Learning more about Aperture 2
Scooted out to Nyack, NY to spend the weekend learning about Aperture 2. My head is absolutely full of stuff. I've had a few days to play with the application since it came out on Tuesday and I'm amazed by what I see. It's a huge improvement over the 1.5 release.
It's given me time to be a bit navel-contemplative. For those of you who know what I do, it may seem incongruous that the Macworld "games guy" might have such an interest in digital photography.
Actually, I've always liked photography, ever since I was a kid. My mom had an old Konica SLR I used to play with, and I took a few good photos with it. But until the digital age, it wasn't a hobby that I could really afford to indulge in. Plus, I didn't really want to mess with chemicals.
But back in the mid-90s, around the same time I started this Web site, actually, I got an Apple QuickTake 100 camera from Apple. I won it during a raffle at some Apple event or other that I went to. I've been snapping digital photos ever since.
Apple released Aperture 1.0 in 2005, and I took an immediate interest in it. There have been photographic workflow and digital asset management software applications for years, but Apple put its own spin on it, providing non-destructive image editing capabilities that don't take up enormous amounts of disk space, powerful metadata cataloging and searching capabilities, and other tools under one roof.
I was impressed with it right off the bat, and even more so about the time that 1.5 was released in 2006. So when I was given the opportunity to get some Apple-led training on the application, I jumped at the chance, and I've been very happy for it.
Photographers are very much creatures of habit. Some prefer Nikons, while others prefer Canons, for example. In the same token, Aperture isn't necessarily the best choice for every photographer out there -- some may prefer Adobe Lightroom, or Camera Bits Photo Mechanic, or Microsoft Expression Media.
OK, that last part was a joke. No one prefers Expression Media.
Regardless, it's been a good run so far, and I'm delighted for the opportunity to expand my skills beyond just games and graphic cards, and I'm happy to be able to do it without negatively impacting my ability to cover those other beats for Macworld.