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Could you do with a tool that helps you get rid of clutter, clear your desk and your mind, store your notes as you shoot like back in the day with film, help you build a mood board, help make notes on a sort of ‘contact sheet,’ and more? Of course, you could. Morpholio’s new app ‘Journal’ could be the solution.

Failing to plan is planning to fail, right? Bah, ask any college grad who realizes they get some of their best work done when the clock countdown is like a Bond scene where someone is trying to disarm a bomb. While this may be true, and may be part Parkison’s Law, it’s hard to deny that this is partially luck. And luck is the dying vestige of those who figure success can be had by chance (though we all know it happens to those who know it’s a choice).

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Preparation in photography largely goes under appreciated when it comes to actually ‘thinking’ about the shoot. It’s gear readiness that is most spoken about when it comes to preparation, and maybe, just maybe, a very tidy shot list. However, if you value my opinion, I would say that having a great photo session versus a decent one, is similar to delivering a great speech – that it takes a lot of preparation to make it look like it took none.

One of the ways to prepare for a shoot is to create a mood board, and this can happen over time if you allow for it, or it can happen within a dedicated window. But having one helps to bring your scattered ideas into one one collection to create something greater than the sum of its parts. To do this though, can be messy. Collecting bits of magazines, internet image clippings, maybe a quote, or article of clothing, plus notes and all that. The creative process is the furthest thing from linear, and anything that helps us with that… well, that’s a good thing.

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Morpholio Journal is essentially a sketchbook and journaling app for your iOS device, more likely an iPad, that lets you do all of what I’ve mentioned above. You can use the collage feature to throw images together like a mood board, and scribble notes on it, draw on your photos, with the included 8 pens and brushes and pencils and 16 color palettes. Not only that, all you do can be shared, and you can keep multiple journals which is brilliant for those of us who work in a ‘project’ capacity.

[REWIND: Is 500px’s New App A True High Resolution Instagram?]

And really, to use this even to look through contact sheets and such…well, that’s worth looking into, which is exactly why I’ll be putting this through its paces soon. If you have any particular questions about it that you’d like answered, do shoot me a line. Mind you, you can download the base app for free, and use in-app purchases for more.