Art In Nature

We just returned from a little ride over the Alpine Loop. Diane insisted that I get my camera out of storage so I could create a few more memories.

This photograph is just to grab your attention. I have been making photographic images of nature landscapes for more than 60 years. I admit to doing some minor editing with many of them like removing telephone wires so as to render them as "The Art of God" without human intervention. Sometimes I have even replaced a boring sky with something more dramatic or "fixed" an image to correct artifacts introduced by my camera or lens.. However, I consider every image of the landscape that I have made as being a true representation of how it actually existed or could have existed.

Now, I am amazed and disheartened by the proliferation of images that are presented as photography but exist only in someone's computer, having been created with AI (Artificial Intelligence). They are usually so garish and unreal that they are an insult to "The Art of God."

What is even more disconcerting to me is the positive reaction offered by so many gullible viewers, some even giving credit to God for creating what is actually a deliberate scam.

Most of them are so blatantly phony that anyone with just a modicum of discernment would recognize them as fictitious representations of the landscape.

In a way, it makes me a bit happy to be in my 90's and can step away from most of this foolishness.

The legendary photographer, Ansel Adams, was a strong proponent of “previsualization” in making great images. Others, however, just tune in to their environment at the moment and make great photographs of what just happens at that moment in time.

Before making this photograph I had previsualized a scene that included great crashing waves against huge boulders on the beach set against a backdrop of lush mountain greenery and the developing colorful sky in the sweet light of sunset.

As I was walking on the beach looking for my photograph, I glanced down at these small colorful pebbles lying in some brackish water and realized that what I was looking for was nothing more than a massive conglomeration of what lie at my feet so . . . . I photographed them. Unexpectedly, this photograph turned out to be a popular item in my portfolio. This image is coupled with a poem in my book, “Visual Verse.”

The lesson for me here, I guess, is that any photographic methodology is fine but don’t let “previsualization preempt what ”just happens.”