The Year of Authenticity

Blonde model posing in autumn color

When I first tried a bit of Photoshop's Generative Fill feature, I was amused at the results and thought, "It will be a long time before I need to worry about AI. How wrong I was, within a year social media was inundated with realistic wildlife and fantastical landscape images that attracted the eye much more quickly than my own images. I knew then that my stock photo business might be in trouble, after all, what blogger or agency would pay good money for an image when they could just conjure one up for free!

The War On Wildlife Episode Thirteen

Deia (model) Jean Jacket

Bonus Episode,  due to the Superbowl next weekend. Since this is an off week,  I have decided to publish Episode Thirteen - The Photoshoot, a week early!

Colorado – Keep Releasing Wolves

According to this update by Colorado Parks and WIldlife (CPW), no additional wolves will be released in 2026. Reasons cited are interference from the federal government and objections from western slope ranchers. Some lawmakers object to funding the program when the state is experiencing a budget shortfall. In my opinion these excuses aren't sufficient reason to override the will of the voters.

A Monochrome Start to 2026

Monochrome Pikes Peak Region

It wasn't something that I intended, or set out to do, but it seems that monochrome photography might be a recurring theme in 2026. A renewed interest in black and white film can be partially attributed to a road trip to Denver, with an inevitable stop at Englewood Camera to look at the used gear. On that trip I discovered an FD 100-300mm manual focus lens at a price impossible to ignore. That particular lens just happens to emply a 58mm filter size, the exact size of my set of monochrome filters.

Hope Eternal

Coyote Hunting

I wasn't going to make this post until I got the negatives, so that I could do the high res scans. But I got my low res scans today, and I'm excited enough about the results to at least put out a hint of what is to come this year!