I am 6.5 in dog years.  Is that old enough to use “old dog, new tricks” as an excuse for how long it’s taken me to experiment with some of the features of Aperture?

I still resist learning Photoshop beyond the occasional attempt to use layers in Photoshop Elements.  I think there is some sort of message about life in this avoidance of adopting a technology that would give me more control over my photos and allow me to do things like put multiple fireworks bursts into a single image.  (My photos of multiple bursts are because there really were multiple bursts.)

I think I’ve come up with the main reasons I resist this next step:

• I’m at the point of “good enough” on how much time I want to spend on post-processing.  The more I can adjust, the more lost I get in trying to decide which way it looks better.  This is much like a story some of you may recall about taking my aunt (who had dementia) bra shopping.  She would try one on, then the next, and I’d ask, “Does this one feel better than that one?” and she would look at me, puzzled, and reply, “Did I try that one on?”  I finally bought her some sports bras figuring they would be “good enough” and get us out of an endless loop in the dressing room.  Similarly, without seeing two different adjustments side-by-side, I have a hard time deciding.

• I spend way too much time with devices already.  I’m beginning to think of my computers as people.  I caught myself talking to my work laptop the other day.  It’s a Windows machine, so I wasn’t saying very nice things.  I accidentally left my iPhone in the car last night when I ran into a restaurant to place a take out order.  I had to wait 10 minutes for the food.  It felt impossible to sit for 10 minutes with no friend in my pocket.  I felt exposed and lonely.  I decided against running out to get my iPhone, though.  I thought it might be good for me to wait without the distraction for once.  I was soon hypnotized watching muted sports castors talk about football.  I have no idea what they were saying since there were no captions, but it gave a surrogate for my iPhone.  See what I’m saying?

• I’m not confident Photoshop would make a significant difference in how much better my photos look for the price.  It’s expensive software both in dollars and time to learn.  Would I really be able to do so much more with my photos and would I have time to actually do those things that I would think, “Wow!  I’m so glad I spent that $700!”

• I suspect Photoshop is really a black hole.  Once you’re in, you can never get out.  The truth of the world is altered and you can never get back to your original reality.