Before digital, it used to be that we singularly know, and we are singularly sure, with what we want to do with the pictures we've shot. We go through the motions with that particular end in mind. We just go ahead and do it. Once we're done, that's mostly it. The photograph has been made, it has been printed, and that was supposedly the very end of it. And then we go out and shoot again, following more or less the same exact process all over again.

That's what pretty much made up what we know then as "the photographic experience." Much of photography for many people in the past was basically that, and only that. The key is to begin with a very specific end in mind, and then end with it. Indeed, a very simple and straightforward matter.

And then things changed. It got digital. And it got complicated. Almost all of a sudden, the possibilities of things that can be done with a single shot have exponentially multiplied. A photograph, as after the fact, is no longer just a print, but a lot of other things entirely. Many things can now be done with a single image, or, many, many things with many, many images.

Thanks to a really revolutionary post-production tool like Aperture, exploring the many "possibilities of things" that has "exponentially multiplied," and exploring "a lot of other things entirely" is now not only possible, but also perhaps not quite surprisingly, easy to do.

Most of those who are in the process of mastering the many different workflow and tools of Aperture, may somewhat lose sight of the end ... of what Aperture can really do for a professional photographer. Most end up getting too engrossed with trying to figure out this and that tool, or, sometimes, may even be too "preoccupied with some other things." Our decision as a photographer to go all-out digital goes hand-in-hand with our decision to explore new possibilities as well. If before our output is a single defining thing (obviously the photo print, for example), our output today is multi-pronged (of which several types of print output is now just one of them.)

Strange how we need to not only shift our paradigm based on tools, from analog to digital; but also our paradigm as a photographer -- from the limited analog to the ever-expanding possibilities of the digital.

I stayed in San Francisco a week longer than most did for the recently concluded Macworld, and I had the opportunity to meet a number of photographers in the area. Over a really sumptuous steak dinner, I met (for lack of a better description) a down-in-the-trenches professional photographer who have been shooting the past 5 years, covering weddings, birthdays, parties, and all sorts of events both personal and corporate in nature. I asked him if he uses Aperture.

I cannot believe that a professional photographer living and working in San Francisco, in this day and age, still do not know what Aperture is. (Yes, I did ask him if he knows about Lightroom too, and no, he said he also didn't know about it.) The evening then gently turned into a "light introductory course" on Aperture. He was, of course, understandably dubious, and I can sense he wasn't receptive. For every single benefit of Aperture that I brought up, he had two reasons to negate what I just said. Of course, I did not push the issue. No need to ruin a perfect steak dinner he was hosting.

The day after, I emailed him a thank you, for the dinner.

Two days thereafter, the day before I was to leave San Francisco, and back to Atlanta, I got a surprising reply. In part, he emailed: "I downloaded the trial version of Aperture last Thursday and was surprised to see what I have been missing. It was so intuitive to learn, and was able to edit a whole wedding last Friday. By now, I have edited 4 more events and was so happy about the software. It was really what I needed for a long time."

This made me happy. I was able to save a new photographer friend from the "pain points" of photography-as-usual by somewhat introducing him to the many wonders of Aperture (many of which, in time, we seem to just end up taking for granted).

One of these "things," and because we often concentrate more on the workflow aspects of Aperture, is how we are able to achieve record productivity by creating multiple output in many different ways and at all levels--right from within Aperture. Beginning with the wide open possibilities we can now do with our "post-processed" images in Aperture, our productivity and output level has gone up--tremendously. We gained not only total control of our images, but also, fast, convenient and easy ways to work and create its many output.

Of course, we still cannot help but begin with the original end in mind, as it should rightfully be; but at least now, when we do it from within Aperture's framework, everything opens up to us--we can now do this one "defined" main thing, and then do that many, many other possible things as well. Instead of just being confined to the usual one end thing, we can now make the most out of our photo shoots by doing so much more interesting, multi-pronged, overlapping, mixed ends with it.

From Aperture, and with our pictures, here is a sparse, mashed-up list of the many-splendored ends we can pursue:

1. Let's begin with the obvious, which is a photo print. And we can do it in 2 ways. First, print from our own studio's desktop or large format printers as a fine art print or a production print or just a simple test print. And second, we can order photo prints in commercial quantity and in various album or display sizes from many online service photo printers.

2. Also about print, but not as obvious, are print-shop services where our images can be printed, etched and engraved on mugs and cups, t-shirts and sweatshirts, caps and hats, among many other merchandise . And it doesn't end there, we can print it in ways that turns our photos into interesting paper artifacts: calling cards, calendars, postcards, greeting cards, stationaries, and all other things you can possibly imagine.

3. And then, there's the book. Imagine, handing off to a client or a business associate an elegantly printed book, hard-bound or soft-bound, in small or big size, with a professional-looking layout of your best set of images. Just a few years ago, something like this wasn't easily available or easily possible. Of course, in the "old days" you can have your book printed (which may be similar to a monograph), even on very, very a short-run, but not like today in a fast, convenient, easy, and at "very short" print run of one, as Aperture can make it.

4. You have the ability to show your photos online almost instantaneously. Right after the shoot, and from within Aperture, you can create an online web gallery. This private gallery allows your clients, associates and staff the ability to immediately see for themselves what you've done. This facilitates fast and easy way to review and approve images particularly when you are shooting on location or when you are faced with tight deadlines. In addition, you can also annotate your photo shoots by creating an online web journal instead. Here, you can add notes while presenting and organizing the images in different ways.

5. Of course, to simplify the whole thing, you can just FTP the images straight from Aperture. If you want to deliver to your clients the shots, either as high-resolution final selects or as complete set of preview images, you can just hang them online to your FTP server where they can all be downloaded.

6. You need to present your photos. With a multimedia projector, and with your Mac and Aperture, you can create a quick showcase. On the spot. Turn your photos into an engaging slideshow that you can run with music or that you can individually control and annotate. And if slideshow in Aperture limits your presentation style, you can use Aperture images in Keynote, and other 3rd-party presentation software of choice (such as FotoMagico).

7. DIDO - Digital In, Digital Out. That seems to be about the only thing that cutting-edge professional photographers need to do today with their photos. Once the images are tweaked to perfection, and to deliver, photographers output the images digitally, either as exported file, as emailed file, or as set of files burned and transmitted via CDs and DVDs. Originating from your Aperture, images can now go out as digital files to your online stock photo service, to your advertising agency, to your client, to the book and poster designers. Since a lot of other people nowadays with whom you work with now also work on digital formats as well, what they ask for and what they really need is a digital output rather than an analog (e.g. print) output.

These are just some of the things you can do with your photos with Aperture. With full or appropriate rights to the public use of the images, it is possible for you to create multiple output and reach out to many intended audiences via many intended venues. In Aperture, a set of photos or even a single image can now be used as an output in many different forms and ways, for many different uses. While we still habitually shoot with a specific end in mind, with Aperture, the actual end may just be more than what we originally bargained for. And it's a good thing.