The viewer will display the number of images at the bottom.

Take Stock of Where You’ve Been

At the end of every year I like to look my Aperture library and take stock. It helps me plan for the coming year. For instance, a quick look at January tells me I’ll be shooting my first Major League Soccer practice at the end of the month — so I’ll start thinking about that now.

I also like to look at the numbers. For four years I archived between 90,000 and 110,000 images per year — this year I set a record with over 137,181 images in my Aperture library! This does not even account for the weddings I shot and archived in a separate library.

The number is high because of the high number of sports I shot including the Olympic Trials and the Rose Bowl.

Here’s how my 2012 library breaks down: 

• Photos: 137,181
• Projects: 297
• One star or better: 14,442
• Five star: 115
• In the Last Month: 11,136
• Personal Photos: 9,722
• Staff Newspaper Photos: 110,349
• Freelance Photos: 16,425
• Most Photos Shot in a Day: 2,588 of the Rose Bowl game

The Value in the Numbers

Other than just marveling at the numbers, there is a value in looking at how they trend. I’m definitely going to have to buy bigger hard drives for next year; I filled up a 2 TB drive by July. But now, 3 TB drives are on the market. I may even have to get a 4 TB drive.

After the contest season is over, I’ll go through and delete outtakes from minor assignments. This will save a little space since sports take up most of the storage anyway. I rarely delete sports outtakes because I constantly get calls for files. Just tonight, I went through a prep football game looking for a defensive player. I found him right way and sent it in.

Aperture makes it easy to acquire this information. The first step is selecting the preference that lists the number of images next to each project. This number shows how many versions are in the project, including your rejects. Then select whatever container you wish to view and the current view count will show up at the bottom of the viewer.

Select the preference that will show the number of photos in a Project or Album in the Library list

The number of versions will appear next to the Project or Album

So, as you close out the year, take a look at your library, reflect on where you’ve been, what you can do better next year, and how much more you’ll have to spend on hard drives!