Searching for the good search engine

There is no good reason why you should still rely on Google search for your search engine. Read this excellent article on Google’s practices, and Big Tech chills run down your spine. There are ample good alternative search engines these days that do have integrity:

DuckDuckGo

Ecosia

Bing (though also Big Tech and historically suspect)

Brave

StartPage

And there are more.

Lately, I’ve been using Ecosia and DuckDuckGo pretty much side by side, and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything about Google.

Vacation Photos

Kronkeling has the most fun blog about photography.

Kronkeling has a hard time photographing on vacation. I don’t struggle with it. I always photograph. Sometimes for the image, the beautiful picture, sometimes for the subject, so just the snapshot. I decide the goals afterward, but then I am different from Kronkeling.

Tips for your holiday pictures from Kronkeling are here.

Sometimes, there are miniseries, like when our car broke down, and we had to wait until a mechanic came to help us. I photographed all the trash in the parking lot.

Or, during vacations, photographing tourists.

Toeristen fotograferen

Or hotel rooms.

Or art on the wall.

Or numbers.

Nina Katchadourian is a super creative source of inspiration.

Bus

Arnol

The convenience of vegetarian eating

More than a year ago, I became a vegetarian. Actually, I am a pescatarian; I do eat fish, although I try to limit that, too.

Sometimes, it’s hard to eat vegetarian. When visiting people who are not prepared for it, for example, and also at home, when the rest of the family does want to eat meat. (And I’m not the evangelical type; they have to decide for themselves.)

But it also has advantages. In a restaurant, a vegetarian diet pleasantly limits the choices to no more than a handful of options. Easy, no choice, stress.

Sometimes the choice is limited to a bare pasta, but then you’re in the wrong restaurant anyway.

Haloumi burger
Haloumi burger

Sconser

Uitzicht vanuit Sconser lodge hotel

AI, duh

When Artificial Intelligence-generated images win photo contests, should we oppose that?

I just think the developments of AI are telling us to do things differently, to stand out. AI has become the competition (and maybe just a tool), just like all other photographers are. So, we have to treat AI as competition, too. You can try to deny this reality, but you can also look at how you, as a photographer or artist, can differentiate yourself from this new collegue/competition.

Ideas:

  • Stories instead of single images. Combine with text.
  • An analog version of your work: a print, a book, wallpaper, toilet paper, t-shirts, quilt covers, printed bags, whatever.
  • Combine your photos into a video.
  • Handmade books.
  • Collages.

Personal and analog distinguish you from the aggregated, statistically generated products of AI.

ai photographer
The competition

Naar Ullapool

Eerst via Eilean Donan castle, een van oorsprong dertiende-eeuws kasteel, in de 20e eeuw gerestaureerd en opengesteld. Beroemd kasteel blijkt een enorme tourist trap. We zijn niet de enigen die van bezoek afzien en van de andere kant van de rivier wat foto’s maken van dit kasteel en de stroom mensen die het kasteel in gaan. Er zijn twee kamers van het kasteel te bezichtigen, sic!

Naar Achnasheen, The Midge Bite waar we eerder al waren en nogmaals een fijne cappuccino drinken. Tent doet zijn naam eer aan. En het is laagseizoen, qua midges en dus bites ook. In de auto termineren we nog een paar midgets voor ze hun slag kunnen slaan.

Verder langs Loch Maree, een driesterrenmeer volgens Michelin, en oud-Caledonisch bos. Een exclusiviteit die grotendeels achter bosschage langs der weg voor ons verborgen blijft.
Gairloch is leuk kustplaatsje waar we de benen streken en onze broodjes opeten.

Bij waterval Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve er weer even uit om de benen te strekken en de hoogtevrees te bedwingen in een diepe kloof met hangbrug.

Dan naar Ullapool. Stadje in, klein maar aardig. Veel kleiner dan gedacht, nog kleiner dan Thurso. Maar ook leuker.

Eilean Donan castle
Eilean Donan castle
Gairloch
Gairloch
Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve, Schotland
Corrieshalloch Gorge
Achnasheen, The Midge Bite
Achnasheen, The Midge Bite