My fave apps for roadtrips and outdoor recreation

If y’all are anything like me and millions of others, one of the main goals of summer 2021 will be to simply get.out.of.the.house. And after the year and half we’ve had, who can blame us.

So, as I prepare for my own outdoor adventures, I thought I’d put together a quick little post about my favorite apps for making my roadtrips and outdoor experiences safer, easier, and even more fun.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California

STAY

RECREATION.GOV is the best on-the-go app to help find and reserve public campsites for 12 federal agencies, suck as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service. Review upcoming reservations, location details, book campsites, find tickets and tour info, enter lotteries for popular activities, and much more. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

HIPCAMP is kinda like the Airbnb of outdoor experiences - from camping on private vineyards to glamping in cozy cabins, plus it also connects you to nearby state and national park campsites. The app is robust with booking features, filtering, detailed campsite information, and more. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

THE TEXAS STATE PARKS APP is the official guide to finding your perfect outdoor escape in the Lone Start State (and I bet your state has one, too). With features like finding a state park near you, searching by activities, overnight accommodations, or amenities, driving directions, downloading park and trail maps, and more. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

MY FAVE HOTEL CHAIN APP is also on my phone for the occasional nights I do spend at a hotel, which is usually at the start/end of my trips, after long drive days, or when it’s too hot to camp. This is great to have if or when something goes awry with my plans and need to quickly find somewhere else to stay (which has definitely happened a time or three.)

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

RECREATE

THE NPS APP is the new official app for the National Park Service with tools to explore more than 400 national parks across the country. Find interactive maps, tours of park places, on-the-ground accessibility information, and more. This is a great resource to plan your next national park adventure before and during your trip. One handy feature is the ability to download park info for offline use, but I had problems with app opening without a signal, so until that’s fixed, I’ll have to try to remember to open it up before hand. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

ALLTRAILS is a great app for searching over 200,000 trails, complete with trail info, maps, detailed reviews, and photos curated by millions of experts, hikers, and nature lovers. Since I bring Frankie with pretty much everywhere, being able to search for dog-friendly trails is a must. Free app (with in-app paid features) for iOS + Android devices.

THE OUTBOUND is another fantastic app for outdoorsy folks. Find local adventures, tours, and lodging, all over the world, save your favorites to curated lists, get inspired by unique stories about destinations, travel tips, family travel, and more. Another great app for dog owners with ability to filter for dog-friendly activities. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

FIRST AID BY AMERICAN RED CROSS is actually new to me, but looks like a must-have with valuable info on what to do in any common first-aid emergency and preloaded content for offline use. There are also apps for Pet First Aid, Emergency Weather Alerts, and apps specific for tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

NATURE

SEEK BY INATURALIST is a fun and educational app that uses the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals around you. Simply point the Seek Camera at a living thing to identify and learn about the plants wildlife, plants, and fungi all around you. Perfect (and safe) for kids of all ages. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

MERLIN BIRD ID is another fun, educational app that identifies birds of North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Answer three simple questions about the bird you’re trying to identify and the app will come up with a list of possible matches and helps all levels of bird watchers to learn about our feathered-friends. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

Joshua Tree National Park, California

ON THE ROAD

GASBUDDY is probably an app that most people have heard of, but if not, it’s a great tool for finding real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Free app for iOS + Android devices.

THE NAVIGATION APPS I use are varied and I three different apps because I haven’t found one that does everything I’d like it to do. So, I like the native iPhone Map app for my actual on-the-road navigation as I prefer how the directions are displayed and how it functions in stand-by mode. I also will use Waze from time-to-time in certain situations, and I like Google Maps for keeping track of all my saved locations and searching for places while I’m out-an-about.

PERSONAL SAFETY as a solo traveler is a top priority, and among other precautions, I always give a loved one my detailed itinerary and I check-in throughout the day and often at a set time. Since there are different options for different situations, I’ve got another post in the works that round-ups some safety-related apps, so stay tuned for that and I’ll update this post as well.

Rocky Mountains, Colorado

PHOTO

LIGHTROOM is a free, powerful photo editor and camera app, including easy image editing tools like sliders and filters for pictures simplify photo editing. It’s my go-to editing app. Free app (with in-app paid features) for iOS + Android devices.

ALPENGLOW is handy little app to have for checking sunrise/sunset forecasts (although take them with a big grain of salt), quickly getting sunrise, sunset, blue hour, and golden hour times for your location, setup reminders, and more. Free app (with in-app paid features) for iOS + Android devices.

