My introduction to “real” photo management happened when I outgrew iPhoto and installed Aperture. I learned quickly enough how powerful managing photos was, from staying organized to changing dates to adding GPS coordinates. Back then, I used it to create web albums and even made a slideshow movie. If I forgot to set up the camera’s date, I’d later marvel at how well Aperture handled the change on gigs of photos. I was amazed at how it would efficiently move a library from one drive to another when I upgraded to a 1 TB RAID. I remember RAW editing, too, and my workflow back then changed to getting the shot, the moment and then finalizing it in post, eventually creating my own visual style and a Pacific Northwest take on bicycle photography.
Much has changed since my initial forays into professional photography, mostly related to cloud services, much more bandwidth and the surge in mobile devices. It wasn’t that long ago when a mobile workflow was a new thing. I wrote about mobility back then, and just now iOS supports RAW, and ever-more-powerful tablets can work with the file sizes. Depending on the shoot, some of my photos never touch a hard drive or desktop.
