As I wrote earlier, I was preparing Sunday to trash about 40,000 photos, from the first ones I ever took to yesterday.

I am sorry – and yes, angry – that Apple chose to scrap Aperture, the revolutionary and quite wonderful photo management and editing program they developed more than a decade ago.

Like so many things Apple does, this was revolutionary, it transformed professional photograph with its remarkable post-editing features. I could never have handled so many photographs and learned so much about taking them if not for Aperture.

By scrapping Aperture, they left me in the lurch for the first time in decades of being a faithful and happy customer.

I am a great Apple fan, but was getting upset.

I called Apple’s Creative Media Section today to get some advice about how to get rid of my photos in an orderly way and figure out what to do next.

I understand many of you like Lightroom, but I am not impressed with it. I can’t edit photos in the way I did with Aperture, and I’m hoping I can figure out how to keep doing that. I know it can be done.

I will give it another look, and keep an open mind.

Carl, a Senior Adviser at Apple, took my call, and he asked if he could speak frankly with me.

I said sure.  He paid no attention to my grumping and whining, he was focused and courteous.

He said he really wished I would reconsider trashing all those photos. If I had a spare hard drive around, he said he would take as long as necessary to help me figure out how to migrate this photos to a safe place, so I would have them if I ever wanted them or needed them, or if anyone else wanted or needed them.

The last thing they wanted,  he said, was for photos to be thrown away because of Aperture.

Carl also asked me if I would just take a few minutes to tour Apple Photos with him and see some of the changes they were making to their editing system. Carl was impressive, he was honest, empathetic and he also made sense.

I said I was frustrated by what was becoming a long ordeal and inclined to just move forward, but Carl seemed to care about what was happening to me,  he was willing to listen and take time, and I was in need of that, and appreciated it.

I agreed to be open-minded. I said I’d give migrating the photos one more try and afterward would spend a few days studying the new Apple Photo extensions and also Lightroom. Then I would upgrade to the new Apple Catalina Operating System, which is supposed to make Apple Photos better yet.

Catalina marks the death knell of Aperture, it won’t work with this new system.

I spent six hours yesterday trying to get my photos migrated and it didn’t work. By attaching this spare hard drive I had purchased a few months ago (Two Terrabytes). This s my third effort and today is my last.

Carl helped me to start this new migration process and three hours later, it is three-quarters done.  Less than an hour to go. Fingers crossed. Even Carl thought it would take at least 24 hours.

I was impressed with Carl on many levels. He was direct, honest, empathetic and above all, helpful. He is just what tech support ought to be in our country, but is often not.

Carl didn’t need to care that much or spend that much time with me.  Whining is not useful. But he did hear me and understand my concerns.

In this regard, Apple is perhaps unique in the modern corporate environment.

He challenged me, settled me, and got my attention. In a couple of days, this will all be sorted out, one way or another, and that is because of him. As usual, my short attention span and residual anger were making decisions for me.

When Apple works, it really works.

If this is successful, I will have all of my photos stored (of course I back them up daily and automatically with Time Machine, people, I’m not an idiot, these technical issues have nothing to do with that).

That will be a  great relief. Tomorrow, I’ll try to get my Lightroom working properly and then I’ll give it a tryout.

I told Carl that hanging onto these photos for dear life was not a life-and-death thing for me. If it can be done in a few hours, great. If not, I’ll say goodbye.

Thanks, good people for sharing your experiences with Lightroom and other photo apps and extensions and editing programs. There are more of them than I thought.