No, not these tools.

In addition to online and print resources, web design requires a good deal of technical equipment as well. From my computer to my camera with all the accessories that go with them, I have a small but powerful design arsenal here in my office. Some of these gadgets are travel-friendly, while others require me to to be securely fastened into my office chair before utilizing their abilities. Read on for a photo of my office and the details that make it work for me.

GetCreative Headquarters

The most absolutely-can’t-live-without piece in my office is undoubtedly my computer. While I could probably live with a lesser machine, I’d really rather not work with one. One of the many advantages of marrying my tech-savvy husband is his computer prowess. My dream machine is actually made partially of rejected parts from Adam’s own coveted computer, combined with some awesome new additions that make it…well, awesome. I’ll start by gushing about my big, clear, beautiful, did I mention big, 22″ Acer monitor. Some days I hardly get any work done at all because I get lost gazing lovingly into its large and lustrous screen, where web sites are free to expand to all 1680 x 1050 pixels and photos need not be smooshed to near thumbnail proportions. All daydreaming aside, it truly does improve my work flow as well as the products of my design endeavors on screen. A few months ago I upgraded to Windows 7, which allows me to take even greater advantage of my super monitor with the new snap, peek, and shake features, along with a taskbar that no one should have to compute without.

But what good is a pretty face if there’s nothing going on inside? The heart of my computer revolves around a 300GB internal hard drive with another 600GB remote hard drive for backup storage. I have 4GB of RAM running on a triple-core 2.60GHz processor, with a 512MB Video Card…all of which boils down to me constantly running at least three Adobe CS4 programs at a time, in addition to staples like Firefox, Outlook, FileZilla, Pidgin and iTunes. My taskbar looks like some colorful game of Scrabble in which I have cheated and stolen way more than the allowed seven tiles, and let me tell you I could not be happier about it. In the months since my RAM and Video Card were updated, I can honestly not recall a single moment of frustrated waiting and quadruple-clicking while my computer took its sweet, sweet time. This is not a statement I could have made even once a week before updating, so I am thrilled with my thus far non-overloadable machine. (Although Adam insists that if I continue to download printable coupons and their sketchy software I will overload this baby in no time…I’ll keep you updated on how that little battle turns out.)

My computer “accessories” include an HP printer that, for a freebie that came with my motherboard, does quite well. More useful though is my Epson photo scanner that I picked up at a yard sale last summer…it’s easy to use and produces clear results every time. My speakers, mouse and keyboard are all your basic ho-hum Logitech defaults, but they suit me well. (No fancy tablet and stylus for me, thanks. I just never have been able to get the hang of it.)

Canon Ad worthy?

Without further delay I will introduce to you my most trusted companion, my camera. (Except of course for that previously mentioned tech-savvy husband and my two darling cats, no, they are not to be trusted.) I am the proud and overly excited owner of a Canon Rebel XTi. They have updated the Rebel approximately 17 times in the two years since I purchased mine, but it remains an amazing tool at the forefront of affordable DSLRs. I purchased this little number with the standard 18-55mm lens, which has served me well. This past year though I got a little greedy and purchased a second lens from a fellow photographer, a used 28-135mm that gives me significantly more zoom capabilities. For my birthday in November I fished my wish and received a fixed 50mm f/1.8 lens from my parents…an incredible deal for the price and my favorite lens to play with. And yet despite my camera greed I must have been good this year, because Santa brought me a Speedlite 430EX II flash unit and this new handy camera bag to hold my growing collection of Canon treasures.

The above photo is the 18-55mm lens, a wide angle lens that I often use for outdoor scenic shots. For this I find a polarizing filter to be a great tool in making majestic skies look even majestic-er and keeping sunlight from bouncing undesirably off of water or glass. I took the above photo with the “makes everything pretty” fixed 50mm lens. It works well in low light conditions and has such a shallow depth of field that it creates a lovely amount of blur. For “makes everything beautiful” and “makes everything award winningly, heart stoppingly gorgeous” lenses, check out the pricier older sisters of my lens, the f/1.4 and f/1.2.

Before the new backpack camera bag I used this shoulder-strap bag from Target, which is still useful in times when I don’t need to lug around all of my camera goodies. But I must confess that I recently discovered the Queen Bee of camera bags. The ultimate camera fanatic’s dream, the carrying case that could carry my camera straight to heaven…the Epiphanie Bag. Fellow Lynchburg photographer Allegra had me drooling over hers last week, and I have been seriously lusting after it ever since. Who made the rule that camera bags should look like you’re going to a very non-fashionable Press Release at all times? Whoever it was, I’m so glad that the ladies at Shutter Sisters broke such a nonsense rule and created these beautiful bags.

As I’m glancing around my office for any stray tools I may have missed, I think that about covers it. Should I mention that my mouse pad is especially large? It is. I “borrowed” it from Adam (he had two!), and I’m a little spoiled by it now and refuse to give it back. It’s at least three times the size of your average mouse pad and generally used by computer gamers, but I find its a nice touch when I’m designing as well. So I’ll leave you with that, and I encourage you to comment about your favorite tools for work or play. Think your office is better than mine? Well, let’s hear it then!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 11:27 PM and is filed under graphic design, links, photography, resources, web design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.