I’m not exactly new to this business, but I am new here to this blogging space.  I am Mylah’s lesser half, Dylan.  For ten years, I was Mylah’s second photographer, driver, chair steadier, and Chief carrier of things.  Many of you likely know me from that role. While I had an amazing time doing that and consider it a privilege to have worked alongside my wife for years, when Covid came, we decided to diversify our home finances and I stepped away from that role.

While I may not be at weddings much anymore, I still try to help her where I can.  For one thing, Mylah hates to shop.  Every now and then she gets in the shopping mood, but the vast majority of the time when she needs something or wants something–I’m basically the personal shopper.  This ranges from cameras and flashes to shoes and snacks.  That’s where I come in!  As Chief personal shopper for my wedding photographer wife, I’m here today to share what I’ve purchased for her home office.

Home Office Ergonomics

A big goal when moving the office was trying to correct some of the ergonomic problems.  Mylah sits at her computer editing, working on timelines, and answering emails.  After doing this day in and day out, she started to develop repetitive use injuries.   With some research and her chiropractor’s recommendation, we did a couple of things to try to solve those issues.  First thing we did, was invest in a chair.  Forever Mylah used an awesome looking pink upholstered swivel chair.  While it looked great and it really goes with her aesthetic,  it was not doing anything for her posture.   After doing some research, talking to the chiropractor, and reading a ton of reviews, this is what we purchased:

This chair has been great. It has tons of adjustments that we were able to use to get her body posture more correct. It, coupled with a few other things, have really helped her knees, back, and shoulders.   This chair is a more economical version of the “IT” office chair widely recommended across the internet.  It comes in a bunch of colors, but admittedly none nearly as stylish as the old pink chair!  Another option is a medicine ball for those looking for an alternative to a traditional office chair.  She switches between the two.

One thing we still have not updated, and persists from the very early years of Mylah’s photography carrier, is her desk.  It’s a pretty standard height as far as such things go, but my beautiful wife…she’s not real tall.  Once we got the chair, we found that she really needed something to put her feet on. Otherwise, she resorts to sitting on one leg in the chair, sort of in a halfway criss cross applesauce fashion…and so much for the ergonomic chair!!  To solve this, we simply added a foam roller under the desk.  Maybe an odd use, but don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

Ours looks like this one, the two different foam options and massage stick also work great for actually using it as a foam roller.  Admittedly, this is not the best looking of my office decor purchases but its under the desk where no one really sees it.  It working well to roll out on after wedding days while photos upload is a big perk, as well!

The third part of the ergonomic equation was getting her monitor to the correct height.  When we started this journey, Mylah was still using an iMac pro for the bulk of her editing.  To move this more into line with her natural eye line to reduce neck strain, we needed to move the monitor up.   Something you need to know about Mylah—she hates “stuff” sitting out on her desk, kitchen counters, anywhere.   So, to make the monitor stand less visually obtrusive we located this acrylic model.   I had my doubts about its strength holding up the large 27″ iMac, but ultimately it did a great job and also creates a nice little nook under the monitor where XQD cards cards or other items can go and have a “place”.

Home Office Desktop

To try and dress her desk up a bit, and replace a tired old mouse pad, I bought her a desk pad.  If you are a mouse user and aren’t using a desk pad…stop now… go buy one.  They’re inexpensive, come in a ton of colors/patterns to suit your space and taste (my photographer wife is wildly picky about colors…who knew!?!).  No more looking at a gross mouse pad, no more having to pick the mouse up and reposition because you are out of room.. such a good thing to have!  We lost a pink chair but gained a pink desk pad!

As Mylah has continually upgraded cameras and file sizes have gotten bigger and bigger, the iMac’s processor just couldn’t keep up anymore.  When Apple introduced the Mac Studio, we jumped on it.  That left us trying to figure out what to do about a display.   Color correctness is huge and Mylah is very particular about it.  It is something she stresses about and really obsesses over. BENQ is a brand photo editors trust, so this is what we opted for and she has been very happy with it.  There definitely was an adjustment period, though.  At one time, we had the iMac, the MBPro, an old apple cinema monitor, and the new monitor all up on her desk looking at the same image trying to decide on calibration settings.  Now that its calibrated and set though, she is good to go.

Home Office Supplies

I mentioned that Mylah hates to shop, but one small thing that brings joy to that pretty face is office supplies.  She LOVES office supplies.   Back to school clothes shopping–hated it.  Back to school supply shopping–LOVES it to this very day.   Miscellaneous office supplies she keeps around the office and loves:

Dr. Grip pens–pink or purple only of course!!  If you see her out somewhere and ask her for a pen–good chance its one of these!

Post-It Note Flags–we stumbled across these years ago and they are now a must have.  You see them stuck in and on her planner everywhere.  She also uses them to keep track of the used/full/empty camera card rotation as she moves through her workflow.

Memory Card Case–this thing doesn’t permanently live in the office but is hugely important to her office workflow.  We lost a majority of our wedding images when we got married due to the photographer’s camera being stolen.  This has been on her mind since that day, so keeping multiple copies of clients images in multiple places is huge to her.  Until the gallery has been delivered to her clients, one of those backups exists on a card that stays with her at all times.  To keep the cards safe during that time, they live in one of these guys:

If you too still have fantasies of school supplies…may I introduce you to Erin Condren?   I did not know this was a thing. I was wrong.  To all the ladies reading this…you’re welcome…to all their husbands/boyfriends/sugar daddies…I’m sorry.

One day, Mylah called me at her wits end. She was beside herself from all the construction noise and couldn’t concentrate on her work at all.  In lieu of selling the brand new house we just bought (yes, that *really* was her first thought), I bought her these. The rose gold ones, of course, and she loves them!

One last thing that we put in her office we wanted to share is this circle pinboard from pottery barn.  We saw it in a pottery barn a year ago and she had to have it for her office.  We grabbed it at Christmas time on sale and she covered it with thank you notes from clients.  This particular one was stuck in her head after seeing it so we ended up going with it.  Here are some amazon alternatives as well.

That about wraps up the office move/makeover post.   Definitely a change from what Mylah typically posts on the blog but I hope you enjoyed it!

As always…if you use the links above to purchase any products, we make a small commission.

If you’d like me to share anything else about our purchases or my wife, leave her a comment below.

– Dylan (Mylah’s husband)