Updates & Perspectives
Downtown San Diego Waterfront
The cobbler's children go barefoot. It’s an idiom I’ve found myself saying too often. Freelancing is a perpetual challenge: client correspondence, website, Insta, LinkedIn, financials, spreadsheets, scheduling, photography, and editing all culminate in a plate-spinning performance. To a bystander, it looks like the inside of a watch, with the mechanicals ticking efficiently away. From my perspective, at times it feels like a one-man band falling down a flight of stairs, especially when it’s busy. If it sounds like I’m complaining, allow me to set those concerns aside. I most certainly am not. I LOVE what I do. The late-night edits, sunrise shoots, and standing outside in the cold or heat are all worth it when the client and I are happy with the result. After 16 years of architectural photography, I’ve learned that extra effort is always worth it.
Are there ways to save time in the process? Sure. I’ve implemented what works from what doesn’t through experience. Rarely does anything that significantly cuts down on time turn into a better result for the final image.
I could flash everything in a scene and sort it out in post, but the result is flat light that lacks intention. I’d rather set up my 7’ Westcott, small soft box, and build out the scene with controlled illumination. I could run HDR’s on my shots, but the result always looks sophomoric compared to compositing. I could throw my shots into an AI editor and have it regurgitate a result, but I’d end up with a photo that looks both flat and over-processed while insulting my client and devaluing myself.
Not to be haughty, but my clients are paying me to work hard and deliver images that I process with my look and attention to detail. I proudly hand-edit every image. If it means long hours and late nights, then so be it. The result is worth it. Limited use of AI as a tool for removing elements or making challenging selections is incredibly useful. Using AI to fully process your image from beginning to end is, in my view, a step too far.
With AI processing, intention, feeling, and creativity are lost. It becomes clinical work that does not connect with viewers. It just turns into white noise. If you don’t care enough to process your images or have them professionally edited, why should anyone care to look at them? Image processing is as much a part of photography as the camera itself.
I’ve been disappointed by photographers I once looked up to who are now openly promoting AI software like a tree campaigning for a lumber mill.
We are quickly starting to realize what a world without human creativity can look like. If you’re reading this, I know you’ve noticed it. Useless slop videos, blatant misinformation, false advertising, fake images, cluttered graphic design, soulless emails, saccharine repetitive writing. AI’s only tangible benefits are speed and quantity.
Most people would prefer a mediocre painting in their home instead of an AI-generated image hanging on the wall. I’ll frame an out-of-focus, badly exposed picture of my dog that’s no longer with us, rather than put up an AI-generated image of her. The same goes for music. I’ll take the roughest cut of Tom Waits recorded on a wax cylinder over the most refined AI-generated song. People prefer authenticity and real connection even if it’s imperfect. End of AI rant.
Before I get too far off course, I’ve been fortunate to have had a busy few quarters. Since I’ve been laser-focused on client work, my website, Insta, and blog post updates have fallen by the wayside.
To correct this, I scheduled a block of time after a recent Seattle photo visit to get things back in order and have written new blog posts for the next several months. Along with that, I’m revamping my social media and updating the website with new imagery, organization, and some maintenance. I’m excited to share some major projects I’ve been working on.
In the meantime, here’s hoping for a jaunty melody the next time this one-man band falls down the stairs.