Those of you who have been following the blog for a while might remember that when the Ipad first came out, I talked about how much I wanted one, but didn’t think I would really have much of a use for it.

Boy was I wrong.

For weeks after it came out, it always seemed as if I was coming across a story or an article or a blog post, or a commercial that showed some aspect of the Ipad that  intrigued me. I resisted actually looking at one, because I knew that it would probably just fuel my desire and I wanted to be sure that, if I ever did buy one, it was for the right reasons and not on a whim.

But the more I learned and researched, the more I came to believe that the Ipad is a device made for photographers like me. And a few weeks ago, one came home with me.

To explain: most of my client meetings right now happen outside of my studio. I currently share studio space with several other photographers, and booking time just to do client meetings isn’t always prudent. I would rather save the time that I have there for actual shoots. So most of my client meetings take place either at client’s homes or at some public place like a Starbucks or Panera Bread. No matter if we are discussing an upcoming shoot or talking about a picture order, most, if not all, of these meetings involve the use of a computer. So I would have to get out my laptop, plug it in (if the meeting was going to be lengthy), boot it up, log in, connect to the hotspot, pull up pictures, etc. It was a pain, to say the least.

The Ipad takes all the irritation of a client meeting away. When I sit at my table, I flip open the cover, turn it on and the desktop instantly comes up and is already connected to the 3G network. Touch the Safari icon and it instantly starts. Touch the photo album icon and images are right there. Presentations are now effortless. And the quality of the screen is nothing short of breathtaking. The calendar app connects directly to my Outlook and studio calendars, so scheduling is a snap. The virtual keyboard is not bad (though the lack of arrow keys is frustrating). If I get an email, it drops right into my inbox. Plus, it’s just about as portable as a device it’s size can be. It’s much more pleasant browsing the web in bed with the Ipad, and the Amazon kindle app means that it’s far less likely that I will buy hardback books now. Battery life has been excellent, with a full charge lasting anywhere from 6 to 8 hours, depending on how much I web browsing I do.

Plus, a new app has come out that makes me wonder if the Ipad really will help revive the publishing industry. Flipboard is an app that takes content, both from social networks and from around the web, and presents it like a magazine, complete with turnable pages, large images, different size stories, etc. You really have to see it to understand what I’m talking about, but just a day after downloading it, I’m hooked. It really is a killer way to present content.

So I own an Ipad, and love it. Until the price comes down some more, I can’t recommend it to everyone, but if you do a lot of one-on-one presentations, if you read and surf the web regularly, or if your laptop is getting heavy on your shoulder, you might want to look into an Ipad. I’m glad now that I did.