Author: The Photographer Clay

Much has been written lately about artificial intelligence, specifically generative fill in Photoshop, and creating photographic art. Some in support of artificial intelligence and generative fill and others against. My thoughts are I am in support of artificial intelligence and photography. I work to create the images I want when I want. Let’s talk about the “featured image” (above). I took the image at roughly 6:30 PM on a Saturday night. The street was busy with cars and the sidewalk was packed with people, as see below.

This is reality, but for me there are many distractions. Sure, I could have waited until much later or got up very early and had a better chance to get the shot with no cars or people, but I could also have used generative fill and artificial intelligence to remove those distractions to create the shot I wanted. Additionally, had I waited the wet pavement may have dried and not allow the reflections I wanted. The generative fill and artificial intelligence will, most likely, continue to improve making its use better but for now I believe it is quite usable.

Is our photography really about art or are we just in it for likes? Is it about creating quality or generating a dollar? For me, it often appears as if we convince ourselves it is about art and quality yet we succumb to the will of likes and/or money.

Rarely, have I taken a photograph that I felt like it was the best that could be done. I am almost always on the hunt to do better. This can be both a problem and a blessing. I constantly strive to get better results but at the same time, I become bored with subjects, lighting, areas, etc. I see many more flaws in my photographs than ever before, such as chromatic aberrations, focus that is too sharp, focus that is too soft, too much or too little color saturation, too much or too little light or too many dark shadows. But then put a beautiful model or cute child/pet/animal and get lots of likes yet put in the work and produce a good photograph of a mundane subject and the proverbial sound of crickets.

It all may boil down to the speed of life around us where we are all in a hurry to get the destination even if we don’t know where the destination is and don’t have time to stop and appreciate what surrounds us, to enjoy art and interpret the story of the piece.

Photographic style, something that confuses many people. I did a bit of research this morning on photographic style and even the “talking heads”, or at least people who profess to be “experts” were confused. Most of the articles I found talked about genres of photography rather than “style”. Even more confusing is how to find “your style”. Can you even find “your style”? If you can, can you really find your style if you never go outside your “comfort zone” with techniques, processing, and compositions? If you never, go wild, how do you know that isn’t “your style?” Is “your style” just copying someone else? If so, is that really your style?

So many questions and few answers. Let me hear your thoughts on photographic style.

My intent when I write my blog posts is to, hopefully, prompt thought about our craft. Rarely do I write to provide instructions on how to create better photographs but rather to stimulate our minds to follow a path of creating art. I consider my daily ramble “photography food for thought”. Hopefully you will continue to follow along and we can generate conversation about the “food”. As long as the conversation is stimulating and thought provoking, I welcome comments about my daily ramble. I like to believe that together we can work towards creating more engaging photographic art.