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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/400 sec, f/18, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
This is a Dragonfly Wing
and it has nothing to do with this post
Apple has just released the first major upgrade in a long time to Aperture, its photo-workflow application that fights against Adobe Lightroom for market share in the pro / advanced-amateur photographer market. This is great news if you're into photography, even if, like me, you've never used Aperture.
The list of features in Aperture 3.0 shares many things with what Lightroom already has, but includes plenty that Lightroom doesn't have (geoencoding, video support, and face recognition are a few of the headline features, but it's actually in the small details that one often finds salve to a workflow irritation).
People can get polarized about their personal choice of application (much like the stupid “my camera brand is so much better than yours” arguments one finds everywhere), but the reality — the “great news” — is that an advance for one player ups the game for all, leading to a win-win down the line for everyone. You can be sure that the Apple folks keep a keen eye on what Adobe does and how it's accepted in the marketplace, and vice-versa.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — full exif
Can't We All Just Get Along?
Personally, I own stock in both companies so maybe I'm covered either way, but it's Adobe Lightroom that I use every single day and would be completely lost without, so I wouldn't want Aperture to grow so much that Lightroom lost enough market share for Adobe to give up on it. Conversely, I benefit from a healthy Aperture because it keeps alive one of the many fires under the collective Lightroom butt, spurring them on to a better product. In a one-pony race, the winner doesn't have to run very fast to win, so in the end, some healthy competition is good for all.
Aperture has a much smaller market share than Lightroom, and for a long time Apple seemed to be letting Aperture wither on the vine, so it's good to see a new release shake things up a bit. I know of a few “celebrity photographers” (in the sense that their popularity on the web makes them celebrities among photographers) that use Aperture. Chase Jarvis, always full of infectious enthusiasm, gushes about the new features in Aperture 3. Last I heard, Vincent Laforet was still using Aperture, though as of this writing hasn't posted anything about Aperture 3. He's really into dSLR vidography these days, so I'd be surprised if he doesn't chime in with his take on Aperture's new video support.
As for me, how I got to where I am in this context is perhaps interesting, so I'll share that in another post (that contains all kinds of disclaimers and juicy tidbits, such as why I've never used Aperture, and how many times I've been on Apple's and Adobe's payroll).
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/100 sec, f/7.1, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just. Can't. Decide
Lighroom? Aperture? Lightroom? Aperture?...
Lightroom? Aperture? – Never mind that – Where’d you find the leprechaun in “Just. Can’t. Decide “! It really looks like a small street drain by a puddle and a tiny dude sitting there. Did you get his pot of gold? Maybe just a box of Lucky Charms?