In my quest for photography workflow with Chromebook

  I've been complaining in my blog about Chromebook not being fit for photography. And by all means I am not a professional, so this is from the perspective of an amature, for fun photographer.
  I started a new workflow. I upload my images to Google Drive, then I add a prefix to the file name, usually a -up, for upload. I then open these pictures up in Picmonkey.  I add a watermark, and I resize it for the web, no need for a full blown 16 Megapixel image for a blog. Then I upload to my PhotoBlog.  I have other blogs on blogger as well, that I am experimenting with to find out what works best for me. Personally I find WordPress more powerful than blogger, but that's my opinion. I also have a SmugMug account where I upload images, better for sharing than Google+ or drive, but doesn't integrate into my workflow like google drive. You just can't have it all :)
  So far I am really happy with my Chromebook, which is causing me this headache with photo workflows. I plan to upgrade to a new one in a year or two. I would definitely get one with 4GB or RAM as I feel the pain when I have too many tabs open. I knew this C720 isn't the top of the line, but it works fine with me. I enjoy using it , it fits the bill perfectly for my home use.
  Until I find a workflow that fits/works for me I'll keep searching and trying new ways, methods to work with my pictures.

home user in a browser

  Being confined in a browser for all my computing needs, does have it's frustrating moments. I can't batch edit pictures, or add watermarks.  I thought I had a work around for this.  I select the images I want to upload, upload it to my Smugmug account, then I have to open each one to add my watermark to it, this process works fine when you have less than 10 images, but when you have more it can get annoying.  A second mistake I had in my workflow, is replacing originals, after adding my watermark with picmonkey, one of my favorite online image editors. As I realized after adding my watermark, and editing the same image again, I can't undo, or bring that layer to the top :( well, it was a lesson learned.
  Now my photo processing workflow will look like this, Select the images locally, using the built in gallery-viewer in chrome OS.  Add a -up to the filename.  Then go to Smugmug's upload, select all pictures with -up in the photo's file name, and upload.  When editing, I should always save a new copy, rather than replacing, since Smugmug offers unlimited storage anyways. I also use G+ photo's mostly for sharing with family and friends, but that also has it's limitation, as I can't get a link to it, that I can use in my WordPress blog.  Otherwise in general I am happy and satisfied with my Acer C720, but starting to realize more and more what it's not a good fit for, mainly photo editing and manipulation, and that's not due to it being underpowered, rather not having good tools available. It does cover my 90% of usage, the 10% is the photo editing part that annoys me. I can figure out workarounds, and I hope in the future this will change, by the time I upgrade my chromebook.

5 Months using a chromebook

  

Acer C720

  I've been using the Chromebook for 5 months now and I can say it's a successful experiment.  It is not for everyone, photo management isn't perfect on it.  And another issue I found over time, is that it doesn't fit into my backup plan, as CrashPlan doesn't support Chromebooks, or ChromeOS.  Google drive is there, but my photo archives are not there.  New photo's are on GDrive now but that is one place, which I can't say it counts as a backup plan.
  I save my photo's on my RAID1 Drives on my desktop, NAS (1 Drive NAS) and remotely to CrashPlan.  I also upload it to SmugMug, am I over securing them, yes but those pictures are precious memories that can't be brought back if lost.  The problem with Photo management on the Chromebook that I can't achieve efficiently is Tagging.
  So lately I've been contemplating re-structuring my backup plan.  I may upgrade my NAS, so that I can use it with my other devices such as Tablet, and Phone, but it needs to have 2 drives.  Once I upgrade my NAS I'll probably cancel my CrashPlan because I'm thinking of getting rid of my Desktop which currently is used by the CrashPlan client, which uploads what's mirrored from my local NAS.
  The Chromebook, and ChromeOS is a great Cloud based computer. I would recommend it for light home users, even elders, as it's low maintenance, can't accidentally install viruses, and you can't really mess up settings on it.  Worst case you do a Powerwash, and start using it with in minutes of restarting it.
  Maybe over time NAS server makers will make applications for the ChromeOS as well. We'll see.

