Been There, Done That, Making Money From It

That, in a nutshell, is the experience I had with the time I spent at Shoot Photography Workshops next door to our shop.


Last year I attended a course run by Mark Wagenaar that comprised three evening lectures over a three-week period. The subject was the Aperture 3 program for the Macintosh computers. I had just installed it into my iMac and was unsure what it could do.

Mark is an accredited Apple lecturer and uses the entire system himself - to do photography as well as writing and other computer tasks - so he is not only academically qualified to show, but also to tell. As well, he is a wonderfully patient man - some of my questions needed that.

The Aperture 3 program is a very similar thing to the Adobe Lightroom product - but not entirely so. In some areas it goes far away and far above this. As it is unique to the Mac platform, all the users will be on the same computer page, but it also works in as a partner with any number of other programs that can be accessed. Plug in is not a dirty word.

Mark's lecture is illustrated by real-time work on the projection screen at the front of the room. He brings in files, catalogs them, stores them, then brings them out for modification right there in front of you - no guessing or trying to read down through a page of  > and  +  symbols and arcane commands. If you bring your laptop or iMac with you you can follow along right then and there and finally understand what is happening.

Note that I said I am making money with this experience? Yes - Mark showed me how this program can batch process and re-process raw and jpeg files in a fraction of the time that was formerly required using just a picture editing program. Computer room time has dropped, productivity has soared, and more profit returns to me. 90% of this additional profit is spent on whiskey and women of the night and the other 10% is wasted.

But do not waste time - contact Shoot Photography Workshops right now on their website or by telephone and book in for the course. There'll be three lectures  - one each on the 3rd, the 10th and the 17th of August. The cost will be $ 350 dollars and it will be money well spent. It is one of the few instances I have ever seen of being able to by time with money - and happy time too.