Ryan's Senior Session | Ft. Worth, TX

A few weeks ago, I was in Ft. Worth for the senior session of one of my first clients. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how if it was surreal for me that this once little girl was now a young lady on her way to college and taking the world by storm, I can’t imagine how her parents must feel. Bittersweet emotions for sure.

Moments like this are why I love this job. It's truly an honor and privilege to capture these special milestones for families. So, thank you, thank you, Shafir-Sheehan family, for trusting me all these years.

Whether it’s family photos, headshots, or a big multi-generational family session, we always have so much fun together. Working with Ryan for her senior portraits was no different and as y’all can see, she’s a natural in front of the camera. Ryan wanted an urban setting for her shoot and here are a few of my favorites from our time together.

This delightful family is also very close knit and wanted to include a few shots with everyone, so before we got started on Ryan’s photos, we did a little mini family session. This vibrant pink wall was the perfect backdrop for their equally vibrant personalities and their monochromatic outfits.

---

Interested in your own family or senior portait session? Message me and let’s make it happen!

---

How to Save Your Photos for the Future.

One of my long-time clients recently messaged me to say she was printing a bunch of her family’s past sessions (yay! print those photos!) but couldn’t find her photos from a session three or four years ago and did I still have them.

Y’all.

This happens every single year.

I’ve fortunately been able to help these clients out because I’ve invested in a long-term back-up system. But that wasn’t always the case. My own hard-drive failure, data loss, and (only partial) data recovery taught me an expensive lesson.

So I’ve FINALLY finished this post that’s been sitting in my draft folder since 2018. A lesson I hope y’all can avoid with these tips.

Print ‘em.

First, a friendly reminder to not let those digital images you’ve invested time and money into collect dust on your computer. Put ‘em on your wall or in an album or simply propped on your desk. Take advantage of your gallery print shop after you have a session with me; it’s full of high-quality, beautiful print products from professional labs.

Just create something tangible you can hold. You won’t regret it, I promise.

And if you have any really important photos, like from your wedding day, make sure they are stored properly. Here’s a great article from the National Archives that spells it all out, but a few highlights are:

• Store items at a low temperature and a low relative humidity.

• Use a storage box made of board or folder stock that is lignin-free and acid-free or buffered.

• Reduce the risk of damage from water, insects, and rodents by not storing items in damp basements, garages, and hot attics, and keep the away from sources of leaks and floods, such as pipes, windows, or known roof leaks.

• Store items on a shelf so they don’t get wet during a flood, and away from food and water which are attractive to insects and rodents.

• When storing photographs and other important paper memories, avoid materials that can cause physical damage, will discolor over time, ooze from the edges, or will be difficult to remove in the future including adhesives and glues like rubber cement, hot glue, or synthetic white glue.

While printing your photos doesn’t mean they will last forever (nothing really does), various print products can last a whole helluva lot longer than on a computer hard drive, USB, or disc.

Back up to the cloud.

I used to give clients discs or thumb drives rather than digital downloads, but technology not only changes (who has a disc drive anymore?), it will also fail. It’s only a matter of time. So you can’t rely solely on those sorts of devices. You must do more.

Ideally, you should have 2-3 types of storage. Sure, one could be a USB drive, disc or hard-drive copy, but one of them should definitely be cloud storage. It’s part of my back-up system and has given me a lot of peace of mind.

There are several options out there, Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud, but I use Backblaze, which among other things, is automatic, has unlimited storage, and unlimited file size, which for a photographer with a lot of big files, are huge features to have standard. Not to mention, it’s very affordable at about $60/yr. Check ‘em out and if you sign up with this link we both get a free month!

No matter who decide to go with, take some time to do a little research, know what their terms and conditions are, and how things are handled in case of failure.

Another great tip I’ve heard is to make two copies: one to work from on your computer, and another one stored in the cloud and don’t touch. This way no matter what happens, everything will still be there when you need it. 

Many image sharing and print sites, like Flickr or Artifact Uprising, allow you to store photos as well print and share them, but I’d suggest this as your ‘Plan C’ for your most precious photos. Besides less robust storage size, there are no guarantees start-ups and smaller companies will have the staying power of the big guys.

And at least once a year, don’t forget to make sure to review your back-up system, check and see if everything is running as it should, that the company is afloat, and that terms haven’t changed.

Like I said in the beginning, I’ve suffered the wrath of technology’s fickle nature, so don’t put this off any longer. Don’t end up sad, mad, and regretful like me. Enjoy the ease and peace of mind cloud storage can give you.

