Brett Gross Photography

More proof that Flash is Evil

brett — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:17:06 +0000

Read and shudder in fear: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/adobes-flash-and-apples-safari-fail-a-privacy-test/

Copyright © 2007, 2008 Brett Gross
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Sal’s Book

brett — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:36:46 +0000

Wow… Sal’s AppleScript book (AppleScript 1-2-3) is real. More than that, it’s here: FedEx just dropped it off (oddly from a Penske truck…). Coauthored by Bill Cheeseman, the book is a brick. Thick as a brick, that is. It’s actually heavier than a regular brick. When I’d ordered it from PeachPit, I didn’t look at the page count (879) nor did I realize that it was part of the Apple Training Series. I wonder if an AppleScript certification course is in the works?

That would be nice.

Well, now I have even more incentive to finish The Sex Lives of Cannibals and my new John Shaw book as soon as possible.

Happy New Year!

Technorati Tags: AppleScript

Copyright © 2007, 2008 Brett Gross
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Aperture Library Dissected

brett — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:31:51 +0000

An in-depth understanding of the Aperture data store is necessary for anyone who wants to do serious backups. Here is my analysis of how Aperture stores its data…

How Aperture stores its data: Aperture stores information about master images and all versions in tons of text files. Each master gets its own text file and at least one version file. This is the ‘truth’ data. Aperture considers this data to be always correct. For speed of operation, Aperture uses a database that is initially built using these text files. If an image gets edited or its metadata gets changed, Aperture stores this in the database and writes the changes to the text files as well. If for any reason you feel that your database is corrupted or bloated you can rebuild it when you start Aperture by holding Command and Option. When you do this, Aperture will delete the database and reload it from those text files. This takes a while, but gives you an extra level of safety.

The Aperture Library structure:

Aperture Library.aplibrary	Folder bundle. Appears in the Finder to be a file, but is actually a folder.
ApertureData.xml	An XML file that contains information about the Aperture Albums and some information about master images.
Aperture.aplib	A folder containing Aperture data.
Library.apdb	The SQL database that Aperture uses to store all of its data for fastest access.
Keywords.plist	An XML file that contains a hierarchal list of all of the keywords that are in use in the Library. This would be an easy and important file to back up.
Project.approject	A bundle that directly corresponds to every Aperture Project
Album.apalbum	An XML file containing information about an Album. It has a list of the unique ID of each image in the album.
2008-12-06 @ 12/15/05 PM - 1.apimportgroup	The .apimportgroup is a folder within a Project that corresponds to every import session. It is named with a date/timestamp in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD @ HH/MM/SS xM - # Where xM is AM or PM and the trailing # is a number (should you somehow manage to import more than one session in a given second). The apimportgroup folder contains a folder for each of your master images.

Master Folder	Contained within the apimportgroup folder and named after the master whose information it contains.
Master.jpg	The master image file (only present if Managed).
Master.jpg.apfile	An XML file that contains information that Aperture uses to locate the master file. It indicates if the image is Managed and where it is located if it is Referenced.
Info.apmaster	An XML file that contains some information about the image including its unique ID.
OriginalVersionInfo.apversion	An XML file that contains metadata information (EXIF, IPTC, etc) as well as info about the thumbnails, keywords, rating, and a lot of other useful information. Any image edits are also stored in this file. If you are looking to back up data about your master this is probably the most important file to back up.
Version-1.apversion	An XML file that contains the same information as the OriginalVersionInfo.apversion file for each new version of an image.

Note: Folders (both blue & brown|yellow appear in the Library as regular folders

Now back to looking at how to get things properly backed up in an open format…

Copyright © 2007, 2008 Brett Gross
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Aperture Library Recovery - Done!

brett — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:43:26 +0000

Well, I am pretty sure that my Aperture Library is put back together. I am sure that I lost some metadata and edits. Not much but I am sure that something didn’t make the transition. That is one of the biggest problems with UI scripting - the lack of good usable feedback. My recover plan required 5 separate AppleScripts two of which relied extensively on UI scripting. Lots of places for things to go wrong when you’re working with almost 30,000 images.

But it is put back together. My Projects and Albums are reconstructed. My masters are OK. The 2009 calendar arrived in time for Christmas (about 2 hours ago, actually).

I know how to determine if I am about to experience the problem again and can correct it if or when it happens. I’m not going to get into the details because it requires deleting core files from the Aperture Library that Aperture uses when it rebuilds its database and I really don’t want to be the one who gives someone advice that destroys their Library!

Suffice it to say that if you do a rebuild and find Versions named ‘(null) - Version 1′ or Masters that seem to be both Managed and Referenced drop me a line and I will commiserate and give you the gory details of how I got things put aright.

And before anyone asks, no, this is not enough for me to seriously consider switching to Lightroom. Aperture is a solid app and I love using it and trust it with my images.

