We stand upon the precipice
A thousand story edifice
The constant threat
All comes to this
What shall I do with my day?
I have heard it said many times that photography is dead. Too many cameras. Too many photographers. Now, with AI, the human element of photography is superfluous. Humans are simply not needed any more for this endevor.
Perhaps.
This brings fear to the surface and it is only at the surface.
A photographer performs this for themselves first. It is cathartic. It is the challenge that brings us back. It is discovery that makes our pulse race. It is the satisfaction of story and message, nuance, detail and blur, color and tone, and the mastering of the sun’s energy that drives us.
Too many cameras? Too many photographers? Ok. Each have their own journey.
AI? Ok. Without photographers, AI would have no reference to make its art. Machine art. Souless, lifeless machine art. If that is what the masses want. So be it.
Photographers know each other and the shared struggle to create.
Machines, not so much.
A simple walk:
Birds on the trail
Mist in the Towers
Oak Among the Boulders
Wide is the Trail
Western Blues
Stay frosty, keep shooting
Photographic Impressionistic Illusionistic 
Exactly. As with the evolution of the simple telephones to ‘smartphones’ it doesn’t mean anything unless ‘I’ use it. The challenge to create just might mean that the photographer needs to challenge himself to not allow, as much as possible, the artificiality of the images taken, unless the photographer wants it. Either we create with slothfulness relegating the rest to AI, or we create with vigor and diligence, pouring all our photographic skills into the image without or with AI only as a minor partner. Do not let AI steal your self-respect as a bono fide creator. It works! I have never seen a need for a smartphone, so, I don’t have one. One day I may have to get one, but not TODAY.
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Very nice, Mark. Words and photos alike. Excellent point that without photography as input, AI would have nothing to start with.
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