the prodigal aperture

I’ve been staring at this for most of the day.  Not the 10-sided orifice in the centre of the camera but its name-sake.  What follows is only of interest to Mac users.  You’ve been warned.

Apple have decided to pull the plug on its rather lovely photo-editing software, Aperture.  No idea why - the company is also winding down its equally lovely sound-editing and video-editing software as well.  There is a view that Apple has abandoned the very people who established the company’s reputation in the first place - media professionals.

I updated my operating system today and when I logged back on, Aperture had disappeared.  Gone.  And with it all my photos.  Not just my blips, but every single image I’d ever taken with a digital camera.  Big, shoulder-heaving sobs

But surely you have back-ups I hear you cry.  Of course I do.  But I can’t access them because Aperture won’t run under the new operating system.  

I go to the Apple Apps store to try and download another copy but it’s been removed.  It’s as if it never existed.  

Aperture and iphoto have been replaced by a new programme called Photos.  This new software is fine if you want to share an image on your iWatch with your iPhone - or any other mobile device for that matter.  But if you want to edit your images - and use plugins as I do - then you are well and truly up the proverbial without a paddle. 

I spend ages scouring the internet, looking for like-minded souls to share my pain and hopefully find a solution.  But none appears.

Of course the fact that you are looking at this processed image should tell you that the story has a happy ending … for now.

I eventually phone the Apple help desk and a lovely lady somewhere in internet-land works her magic on the files in my computer, trashing this and installing that and eventually conjures up an other copy of Aperture to download onto my computer.  I’ve no idea where she found it and I’m too much of a gent to ask.

This is only a temporary respite and the days of using this software are clearly numbered.  I could move to another programme but I’m happy plodding along with a simple system that works for me.

There’s a happy reunion between me and my picture files.  Being an accidental vegetarian, a fatted calf is out of the question, but Anniemay brings forth a cheese, onion and potato pie.  Nice.