Admittedly, we photographers are a pretty geeky bunch. We sit around reading specs about the newest camera or lens; we discuss how many pixels we will be pushing this year, and we find the perfect trajectory of the sun easing over the horizon on our special landscape app just to get the perfect shot. Yep, pretty geeky. But a group that could be classified as even geekier might be the gamers. Gamers spend more hours in front of a computer screen than we do. Instead of staring at dozens of images on two screens in Lightroom, though, they stare at three to four screens while playing video games. (Just kidding, I think both them and us are equally geeky, so no hate mail, please.)
But no matter which group would win in a geek-out, some common things ring true for both; one: we need state of the art equipment and because of that two: we live in a constant state of cable chaos under our desks. If you have a dedicated workspace in your home or studio, you’ll know what I mean. Cords from your dual monitors (because who edits on one monitor these days?), Wacom Tablet, Hard Drives, RAID systems, speakers, keyboard…red cords, blue cords, green cords…you get the picture.
So, what to do to get rid of the unsightly cords sticking out from every which way? Just like a kid who is told to clean his room, you find a way to hide it all.
The following video is an ‘Ultimate Cable Management Guide,’ and is geared for our gamer friends. But you can certainly borrow these same ideas for your photography workstation in your studio as well. In this DIY build, gamer Totally Silenced Tech built a very clean and slick personal setup that he covers stage by stage in the 7-minute watch. Looking at his setup above, you don’t see any cables at all!
So, how does he do this? He begins with the speaker cables that were tucked and virtually unnoticeable in the corner. But even that was too much for him and so he grabbed his drill and got to work. Yes, to clean up the cable chaos and have a clean workstation, you’ll need a drill and hopefully not too much sentimental attachment to your desk. The monitors will require some drilling into the wall and some elbow grease, but you have to admit, for someone who likes an organized, wireless look, it’s worth the effort. He goes on to show how to manage all the now hidden cables underneath your desk. He ends the video with some additional tips for the PC users.
This video has definitely inspired me to clean up all those cords I’ve been pretending were invisible. Watch the video below, grab some tips, and share with us how you manage your cables.
