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Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Mac Promotion at the Tate Liverpool
This last Tuesday, 27 March, I went to a Mac event, what we in the States might term a “field trip”, at the
Tate Gallery in Liverpool, at which they were demo-ing and lecturing (read promoting) their product
Aperture and giving us all the reasons it is even better than Photoshop. I went with my cooperating
teacher and some of my digital photography students.

These are the docks in Liverpool. The Tate Liverpool is at the end of the docks on thr right. The docks
were redone some years ago so ships don't use them. They are now used solely for upscale commercial
purposes.

As expected, everything was done in true Mac (chic) style, from the location to the food to the models to
the presentation. Upon arrival there were swanky sandwiches, tea (of course, how could there not be,
we're in England), and "apple" juice. The photographer/Aperture spokesman was taking photos of the girls.
Why they needed these models to show us how great Aperture is beyond me (even Apple has not been
able to avoid the lure of selling with sex appeal), but they provided eye candy so to speak.

So there were many professionals, including my three students (all guys), who were all taking advantage
of 'being able to photograph the models.' Although, I wonder, would the models have the same effect if
they were two guys?

There were mostly professional photographers at the event. In fact St. Pat's was the only school to
represent the student population that might use Aperture. St. Pat’s has the privilege of being invited to
many of these events due to their status as both a high school and arts college.

After the models' photos were taken we proceeded to another room for the demonstration of how Aperture
could organize and sort photos with more finesse than Photoshop and how using RAW images was light
years ahead of using jpegs. The second half of the presentation was how Aperture could manipulate your
photographs. I think the students got quite a bit of information out of the, for lack of a better word, lecture;
I know I did. They will be able to use the same tools and methods from Aperture, but in Photoshop (until
we get Aperture) in order to edit and alter their photos. I know that I feel more confident in teaching this
digital photography course.

When I was first asked what my areas of expertise were, when Nicola and I were deciding which forms I
would take over, I told them ceramics and photography, which they were glad to hear. Admittedly
however, my training and strength in photography is in traditional film, chemicals, and darkroom
photography. So needless to say when I found out that the school did not have any darkroom setup and
that I would be taking on digital photography I was a bit nervous.

Despite not having formal, university training in digital photography or graphic design, I (like many from
my generation) were the first to grow up in this sort of digital revolution. I suppose I owe a bit of thanks
to my parents who were always forerunners in buying the newest in technology, and subsequently
myself playing around in attempt to quickly refine and maximize the use of these new gadgets and
programs (often faster than my parents had the chance to). I had done some workshops using
Photoshop, and have had access to digital cameras from the first years of their production: so these
were my training. I had time/experience with these technologies, and had been able to see the progress
of both programs and cameras over the years. But it would probably be the case that the students, like
myself had grown up with these gadgets, and would also be at least vaguely familiar with Photoshop.

It was intuitive learning at its best, which is what I decided I would need to do in teaching this course.
At least I had the visual, both design and conceptual, knowledge from my photography and other art
courses to be able to speak to, critique, and challenge my students’ photographs and methods. Oh, yea,
and this refresher Mac demonstration.

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