Photo movies

I (re)started making picture movies from my photo projects. I publish them on my YouTube channel. It’s a kind of slide show, but I’m trying to make a bit more of it and augment pictures with some video I made during the photo shoots.

I started this before with low success but now decided to take this more systematically. Nobody seems to exhibit his photography products like this, at least not so systematically. The first new set I created during the Scotland trip. Created a separate playlist for this trip.

This weekend, I created a video using pictures I took during a business trip to New York City and upstate New York.

And I have a large backlog of similar trips. Having fun with this.

Subscribe to the channel if you like it with this button here.

Exploring Ethical Search Engines Beyond Google

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 side by side. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything about Google.

Vacation Photos; and the fun of always taking pictures

Toeristen fotograferen

Kronkeling has the most fun blog about photography.

Kronkeling has a hard time photographing on vacation. I don’t share this struggle. I always takes pictures. Sometimes it’s 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.

Or hotel rooms.

Hotelkamer
Hotelkamer
Hotelkamer
Hotelkamer
Hotelkamer

Or art on the wall.

Or numbers.

47
104

Nina Katchadourian is a super creative source of inspiration.

The convenience of a vegetarian diet

Haloumi burger
Haloumi burger

More than a year ago, I became a vegetarian. In fact, 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.

AI, duh; make it personal (and analog)

ai photographer
The competition

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.