Process

From camera to collection

Every photograph here goes through the same hands-on process, from the card in the camera to the page you’re looking at.

Shot in RAW
The R100 records full raw files, so there’s room to bring back highlights and shadows. My iPhone tags each frame with its location over Bluetooth.
PhoneDrop, a tool I built
When a shot starts on my iPhone, PhoneDrop, a small custom tool of mine, sends it from the share sheet straight to my workstation over a private connection. No cables, no emailing files to myself, no third-party cloud in between.
Developed in darktable
I develop every frame by hand in darktable, an open-source raw editor, on my own GPU-equipped Linux workstation. Exposure, color, and crop are my calls.
AI as a second set of eyes
An AI assistant helps me sort a full card: it suggests titles, which collection a frame belongs in, and where near-duplicates are. It doesn’t edit or generate anything. The final picks are mine.
Photos on my Mac, for the iPhone side
My Apple Photos library holds my iPhone shots and older archive. Camera work stays on the Linux workstation, unless I’m in the field and need to work on a shoot from the MacBook.
Published here
The collections on this site run on a gallery app I built myself, and the originals keep their camera and location details.

Real photographs, developed by a person. The software just keeps the process quick.

Contact Nick

nick@nicksosaphotography.com Call (830) 510-1425 Send a text Book a session