Angelbird: The need for speed

I recently got in touch with Angelbird, a company from Austria that crafts storage solutions for professional content creators. I was attracted by the vision so evident in their products and the eye for detail that goes into them. They’re made with love and passion by a young but experienced team that understands the needs of the people who buy their gear. During events and on photo shoots I need speed and reliability above all else, and Angelbird’s products are designed to provide that so when I got my equipment from them I couldn't wait take it on some upcoming trips and implement it in my workflow.

The first such trip was a kitesurfing event in Brazil. Events can be very hectic and usually the content is very time sensitive because of deadlines so when an event is finished I have to get my images ready as soon as possible. Sometimes I only have 15 minutes to deliver the first batch of images which are needed for social media, newsletters or press releases and speed is of the essence in these moments. Files must be transferred from the camera onto a laptop, ingested into editing software and exported ready for publishing as quickly as possible so working with fast cards is essential to minimise the workflow time.

After Brazil, my next shoot was a trip to Ireland where we had four days in a cold and rugged environment to shoot as much kitesurfing action and lifestyle content as we could. Ireland’s a beautiful place to shoot, but the wet and moist conditions can make it challenging with long days behind the camera. At the end of a day like that, you want to make sure what you’ve captured is in a safe place but backing up a full day’s worth of images can be very time consuming.

You also want to be able to show a selection to your client as soon as possible and to make sure everything you’ve captured is good. A solid state drive saves a huge amount of time, works quickly and is very reliable. During my trip I worked with an SSD for the first time and it made a huge difference. It's just so much faster and being able to use a USB-C connection with my MacBook Pro is also great. No adapters or different cables anymore.

Mobile office
Except for when I’m at home, I hardly ever work in a proper office. Usually my image processing happens in a shared media room, on my hotel bed, in a corner at the airport or in the cramped confines of an airplane seat. It’s never the same and never ideal and there’s often potential for something to go wrong. You could easily drop a drive or disconnect one by accident and those panicky moments when a hard drive doesn’t pop up for 30 minutes are never fun. Having a really reliable SSD with a secure connection and no moving parts is very reassuring in those situations.

The SSD2GO is so small that I can take it with me everywhere I go. Traveling with it is very convenient because of its size and weight and the build is super solid and shock proof. It’s now become an extension of my laptop because it’s fast enough that I can store master files on it and then work from it.

During my last couple of trips I’ve used:

• SSD2GO PKT 512 GB (Read speed up to 560 MB/s)
• CFast Dual Card Reader
• 2x AV PRO CFast 256 GB

Ydwer van der Heide

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