I know that my iPad will be arriving any second now but the thing that has me so excited is a piece of Apple software: iPhoto for iPad.

I updated my current iPad to iOS 5.1 and immediately went to buy iPhoto. WOW!! I can’t say enough amazing things about it.

First, I’m no Photoshop junkie. In fact, even though I have taken a lot of nature photography over the years, I really don’t know what I am doing in it. I’ve managed to learn a few tricks but not enough to consider myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination.

Once upon a time I could get a lot out of Photoshop and even thought about learning more. Now my needs are far more modest: make some colors pop, straighten a picture, deal with some red eye, etc. But I haven’t really done any of that. I import pictures into iPhoto on the desktop and maybe fix a little red eye but usually don’t bother, all to be done another day. I don’t have the time and patience to figure it all out.

After the Apple presentation announcing the new iPad and iPhoto last week, there was a lot of hyperbole about how touch was the right way to do photo editing. I was skeptical then. Not anymore.

Not only is the experience of editing photos with iPhoto on an iPad awesome but frankly the app itself is a marvel. I’m not certain I’ve ever seen such a beautifully designed piece of software before. It’s a very complex app with a lot of capabilities. I just love the way Apple presents it to me.

So I sat two nights ago editing photos, playing around with the interface, checking out how Apple brought this together and made it functional. Not only are my pictures nicer but I’m seeing tips and tricks that maybe I can apply to our own products in the future.

Oh, Apple. You do set the bar high.