Content about photography

Jake and I resurrected a couple of old Canon PowerShot SD780 IS cameras over the weekend. They're old point and shoot cameras from about 2008 or so. Jake said his friends have been using old point and shoots as their primary cameras and he wanted to give it a go. So, I ordered a battery charger from Amazon and away we go. Meanwhile, I learned about CDHK, the Canon Hack Development Kit, which enables RAW shooting and some other amazing features. So…I'm going to start having some fun with that.

tags: photography dev

postposted by matt in Tuesday, April 22, 2025

I turned to YouTube this morning for some inspiration on my photography. I’ve been asking the “why?” question a lot, lately - why do this?

This video from Rick Bebbington, which explores the existential question AI presents for photography at large, reminded me of the answer I always come back to when The Why Question creeps into my mind about my photography – it’s about the story. Rick did something that I thought was neat – he flipped the script and explored the issue from the perspective of AI imagery proponents, wondering about the biggest challenge they face to wider adoption.

His answer is simple: “There is no human story to any of it” and there never will be. AI can’t provide that, so there’s the value gap.

That reminded me of my long-standing answer to The Why Question: The Story. That’s why. It’s about the story.

Rick’s insight on the AI question, though, helped me realize that the story answer to my question has another dimension to it. It’s not just about the story told by the subject matter in the photograph. It’s also about the story of the photograph. He talks about the story of a landscape photographer suffering through “cold, rain, wind” to get the shot.

That’s a story, and that’s something you can relate to and connect with.

He’s right, and those stories are part of what I love about photography. I love the of stories just as much as I do the in stories.

Here’s the thing, though. I have to tell the stories of my photographs for people to connect with them. Can’t happen without that.

So there’s my challenge. I need to start telling the stories of my photographs. Let’s go.

tags: photography

postposted by matt in Sunday, March 23, 2025

Photography: How do I share 700+ Photos from my 25 day road trip across country to the Arctic Circle? (adamchandler.me)

I can't share every photo here so I've decided to select 25 images, one for each day that is my favorite of that day but I highly encourage you to browse through the album linked above.

I've struggled for years with the question of whether or not to add a concept of photo albums to Daystream. As I've envisioned it, this hypothetical feature would allow a user to upload a group of related photos that would appear as a group in a day view. All your photos from a birthday party would appear as a single entry on a day view, as a mosaic or behind a cover image, for example. Adding this feature would be relatively easy from a technical standpoint and the processing and storage resources that would be required don't appear to be deal-breakers (at least with our current number of users). So my struggle on this is not a technical or economic one.

I'm not sure I knew the real cause of hesitation, though, until it hit me this morning after reading this post from Adam Chandler. Turns out, it's pretty simple — I want to be a reader, not an editor. I like reading stories that include a relatively small number of photos selected by the author as favorites (as Adam did) or representative of a point being made. Adam's post here, which includes 30 of his favorite photos that he selected from thousands he took during his trip, allowed me to read (and view) his story, as told by him. I didn't have to sift through a digital pile looking for photos I liked. I read his story; I didn't have to edit it or assemble it myself. And I loved it.

That's true on the other side of the story, too. As a teller of stories, I want to tell the story I want to tell. Period.

That being said, Adam also uploaded all of his keepers to a Flickr album, giving people the option of sifting through the pile. I suspect few people will but the people who do probably greatly appreciate Adam's decision to make the album available.

So, for now, I'm not adding an album feature to Daystream. I love photography and the power of story as told by text and still images, one after another. That type of storytelling is at the core of Daystream and photo albums seem to add an extra layer that hinders that a bit. Maybe I'll start linking to Flickr albums in a "if you're interested, here's the entire pile" sort of way.

As an aside, the WSJ article I posted about yesterday is a nice piece that uses text and a small number of snapshot-like images in an effective way to tell an interesting story. It's well done.

tags: photography daystream dev

posted by matt in Monday, July 22, 2024

Adobe scolded for selling ‘Ansel Adams-style’ images generated by AI (theverge.com)

“We don’t have a problem with anyone taking inspiration from Ansel’s photography,” said the Adams estate. “But we strenuously object to the unauthorized use of his name to sell products of any kind, including digital products, and this includes AI-generated output — regardless of whether his name has been used on the input side, or whether a given model has been trained on his work.”

Don't forget, there's a trademark side to the sale of AI-generated images. The estate of Ansel Adams hasn't forgotten this, and they recently reminded Adobe about it, too. Adobe's "we have systems..." response sounds just like every other tech company on such issues. I'm sure they'll tout the "challenges of scale" at some point.

tags: ai law trademark photography

posted by matt in Monday, June 3, 2024

Responsive image

I managed to take a few photos during totality, with my phone. This is probably the best. It's not great, but it's enough to remind me of the event and the experience, and that I had no regrets in my decision to forego the big camera and simply be present in the moment. The few moments, really.

tags: eclipse photography

photo posted by matt in Monday, April 8, 2024

Responsive image

I was a little mad at myself for not bringing my dSLR. I was rushed a bit and didn't prepare as I should have, which forced me to shoot the entire show on my iPhone (12 Pro Max).

I was pleasantly surprised at how well it performed, though. I know the limits of the phone when I shoot with it, but encountered a new one today–heat. The phone overheated a few times, dimming the display and making shooting all but impossible.

Live and learn. I'll definitely be better prepared for next year's show.

I'm still pretty happy with the results, though!

tags: airshow airport plane blueangels iphone photography

photo posted by matt in Saturday, July 16, 2022

Angelo Rizzuto - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)

Wikipedia article for Angelo Rizzuto, the photographer that created today's featured image. I had never heard of him before today. Sounds like an interesting story - sort of like Vivian Maier. Will try to learn more about him.

tags: photography

posted by matt in Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Responsive image

There's a lot to see in this photo!

Our flight path took us north of Detroit, across the Detroit River and into Canada. This photo is looking south downriver, with Canada to the left and the United States to the right. Fighting Island (Canada) is in the foreground in the river and Grosse Ile (United States) is in the background.

The twin plumes of the Fermi Nuclear Power Plant on the western shore of Lake Erie are just visible in the background.

And you can see the moon just off the winglet.

tags: flying photography

photo posted by matt in Friday, April 22, 2022

Little boy buying hamburger, state fair, Donaldsonville, Louisiana (loc.gov)

Little boy buying hamburger
Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer

About today's cover image — it's from the Library of Congress, and appears to be from a government collection with no limitations on use. Boy there's a lot of great public domain photographs just lying around in searchable, online collections. I need to start using more of these.

tags: publicdomain photography

posted by matt in Thursday, October 14, 2021