The Things That You Do…

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Guthlac

So with Storm Babat is dropping a month’s rain in a day outside what is a man to do? Well it seems revisit old photos with a good dollop of the latest software to see what can be pulled out of the mists, in digital photography terms, time – 2008. I have to say it is very rewarding to be able work on these images with the latest tools. I’m able to pull out details that I either didn’t have the skills to do 15 years ago. They new AI tools help as well. The image above has some AI generated content and you wouldn’t know unless you’ve walked on the beach below Bamburgh Castle and even then I’m not sure. The ethical questions are vast and I certainly don’t know where this will end. So why did I use the AI generator? To balance the image up. If you want to know the AI generated content it is the very right hand side of the image.

The only AI I used here was the masking selection which really saves an awful lot of time.

Again just the masking assistance.

So what have I learnt using generated AI content? It helps but ultimately it is down to the individual photographer to select the image they want to create. Of course the unscrupulous will palm off wholey AI generated images as the real thing but I suspect they will soon be found out and their reputation, such as it might be, will be shredded.

The real problem with AI is not in the benign area of actual photography but rather fake news. This week has seen the first full information war from the Israel v Hamas conflict over who launched the missile that killed so many people next to the hospital. I’m sure there are hundreds of fake images floating out there showing one side or another do something really bad. With such possibilities it is beholden on respectable news outlets to try and verify the facts as best as they can before pronouncing. I fear in this world of instant comment the pressures will be too great for even the most respected to hold the line.

Worrying times.

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Have a Nice Day…

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Guthlac

I know we all know this but I think it is an important fact to restate: The iPhone camera, whichever version, is not as good as a ‘proper’ camera. What Apple are really good at is the software that handles the data from the image or images. However, what they really are good at is being the best camera at hand if you are travelling light – then with a little tweaking they can produce some very acceptable images.

Of course in this world of encroaching AI the line between a computational iPhone image and a computational Adobe image from a Sony is blurred more and more as each version of the latest software from Adobe is issued. I find myself using the AI assistance more and more and it actually helps me make the images I want to make. I’m not talking about content creation but rather things that in the old days were the domain of dodge or burn and other dark room tricks I never really mastered. Oh thank goodness for modern digital image production.

So after lunch we ended up in Canary Wharf. We took the Liz Line out of central London and spent a while walking through the foreign land of gleaming towers. It seems that we can make infrastructure work in this country so long as it is in London – the Liz Line is a wonderful way to get about and it is very busy. It was also overdue and way over budget yet here we are and London is better for it. Enough grumbing!

Canary Wharf is the antithesis to central London and the Liz Line station is just the latest example of this. The station was created in one of the old docks and is now a five storey office block/shopping mall. Everything is shiny and brand new – very much in keeping with keeping everything else on this man made temple to high finance and greed. It is Gordon Gekko on the banks of the Thames in a way that the City of London just isn’t.

Canary Wharf was made for the super wide on an iPhone (I’m sure Android phones have just as wider or perhaps wider lenses but I’ve never owned one so I couldn’t say). Very tall buildings on a very bright day. Of course I could have used my Zeiss super wide on my Sony but I didn’t have it with me as I was travelling light. The best set up I have found for this is a 40 mm on my Sony and then the iPhone covers the wider end. It is light and useable provided you ensure that the iPhone isn’t pushed too hard. Also I have noticed that people usually ignore someone snapping with their smartphone whilst they sometimes look at you gone out when you use a ‘conventional’ camera or is that just me?

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Don’t you wanta…

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Guthlac

Part 2 of the Rain Stopped Play was to have a day in London and do a bit of tourism. London really is another world, well actually it is the rest of the world. Take a walk along the streets of central Westminster and you are much more likely to hear an accent from anywhere but Britain let alone London. IS this a bad thing? Not at all as this is what gives the place such a buzz.

So as you can see I have ticked another item off of my Bucket List. I have finally encountered the Laughing Cavalier at a major exhibition of its creators work Frans Hals. I always find that when I encounter any well known work it is usually underwhelming, not because the work isn’t exceptional, but rather they are never quite what you think they should be. Fortunately the Hals exhibition is everything it should be and more and well worth the entrance fee.

TBC

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Rain Stopped Play…

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Guthlac

Best laid plans…we’ve all made them and they fall to pieces. This week was supposed to be a north Wales week. Unfortunately, it is going to bucket down so the plan had to be cancelled. So instead we found ourselves at Hardwick Hall instead on a glorious autumn afternoon. As second choices go not bad at all.