It's almost April 2021. How is that possible?!!

Love this very 2020 photo I took of my clients for their holiday cards.

I wish I could blame the pandemic and 2020 on me only writing 3 blog posts all last year. But if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that isn’t true.

The fact is I suck at blogging.

Every year I sincerely want to do better and this year is no different. I started this post back at the end of December, but for whatever lame reason only now came back and was able to finish it up.

I don’t know why I have such a hard time finishing all the posts I start, but I’m working on changing that (I actually have several posts juuust about finished, on a range of topics, so keep an eye out). I know part of my problem is wanting things to be “perfect” and often struggling to find the “perfect” words or images.

Or feeling pressure that as a photographer I should stick to topics related to that and my business, but as a human being that has more than one dimension, I’d like to write and share about a whole lot more than just my photography, but is anyone even reading and interested? Does that even matter? Why am I letting this stop me from writing about whatever I want?

I’m sure there are even more just these things contributing to my mental roadblock, but I determined to make 2021 the ‘year of Shana blogging more.’

So, if y’all have any tips or tricks on completing all the different things we start, drop ‘em in the comments below. Lord knows I could use the help.

Anyhoo, this was originally supposed to be a short and sweet ‘Happy New Year!’ post, but seeing how it’s the end of March, instead I’ll make it a short and sweet ‘Woohoo, It’s Finally Spring And More And More People Are Getting Their Covid Vaccinations and Maybe, Just Maybe, There’s A Light At The End Of The Tunnel!’ post.

This is also the perfect time to schedule an outdoor session. It’s not too hot out yet, the wildflowers are blooming, and trees are getting all full and green again. So get in touch today if you’ve been thinking about booking a session of any kind.

And as everything starts opening up more and more, I’m hoping to get a few spring/summer specials planned, so make sure y’all are signed up for my newsletter, as subscribers always get first dibs on spots and other special subscriber-only perks.

That’s all I’ve got for now — proof of life and some pretty pics — but fingers-crossed, I should be back with more soon!

Proud Sister Moment

My brothers and I in 1977 | Steven (middle) and Michael (right)

Interrupting my usual post topics to brag on one of my big brothers for a moment.

See, I’m not the only photographer in the family. My oldest brother, Steven, is the original and for over 20 years he has taught the NASA astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Video still of my brother

Check out this video to get a peek at what he does and catch a glimpse of him in action at the 1:35 spot.

From their orbiting home on the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts have a view unlike anything most of us will ever see. In the past 20 years, the...

Carr Family Session | Austin, TX

Once again it’s been forever and a day since I’ve blogged, but felt the bug bite today and here we are.

So to know the lovely Momma Carr here is to love her. She’s a special lady.

After years of talking about doing a session together, but it never quite working out with 5 busy kids, several of which had already flown the coop, I was so happy when she messaged me about a session a few months ago.

The silver-lining to the pandemic was that all her babies were home and I was running some of my Pop-Up Porch Session specials. It was kismet.

When I asked her what she wanted to focus on during our time together, she without hesitation said photos of the whole family together. And I couldn’t have been happier to oblige.

Here are a few of my faves our time together earlier this summer.

---

Interested in your own family session? Fall Session Specials are happening right now, snag a spot before they are gone!

---

How is it February 2020 already?!

Welp.

Somehow we’re halfway through February 2020 and I never did any of the end of the year posts I had planned. I couldn’t even manage to put together a short and sweet ‘Happy New Year’ post like I told myself I would.

Geez, woman, get it together.

But as is the case in many situations, better late than never, right?

Well, I hope so, because I don’t know about y’all, but throughout January, I struggled more than usual to get back into the swing of things after taking much-needed time off during the holidays.

And it was so frustrating.

I had a list of things to get done — besides the normal work and shoots, I’m working thru a photography workshop and a business bootcamp, then there’s my taxes (oy vey!), my feeble attempts to write a bunch a blog posts to help me be better at sharing more here throughout the coming year, planning a special headshots/portraits event, and working on a few new photography session offerings and services.

Whew. I’m exhausted just typing all that.

But wait, there’s more to do.

There are several family sessions I’ve done over the past few months I’d like to blog about and then there are some personal photos and posts I’d like to share.

Considering my horrible record on consistent blogging, it might be a while until I get to them, so here are some of my favorite client images from the second half of 2019 that I haven’t blogged about yet.