What I Use

Intro

These are the tools I use in my professional and creative workflows. Inspired by uses.tech via the Syntax podcast.

Software

macOS all the way!

Editor and Terminal

• VS Code with the fabulous JetBrains Mono typeface.
• Previously, I used Coda 2 for quite a few years.
• Oh My Zsh.

Desktop Apps

• Affinity Designer for vector work
• Postman for RESTful API design.
• TablePlus for database visualization. After trying many such apps over the years, this is by far my favourite.
• Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan, including Lightroom Classic for photo management
• Starry Landscape Stacker for photo astro-stacking
• Typora, a delightfully minimal Markdown editor

macOS Utilities

A few useful apps that make macOS a bit more polished:

• BetterDisplay to change the brightness and volume of third-party external displays over DDC
• Hand Mirror to test the webcam before online meetings
• Karabiner-Elements to customize my mechanical keyboard
• Rocket Typist with useful expansions like “ll30” to “http://localhost:3000” and “ddate” for the current date
• Maccy for clipboard management
• Backblaze for online backups

Hardware

• 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro (10-core M2 Pro, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD)
• Previously, a 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch (8-core Intel Core i9-9880H, 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4 GB, 1 TB SSD)
• Before that, a Late 2013 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (4-core Intel Core i7-4850HQ, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB, 512 GB SSD)
• Before that, a 15-inch mid-2007 MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, 4 GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 128 MB, aftermarket OCZ 120 GB SSD). The GPU in this laptop failed, requiring a logic-board replacement.
• 27-inch LG 27UD68-W 4K Display
• Ducky One 2 SF RGB White mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. Being relatively new to mechanical keyboards, they really are game-changers.
• Magic Trackpad 2
• Pulsar Xlite V2 wireless mouse
• Desktop PC: NZXT H1 V2 case, Intel Core i3-12100F, 16 GB RAM, 1 TD SSD, MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (see Project PC Upgrades).
• Previous PC: Intel Core i5-3570K overclocked to 4.2 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD, 3 TB hardware RAID 5 array (4 x 1 TB drives), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 4 GB AMD Radeon RX 580 4 GB (upgraded in April 2020).

Camera Gear

Bodies

• Sony a6000
• Sony NEX-6, converted to shoot infrared per this walkthrough

Though a bit dated now, these bodies work very well for stills and are quite light and compact.

Lenses

• Sony E 16 mm f/2.8 pancake: very pocketable but with soft corners
• Sony/Zeiss E 24 mm f/1.8: wickedly sharp and good in low light
• Sony FE 50 mm f/1.8: an excellent medium length
• Sony FE 70–200 mm f/4 G: quite sharp and much lighter than an f/2.8

Lately, I’ve been trying to challenge myself creatively by primarily shooting with a single lens for six months to a year.

Other

• GorillaPod
• Circular polarizing filter