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Found this Old App…

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Guthlac

Now I am sure there are far better word art apps out there but I don’t own them. However, I do own WordFoto. It has been sitting on my iPad unused and uninstalled for years. To my great surprise it actually worked as it must be several years or more since I last opened up the app especially when you go to WordFoto website, yes it still exists, you find this disclaimer:

WordFoto has been discontinued

Thank you for your support of WordFoto. We have decided to discontinue this app. We appreciate your understanding.

The copyright tells its own story: Copyright © 2011-2017

So it is at least 6 years since I last used this app but in truth it has been much longer since I used it in anger and yet it still works on iPad OS 17. It really must be a very simple app indeed. Of course getting the images out of the app is another matter. But I managed it. Will I use it? Not at all sure but it is just nice to have an app that runs even when it has been discontinued.

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You meet a Nicer Class of Goat…

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Guthlac

I think the weather didn’t get the memo. Well into October and as I write this 23 degrees C. This is not at all normal. I was discussing the weather this morning with my new friend. She, well I think it was a nanny – could be wrong, didn’t seem to have an opinion and was more interested in whether I had any treat for her – I hadn’t.

It was another lovely dawn over the Welland valley but still no real signs of mist but what there was still worth the small trip out.

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I Want to Stay In…

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Guthlac

Oh COVID what a wonderful virus. I can say this because on Friday I had my COVID vaciantion, yes I’m that old – well almost but have contributing conditions that put me over the edge. Temporally not quite an old fart – shame no one told my body! For my sins I’ve felt a bit shit over the weekend. Not really ill but enough to mope around the house – my wife has not been impressed! Today, finally, the sudo COVID has disappeared – horrah.

To celebrate I went out and took some photographs of an enterprising spider who had spun a web across a window at the front of the house. I have no idea how spiders even conceive such a thing as they only have the smallest amount neurons to help plan such an undertaking. But they do and it is a small marvel which I think should be recognized.

In other news I see that the Tory party are starting to eat their own babies. ( I see Nigel Farage turned up – big Rishi fan I believe) Perhaps there is a grand plan, a cunning plan, perhaps it will work but at the moment it does have more of Baldrick about this than anything else. I’m tempted to cheer them on to their own destruction but of course they are the nominal governing party and could be still in power this time next year. So the more they screw things up we all suffer. The old adage that shit only flows in one direction still applies. Would Labour be any better? Don’t know but at this point they couldn’t be any worse so not that much to loose were they to win* the next election.

*What exactly win will mean at the next election is a multi headed beast which I know doubt will discuss on this blog in the coming months – you have been warned.

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Don’t Stop Believing…

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Guthlac

I’ve been at it again…reworking iPhone images captured using the Adobe Lightroom photo app. It is an awful lot of fun realising new skills can make disappointing photographs just that bit better. I had plans this morning to get out at dawn and capture some images. Well I got that 50% correct – I did go out but for a walk rather than capturing any photos. (I blame the COVID vaccination jab I had yesterday – damn you Bill Gates!) Instead, I was messing around after breakfast with Lightroom on my iPad and came up with these. The one great advantage of using the Adobe app to capture the images is that any filters etc you apply at the time of capture are not final – hence the reworking.

I’m not sure you can really see the difference on these low res internet images but I can and I think the reworking (should that be remastering? Not Sure) has improved them. Subjective but it is my blog.

Anyway, I seem to be getting a small but steady stream of new subscribers. I would like to welcome you along to this strange externalising of my befuddled mind. I hope you enjoy what you find.

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We’ve Come a Long Long Way Together…

Posted on September 28, 2023 by Guthlac

I had a conversation the other day with a friend about how, it really doesn’t seem that long ago, our current age seemed, to us, very old. Now I’m not so sure or am I? Oh life is so confusing these days…

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Thanks for all the fish…

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Guthlac

So is Ahsoka any good? Well according to many diehard supporters it is. They luxuriate in all the whooshing of lightsabers and its continuance of the the Clone Wars, or is it Rebels (?), storyline. For someone who has not bothered to watch either I find the whole thing pedestrian and not really taking the Star Wars universe anywhere.

We have had nearly half a century of lightsaber’s whooshing surely there must be something else in this galaxy or, spoiler alert, galaxies far far away. Of course there is one show that doesn’t contain one whoosh and that is Andor which does try to move the story on – let’s hope that the end of the writers strike may well expedite the production of the second and final season. However, this appears to have been coolly received by the self appointed gatekeepers of what Star Wars should be so I guess we won’t see anything else like that anytime soon. This is a shame.

As for Ahsoka? I will watch to the end but with no great enthusiasm. I suspect I have finally grown out of the movie I loved all those years ago. This saddens me more than I can articulate.

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