Photo library organizing, not for chromebooks yet

 I wish one day, they create an app that you can properly download your images, select the one's you like, delete the rest, tag, and then upload to google + or where ever you want.  Second thing I wish I could easily connect my Home NAS as a drive.  Maybe there is an app for that, if someone is aware of such, please do let me know.
 Otherwise, I am totally satisfied with my Acer C720.  Perfect for surfing, quick as it starts up in 7 sec, blogging, and reading.  It's Light, and the battery lasts for a long time, I remember my now considered old notebook, had a 9 Cell battery and almost lasted 6 hours, that battery is broken, as it's almost 5 years old and it's heavy and bulky compared to this Chromebook, and I don't think I've fully used what it offered, in terms of power.  It did serve me well, and I'm still keeping it around for more heavy lifting photo editing, and transferring to my NAS.  But my every day use at home is this Chromebook.  I would recommend it to anyone who needs a general use laptop, for surfing, blogging, and actually want's a portable light package.

2 weeks with the chromebook

So far I am very happy with my chromebook, for blogging, reading, surfing, and sometimes sharing photo's on Google Plus.  Currently this chromebook as is isn't fit for photography.  My largest grudge is that I can't download from an SD card, sort, tag, and then decide which goes up to the backup or G+. It's quiet, usable/stable, been through an upgrade, no hiccups. And the form factor, is an extra plus for me.

First impressions with the Chromebook experiment

  So, I started using my Chromebook full time at home.  I have found a few useful app, one is an SSH App so I can connect to my other Linux/Pi machines in my home network.  But I also found a little problem, I can't mount or access my NAS native in my Chromebook, except via browser, but I hope this will change with time.  I also found a useful syntax coloring editor called Caret, I tested it with XML, and a bash script.  I am still adjusting to the thought of having everything in the cloud.  The Chromebook also recognized my 1TB Toshiba USB 3.0 Hard Drive, though I wasn't able to play a few .flv, and .wma files, that doesn't bother me, but if you have a rather big collection of .wma files, this can be a problem.  I have already uploaded my mp3 music to google music, so I can listen to it everywhere, which I find convenient.
  I also tried importing images from my digital camera, now I am not used to this cloud thing yet.  I wasn't able to edit them until after it was uploaded to Google Plus.  I'm still getting used to it, so it may be my ignorance at this time, I'll update as I learn and find out new things.

The chromebook Experiment

The acer C720

I've been contemplating for a while on upgrading my 7 year old laptop, and I read a few articles about the Chromebooks.  I think I didn't manage to upgraded my laptop, rather it's a downgrade, but one day I consciously started testing my online usage, I spend like 90% of my time in the browser, that being chrome.  And I am all the way google, email, Calendar, and all.  So I decided to give this a shot, at $200 my lose is at a minimum, if the experiment fails.
So far what I like most about it, is really the 7 sec start up, and I'm at the login page.  It's quiet, the keyboard is a bit cramped, but I can get used to it.  The screen is small 11.6", but I think I like this form factor.  I've never liked laptops over 14", I consider those portable desktop replacement.  I've had a 12.1", a 13.3" and a 14", never even considered anything larger, this would be my first 11.6".  I'm sure not everyone would agree, but this is my opinion about laptops, they should be small and portable, naturally this comes with compromises, such as processing power, screen resolution, but I don't want to lug around a 15.6" laptop.
Anyhow, I am actually typing this on the Chromebook, and so far so good. Since I do photography as a hobby, I will be testing what workflow I can work out on the chromebook.  I've already testing downloading images from an SD card, worked like a charm, and it already uploaded it to Google Plus Photo's, though I still need to figure out how to edit before uploading, or maybe I'll just edit once uploaded. That's for the future to write about.