Tools I Love

Personalize Your Library

In 2015, Apple streamlined iPhoto into the Apple Photos we use today. In the process, Apple eliminated some popular organizing features like star ratings and photo comparisons. Photos Workbench accesses any Photos Library and puts back some of the missing features for more efficient organizing.

Collect Your Media

This 10-in-1 NVMe/SSD drive and connection hub is the Swiss Army knife of portable hard drives. It’s the perfect tool to use for collecting digital media in a single place to organize your photo collection. Just add a NVMe or SSD of your choice - not included - to the enclosure and your pocket-sized media drive becomes the input/management/export hub of your next project.

Seamless Photo Editing

Photomator connects to the Apple Photos Library to seamlessly make professional color edits with your photos and then save them back into the Photos Library. Photomator’s tools use artificial intelligence to separate subject from background, remove unwanted clutter, and add creative filters to your photos. Perfect for anyone who wants to explore photo editing.

High-Level Design

Pixelmator is for anyone who wants to combine photos and graphics for web, print, and social media. With the same seamless access to Apple Photos, Pixelmator gives you Photoshop level design capabilities with an Apple-like look and feel.

Powerful Declutter Tool

If you want more declutter controls than Apple Photos’ built in Duplicate Detection, Photosweeper is the place to go. Photosweeper scans Apple Photos Libraries and Finder folders to detect exact or similar duplicates. You can set custom priorities for virtually every aspect of the image, giving you extraordinary control over the process. It should be part of every Mac photo professional’s toolbox.

Reorganize and Merge Libraries

PowerPhotos is the ultimate tool to both merge and divide Apple Photos Libraries to manage and consolidate collections. If you want to split up your library into personal and work collections, PowerPhotos is the way to go.

Ultimate Media Management

For years, there hasn’t been much for photographers to use in between the user- friendly Apple Photos and the pro-level photo management apps like Adobe Lightroom. Mylio Photos has changed all that. The Mylio team has built a full featured system that offers integrated backup, synchronized edits across devices, and support for both Mac and Windows. It’s simple enough to be used by families but offers features that appeal to photo enthusiasts. It can be used as a standalone installation for free or with the paid remote sync and advanced feature set.

Powerful Photo Migration

Pictures need to be viewed and managed by photo management apps in order to enjoy them to the fullest. But what happens if something better comes along? Avalanche can move your collection from Photos to Lightroom. Or from Luminar to Folders. The days of worrying about ‘captive’ pictures are going away. And if you have collections in old iPhoto or Aperture libraries, now you can migrate them intact to a different app or directly to folders with Avalanche.

Comprehensive Photos Overview

Peakto is a ‘super browser’ that can create one collective view of photos from multiple libraries and folders all at once. At a glance you can see how many ‘instants’ of an original image exist among your sources as well as all the variations (black & white, cropped, color corrected, etc.) with them. Photos can be added to virtual albums, exported, annotated, and categorized by artificial intelligence. Peakto is perfect for the photo manager or enthusiast who wants a bird’s eye view of a complex collection of photos.

Productivity and Inspiration

Momentum Dashboard is my daily inspiration and productivity tool all in one. Moment is a browser extension for Safari or Chrome than is too fun for words. When set up as the default page to open to, I can see my to do list, upcoming deadline countdowns, a note pad, a daily inspirational quote, Pomodoro timer, Time of day, weather, and so much more, all against the backdrop of beautiful photos; either mine or one of Moment’s selection. And that’s just the beginning. There’s a free version and a full featured subscription that’s soooo worth the money for the delight it brings to the day.

Strong Education Platform

If you’ve taken any of my Bluewater Imaging Online Courses, you know how nice the Teachable platform is to use. I’ve looked at several course platform and I settled on Teachable for the ease of use and the support. If you are planning to create your own course, coaching or digital product, I encourage you to take a good look at Teachable. I love it. Everything you need to spread your world. There’s even a free starter option. Reach out to me if you have any questions.

All-in-One Cleaning

I use CleanMyMac X weekly to keep my Mac running well. Yes, you could do each clean up action without the app, but it’s so convenient and effective that it pays for itself in savings of time and frustration. The best way I know to keep your Mac running as well as it can. And a lifesaver when you start running out of space. It quickly pinpoints what is eating up space and helps you get it deleted or moved.