Dave C's photos

The image looks good at first glance. Just don't start counting legs or antennae on the hornet or the extra thumb on the pixie warrior. ;-D Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

“The story” (The story of the old Gentleman is based upon a true event) An elderly gentleman is in the doctors surgery to book an appointment. the receptionist tells him that he can no longer make an appointment face to face with the receptionist. He must go online and fill out a form requesting a doctors appointment. The elderly gentleman explains, he has no modern gadgets that allow communication online. He does not own a smart phone. He has no tablet or any other mobile device. He does not even own a personal computer so has not internet access. The receptionist displays disinterest. She sends him away stating: These are the rules. I cannot help you. You must go and find someone with internet access to complete the form for you. The old gentleman turns away confused as to why he can’t just make an appointment here. He vulnerable and unwell. He needs medical assistance. He has lived a long life and has a deep understanding of conflict. He has faced conflict in both his personal and military life. Now he cannot understand the conflict of just trying to get medical aid. Most of all he just feels obsolete. “The elderly gentleman” The old gentleman is in his 80's(between 80-85). He is 5 feet 10 inches tall. He looks slightly shorter because he now has a slight stoop. His bearing is that of a military man. His features are those of a careworn man. the wrinkles on his face reflect this. He does have frown lines but he also has laughter lines. He has lived through both good and bad times. He has iron grey hair and wears a flat cap to hide the receding hair line. His hair is neatly trimmed. He also wears a short, neatly trimmed beard. He walks with the aid of an intricately carved wooden walking stick. He has seen military action in his lifetime so he may have received an injury during active military duty that necessitated the need for the walking stick. He only has a small pension meaning that he has to be extremely frugal with money. His clothes are worn but meticulously clean and pressed. His shoes are also showing signs of wear but are highly polished. He has seen conflict in his lifetime but is left confused by the conflict of having to fit into a progressively technological world. As he turns away from the window you can see the confusion on his face. “The receptionist” The receptionist is a female humanoid robot. She is representative of the ever expanding AI based world in which we live. The differences between the receptionist and a human are very subtle and won't be noticed at first glance. She is 5 feet 7 inches tall. Her age appears to be between 18 and 21 years old. She is of average build. Her bearing is arrogant. She could have bent the rules to help the old gentleman but choses not to. She likes the feeling of power and control her position gives her. No-one gets to see a doctor unless she allows it. She is the gatekeeper. As the old gentleman turns away from the window she slides the glass panel closed, reinforcing to the old gentleman that the conversation is finished. She has a smug look on her face as she does this. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments. All feedback (positive and negative) will be greatly appreciated on this image and it's deeper meaning.

We have 3 or 4 of these that visit the feeding station every day now. The must be one of the most timid visitors we get. You can see them visiting throughout the day if you stay inside and watch out of the window. Once you go out side they dissapear pretty quickly. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

This is the last ai image for now. This is where ai image creation went wrong. The image almost matches what was asked for. The prompt was for natural rim lighting on the subject. In the image render the light comes from the wrong angle to create rim lighting. Where it went really wrong is when it added the locked image plan to the image. I have as not been able to find out what prompted this. There are other inconsistencies here but I will leave you to decide what these are. The main issue I have found so far is drift. The final render often drifts away from what is planned no matter how rigidly you lock constraints. I believe that a lot of this is caused by the nature of the how ai produces image input. Ai is designed to produce impactful globally perfect images. For fantasy images this is not so much of a problem. If you try to create images from a wildlife photographers perspective the ai starts to hit limits/boundaries and struggle with certain concepts. High on this list is: dof, motion blur. keeping within set boundaries and constraints. Even with rigid constraints set, the ai has a tendency to render images before you have finished planning. Not good when you are working within a set number of image generations in your account. The answer I was given for this is that the ai is designed to push out images, it misinterperates when to render. It will push to render when it believes it has enough information to do so even if the planning of the image is incomplete. A strong photograph works because it isn't perfect. the eye sees what is in the photo but the subconscious picks up on the inconsistencies. That is the real world feeling you get from a photograph. AI tries to give perfect images. They tend towards high clarity over sharp main subjects. inconsistent depth of field, Motion blur is a big one here. Ai motion blur can very quickly look more like image artifacts than blur. Main subjects can end up not matching the scene giving them the "added in Photoshop" feeling. With the wildlife images, ai pushes towards impact rather than natural. The fox above is a good example of this. In true wildlife photography the subject is often partially obscured by foreground items. Ai will aggressively remove planned foreground obstructions even when they are planned into the image. This is why they generally feel wrong. I have only worked with one ai model so far. Other ai models may have different strengths and weaknesses. All comments and criticism (negative or positive) encouraged and appreciated on this one. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

This is the last of the badger images. It is getting nearer to what I was looking for. I pushed it to look more like an image from the perspective of a wildlife photographer than a fantasy image. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Relaxing in the evening sunshine. This is the second of the badger images. There is one more to upload. It is in a different style to the morning and evening images. I have learned a lot more about ai image creation and the limits of it during this experiment in badger images. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Never had any success photographing badgers in the wild so I used ai to create this image. The outcome is a pleasing image. I get that ai is just another tool to capture an image but there is still the lack of achievement gained when you have take the time to capture and process a good photo for real. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

To build an opinion of ai, you have to interact with it. Today I used ai to create 3 more images. The other 2 will be uploaded in due course. The prompt to ai was firstly that the format must be 16:10 landscape. This is critical as it matches the format of my pc monitor. Then: Mountains in the background. Forest in the midground. Foreground is a log cabin in a wildflower meadow. Weather to be stormy. Time of day to be the golden hour. This is the result which is a pleasing image. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The biggest problem with using ai to create images for me is that there is no feeling of achievement. It is like asking an artist to paint you a landscape. You tell him what you require but he does the work not you. When I produce images with photoshop I have done all of the work. At the end I feel like I have achieved something that is mine. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

I decided to give the AI image creation one more try. This time I knew what I wanted so there was no start image. Willow is based on a character from one of my favourite Terry Brooks book series. Willow is a Sylph (Woodland elemental). She must transform into a Willow tree for one night every month. Really pleased with the result. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

The ducks often fight for pecking order when the feed is available. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Proud mother with her babies. She started with 8 so has done well to keep 5 this long. We have had a mega year for ducklings this year. I would estimate that there has been over 40 ducklings this year. End up putting feed out several times a day at the moment. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

Another new visitor to the feeding station. This rabbit arrives every morning shortly after the feed has been put out. Photographed from my kitchen window. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.

The cat still visits this tree on a regular basis. ------------------------------------------------------ Replacement motherboard arrived yesterday for my pc. Rebuilt pc and all is well. Always a risk buying second hand electronics but not a lot of choice in this instance as windows 7 is not compatible with the new motherboards. Now to find some inspiration with the camera. Thank you for looking and for your kind comments.