Copyright © 2007, 2008 Brett Gross
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
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Aperture AppleScript - Export & Restore Metadata

brett — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:09:53 +0000

Aperture can export *some* of the metadata associated with your images quickly & easily. It can’t, however, reimport that data nor can it export all of the metadata from your images.

Hence these AppleScripts.

The first one will export the metadata for all selected file. It will save the data to a text file with a header row so that you can determine what data corresponds to what column (easy import into database or spreadsheet). It will export EXIF, IPTC and some custom metadata. You can customize the order and determine what fields are exported by editing the ‘theIPTC’ variable list.

export-metadata-to-file-06scpt1

The second script will read an export file (with header) and apply metadata to images based on their name.

restore-metadata-from-file-06scpt1

Technorati Tags: Aperture, AppleScript

Copyright © 2007, 2008 Brett Gross
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
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The Rebuild Plan

brett — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:00:09 +0000

As my MacBook Pro does its best impression of a computer possessed I continue to revise my rebuild plan. As I had mentioned before, I think that I know what the problem is but that fixing the problem may be difficult enough that it isn’t worthwhile.

Here is my current rebuild plan:

Reimport all images from backup
Life & Stamp adjustments & meta from previous masters
Recreate adjusted versions
Recreate Project hierarchy
Recreate Album hierarchy
Snapshot new Projects
Start working again

Items 2 thru 5 require several custom AppleScripts. I can’t imagine what someone who isn’t proficient at AppleScript might do if they got into this sort of situation. I am very glad that Aperture is as scriptable as it is. What I am currently doing wasn’t possible pre-2.0 and some of what I am doing requires 2.1 and later.

The scriptability of Aperture is a large part of why I use it instead of Lightroom - but ironically Lightroom’s XMP sidecar storage may make it immune to what I am experiencing with Aperture. But I don’t think that I can even consider switching because I can’t stand Lightroom’s modality.

The moral of the story: make snapshots of Projects as frequently as is feasible. My current workflow calls for a Project per month with each month’s Project being archived to disc once that month is over. Of course, I’ve been doing this for a while and my Projects are corrupt anyhow.

Copyright © 2007, 2008 Brett Gross
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
Digital Fingerprint: c24ce0fc42ed817864f0da3694c76868

Aperture Library FUBAR

brett — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:44:46 +0000

Well, something terrible has happened to my Aperture Library. In theory, Aperture should be able to recover from corruption, but it appears that the source of my problems are the files that Aperture uses to rebuild the database. That means that every rebuild just puts bad stuff back into the database.

Bad mojo.

I think I found out what is causing this rebuild corruption, but it is so rampant I can’t really consider fixing it manually.

Why not restore from one of my 4 Vaults? Because they’re similarly corrupt. Why not restore from one of my Aperture snapshots? Because they are also corrupt. It would appear that this corruption is at least a year old.

I have a plan. Yes it involves AppleScript.

I am going to reimport all of my master images (28,000+) and Lift & Stamp the meta and adjustments from my old images onto the reimports. My script requires UI scripting and uses the recently added ‘reveal’ verb in Aperture’s AppleScript dictionary. Each image takes from 6-12 seconds and the process completely ties up my MacBook Pro.

But at least I had this option.

More to come once I see how things are working after my rebuild.

Wave Hike - Geocoded Tour

brett — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:43:05 +0000

I just realized that I apparently never posted this. At least I can’t find it…

Anyhow, using my Garmin eTrex HCx to navigate our way to and back from The Wave, I was able to use the excellent HoudahGeo to geocode my images. I then used some of those images to build a photographic journal of our hike.

To take the virtual hike yourself, download this KMZ file and open it in Google Earth.

I love technology.

Tropicana Atlantic City - Color me Impressed

brett — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:02:21 +0000

When some college friends and I planned to spend the weekend in Atlantic City, I must admit I wasn’t too thrilled about our choice in cities. We’d gone to AC shortly after we all turned 21 for some good old fashioned drinking and gambling, but that was more than a decade ago- and even then I was unimpressed with the city.

Actually I can’t say much for the city as I only saw enough of it to get me to the Tropicana but I did see plenty of the Tropicana. Let me just say that the Tropicana is a great place for a fun, never-have-to-leave-the-casino weekend. It has a great night life, fun casino, and good food. I wouldn’t take kids there (they can’t gamble anyway) but if you’re over 21 and Vegas is too far away I heartily recommend spending some time at the Trop.

Maybe next time I’ll get to see whether the rest of the city is how I remembered it.

Technorati Tags: Atlantic City, Casino, Tropicana, Travel

Hello, Jack Frost!

brett — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:52:56 +0000

Hello, Jack Frost!

Originally uploaded by brettgross

We had our first frost this past week. I do love shooting the frost up close with my macro lens.