LR3 After 6 Months

Question

This is an observation rather than a query, since queries I have had have been answered by the good folk here.
As the title says, I've been using Lightroom for 6 months now, LR 3 being the first version I've known. I do a lot of stuff for a stock agency to keep my hand in having been a pro photographer all my working life and now semi-retired.
I realised today that I rarely venture outside LR3 to Photoshop for anything I do with images. As was pointed out to me here, LR works in a completely different way to DAM methods I had previously used, so that the physical location of files is unimportant.
I now put all my files in a 'bucket' as it were, all in one folder and then control my work flow through labels, picks and keywords using lots of smart collections to give me immediate access to the state of play with my images
That took a period of readjustment, being so different to any previous methods I had used using folders and file names. But once the methodology that LR imposes is organised and understood it becomes seamless and intuitive to use. I had always found organisational anomalies using folders and file names, plus too much need for duplication which while not so important in terms of disk space in these days of dirt cheap storage, nevertheless offends my 'minimalist' tendencies.
The genius of LR is the non-destuctive editing, it seems to me. I never shoot anything but RAW and import all files as .dng. I love the idea that that file stays whole and unaltered so that after cropping, any adjustments and exporting as .jpg, my original file remains pristine. These days, I delete the jpg files once uploaded to my agency and add the agency reference to the IPTC 'title' in my dng file so that I can always re-export if necessary.
I'm not often so impressed by a piece of software. The problem with LR is that you have to understand how it works, that it is a highly dedicated and developed(!) workflow machine with a steep learning curve. I can imagine that that would put many people off. LR is not intuitive at first, in fact when folders do not update, you can't get smart folders to be smart etc, you feel like screaming at the screen. But once understood, It seems to me to be the answer to image flow, adjustment and retrieval.
When iView, a DAM I really liked, was bought and ruined by Microsoft, I wondered what I would do as new RAW formats came out that it couldn't handle. That came to a head when I bought a Panasonic GF1 and iView didn't understand its RW2 files. So without much enthusiasm, I was forced into LR. As they say, the Chinese words for crisis and opportunity are the same.
Having invested time and money in LR3, I have one request of Adobe - if Microsoft want to buy LR tell them go forth and multiply, only not in those words.

Answer 1

Same applies for me. LR3 is my most-used piece of software in leisure times.
Not inuitive? I would not say so. It is very logic to me, and as soon as I have once mastered a thing I never forget.
I wish it were like that with Photoshop... but there I manage a certain action and when I try to do the same two weeks later it does not work any more - I must be doing some tiny bit different, but I am unable to discern what...
That is never the case with Lightroom. So I truly strive to utilize it to the max and revert to Photoshop only for real pixel-editing needs.
It helps to understand the basic concepts, but they are very well explained by the various tutorials and books. For didactic inclination I tend more towards the British (Victoria Bampton, Martin Evening) than the Americans, apart from Jeff Schewe, of course .
As it works so well I also shoot only RAW and enjoy the democratisation of being able to develop myself, without the chemicals' impact on the environment of previous times.
I manage the output of 4 cameras of 2 (non-pro) photographers, shared by 2 computers with a clear master/view-share concept.
The suggested workflows work very well for me.
I look forward to improve the organisation of all our pictures (keywording not yet finished in those 11 months starting with LR3beta for me), converted to dng, and keep them well organised for years to come. A hopefully ever-increasing stock of truly special riches.