I don't have a lot of off-time from my duties in the MPC, so I have to work quickly in order to keep up the pace with my daily blog posts from Beijing.

Fortunately, I have Aperture loaded on my traveling MacBook. I love this computer on the road because I can work virtually anywhere with it, and it's light enough to store in my camera bag without breaking my back in the process. I do have 4 GBs of RAM, which I consider a necessity for photographers. My workflow goes something like this.

I shoot Raw (always, even on my compact Canon G9). Then, when I have a free minute -- on the bus to work, in a cafe, or anywhere else -- I upload the images via the MacBook into Aperture. I set up a project for each major shoot, then store the entire Beijing trip in a folder. As I have free moments, I photo edit my images in full screen mode. It usually takes me 2 or 3 passes through them to end up with a handful of favorites. But all of my keepers get some level or star rating. I can photo edit anywhere, and I can do it quickly.

I then image edit my favorites using the HUD. Once I'm happy with them, I have an export preset for each of the sites I post to. I output the images, drop them in the blog post, and move on to my next project.

When I get back to the hotel, I back up my work using the Vault and an external FireWire drive. I keep the drive and computer separate as much as possible. That way, if something bad happens to one, I still have the other (and all of my images). When I get home, I export the Projects from the MacBook into my master Aperture library, clean off the MacBook, and I'm ready for my next assignment.

This combination of hardware and software makes working on the road a pleasure instead of a hassle. And when I get home, I can enjoy my pictures because I've already done the post processing.

Photo of tired visitors to the Forbidden City (Beijing) by Derrick Story. Image captured with a Canon 5D with the 16-35mm f/2.8 L II zoom. Picture then processed and output using Aperture 2.1.1 on a MacBook.