Well it’s 3:30 in the morning and here am I wide awake and all I can think about is my website. As I mentioned in my previous blog we did a craft fair last weekend and, despite not breaking even we had a lot of interest in my photos and quite a few people took my business cards. Reluctantly I had to explain that my website was “having a revamp” but would be live this week. Maybe that is what is preying on my mind so lets strike while the iron is hot and do something about it!.

So, strong coffee in hand, as we ran out of wine last night!, and, what should we discuss tonight?

AI, thats what. Is it good or evil?

Personally I think it can have its place but not in photography. By definition photography is “drawing with light”, it is the skill of the photographer knowing his camera, it’s limitations and capturing a picture with said camera. To a degree I am all for the Lightrooms and Photoshops ability to enhance the image so the artist can convey his/her emotions but it should be just that, to enhance, not reconstruct the image, otherwise why do you need a camera?

Although my introduction to photography was with film, where every time you pushed the shutter it cost you money so you chose wisely, making sure everything was as good as it could be “in camera” you could, to an extent manipulate your capture in the darkroom with dodging and burning. What fun those days were, and the results were not guaranteed either.

Fast forward to the digital era where you could snap away to your hearts content, safe in the knowledge that if it aint good enough you can delete it and it hasn’t cost you anything. Enter photo editing software which, to a degree, can make a poorly taken photograph look semi professional, even professional in the hands of an IT expert.

Now enter AI, where you don’t even need a camera to “take” an award winning “photograph”, all you need is a computer!!!

I remember a quote I read quite recently which said” don’t bring up your children the way you were brought up, because they are not living in the world you were brought up in. Yes times change and we have to move with the times but in my opinion change is not always for the better!

Rant over!!

2 Nov, Written By David Cadogan