Work smarter so you can live better.
I'm Adam — a wedding photographer in Edinburgh. The Co Lab is where I share the smart little tools, honest ideas and real-life gatherings that help photographers spend less time wrestling their business, and more time actually living.
Not another hustle. The opposite, actually.
The belief behind it all
“Working smarter was never meant to help you cram more into your week. It was meant to hand your week back.”
Most advice for photographers is about squeezing in more shoots, more clients, more hours. That's not this. Every tool and idea here is measured against one question: will it give you an evening back? If it won't, it doesn't belong.
What you'll find here
Three ways in.
Tools
Small apps that do one job well
Timers, trackers and utilities that take the friction out of the week — built to be used, not to be a second job.
Take a look❋Gather
Retreats & events, collaboration-first
Real time with real photographers, somewhere beautiful in Scotland. Community over competition, always.
Take a look❦Journal
Honest ideas on working & living well
Workflows, gentle productivity and the odd strong opinion — all pointed at giving you your time back.
Take a lookIn the workshop
The first tools are taking shape.
Focus Timer
Productivity · Web app
A calm Pomodoro-style timer built for shoot-day edits. Set a rhythm, silence the noise, get through the cull.
Shoot Time-Tracker
Business · Web app
Track where your hours really go — shooting, editing, admin — so you can price your packages with confidence.
Lightweight CRM
CRM · Web app
A simple way to keep every enquiry, booking and follow-up in one place. No bloat, no monthly lock-in.
Gather
Come and be a photographer among photographers.
The Co Lab isn't only tools on a screen. It's people. I'm planning small, unhurried retreats and gatherings across Scotland — no stage, no six-figure promises, no pitch at the end. Just a handful of us, somewhere beautiful, sharing the real stuff and remembering why we love this work.
From the journal
Ideas worth an evening back.
You can build your own tools. Yes, you.
Code looks scary because it looks weird. But building a little tool with Claude Code is nothing like the coding you're picturing — it's a friendly conversation in plain English. Here's how I got started, and how you can too.
Read itAI should do your admin, not your art
So much of the AI conversation in photography is aimed at the wrong target — trying to automate the personal, creative, human parts. I think that's backwards. Let's give the robots the boring bits and keep the good stuff for ourselves.
Read itWorking smarter was never about doing more
Somewhere along the way, “work smarter” got hijacked to mean “squeeze more in.” Here's what it actually means to me — and why I built The Co Lab around it.
Read itThe occasional, unhurried email.
New tools, new journal pieces, and the odd invitation to gather — sent only when there's something genuinely worth your time. No spam, no hustle, unsubscribe in one click.
Not collecting sign-ups just yet — this is coming soon.