Predicting the Future

Sometimes I am really good. Back in February, I converted all my photos to iPhoto (which meant deleting my file structure and allowing iPhoto to handle it). Back then I wrote:

I have not completely shaken off this fear that I am someday going to want to switch to something other than iPhoto and when I export I will have this huge unmanageable mess to deal with, but, for now, I just push that thought away (denial can be a wonderful thing).

Well, that day has come. Didn’t take long didn’t it? I have decided to ditch iPhoto for Lightroom. For many reasons, mostly because of the advanced editing capabilities. I need something with a bit more oomph than iPhoto, but don’t want to have to become a Photoshop expert. Lightroom was developed specifically for photographers (whereas Photoshop seems to be more aimed at graphic designers). It has a lot of great advanced and bulk editing tools (I especially enjoy playing around with presets). I have been poking around and finding great Lightroom-specific blogs and tutorials and really like what I see.

Luckily exporting from iPhoto to Lightroom has not been as bad as I had feared (not to mention I actually enjoy reorganizing my photos for some weird reason). Plus, using iPhoto has changed the way that I am thinking about organization and I am incorporating some of those new ideas into my new structure.

My hope is that I have now found a photo organizational home that will be enough to grow with me. I have a habit of finding new “shiny things” (started with Picasa, then Photoshop Elements then iPhoto and finally Lightroom). But considering that Lightroom is powerful enough for pros to use, I think it should fit my needs for awhile yet.

Needless to say, reorganizing my photos is what I have been mostly up to this past week. And we have friends coming down this week and my in-laws coming this weekend, so blogging may be a bit sparse.

Hope that everyone is having a great summer!