping, rotation, and everything else; the GIMP is the standard Image Manipulation program on Linux; Shotwell is, well, it has problems (why does its save button not work?!)
• I already have to let my phone charge overnight, so why not my camera's battery? I can imagine it being annoying if I'm out for a full day and my battery dies with a few hours left; at least I can fallback to my phone when the battery starts to get low, though.  Someday perhaps I can afford a second battery!
• Requiring separate lenses is something I hope to typically avoid; it's part of the reason why I did not acquire a DSLR.  Micro 4/3s seems like the ideal compromise for me.  I will probably acquire a lens with optical zoom at zoom at some point (I haven't had optical zoom in a few years since my point-and-shoot died; so I can deal with it for a while more).
• I can finally take night shots again
• I can manually control focus
• I can actually modify exposure (rather than a software simulation of doing so found in smartphones)
• I can do anything!

To see more, visit my showcase album