AI? Not I!

Dragons in the Backyard. Clarkesville, Georgia.

One pleasant early fall day as my son Rob and I were wandering around northeast Georgia to see (and photograph) whatever of interest we might find, we were driving along a street that ran by the backyards of some houses, when Rob suddenly exclaimed "Dad! Look at that!" It was  a cast metal dragon and an eagle in someone's backyard. So of course I stopped and made a few photographs.

Could this picture have been created by AI? Of course. But who would have thought of it?

The essence of photography is that it is photographic. It is a picture made by the action of light reflected from something that has objective reality onto a sensitized surface. Light rays bouncing off something that is really there go through a lens and are recorded onto film, a sensor of some kind, or something not yet invented, but whatever it is, it is "writing with light." The unique power of photography is derived from this direct connection to reality. When a photograph is altered, digitally or otherwise, it becomes no longer a photograph, but something else: perhaps a subset of painting or collage. Rauschenberg, for instance, creates work that I would categorize as collage. It may be artistic in itself, it may use photography as an element or a point of departure, but it is not photography.

The photographer Dorothea Lange kept a quotation by the English essayist Francis Bacon on her darkroom door: “The contemplation of things as they are, without error or confusion, without substitution or imposture, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention." As Fred Picker said in the March 1994 issue of Shutterbug, "This Koudelka (print by Czech photographer Joseph Koudelka) on the wall contains the most amazing combination of things that I know happened, because when he made that photograph there was no electronic imaging. Here are two horses, standing in a certain position, a boy sitting on a bicycle wearing an angel suit with angel wings, here's an old lady scolding him, all in magnificent light and beautifully composed. Today, that picture could be made by some guy sitting in front of a computer. Knowing that would take all the wonder out of it."

In actuality, it isn’t likely “some guy sitting in front of a computer” would make such a picture, because those who alter and/or combine photographs are limited by their imaginations. They can only do what they can conceive. But photography goes beyond human imagination. As novelist Tom Clancy has said, “The difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to make sense.” The magic of photography is that life holds so many amazing and wonderful things that are entirely unanticipated, unexpected, even unimagined in the deepest sense; that is -- no one would ever have thought of such a thing. And then, suddenly, right out of the fabric of life, there it is. "I can do a beautiful illustration, but it doesn't have that 'instant of wonder' that a photograph will have."  (Art Director Tony Anthony, quoted in "Photo District News," February, 1987.) Photography shows us things that lie beyond our imagination and compel our amazement because they really happened. It revels in the beauty, the mystery, and the strangeness of life. It is the most powerful purely visual medium ever created.

AI is great for things like commercial illustration and advertising (although it's putting some commercial photographers out of business). But not for the photography that matters to people like me. I want my photographs to be real. To show the world as it actually exists. People can use AI to alter and "improve" their photographs, but if their creations are presented as real photographs, I think that is destructive to the art of photography.

So. . .AI? Not I.

The photo: Olympus E-M5, Panasonic 14-140mm lens

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     AI     Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens    Clarkesville, Georgia

 W. L. Coker's New River General Store, TN Hwy. 116, Anderson County.

Blog note: I'm re-posting this blog entry about what I thought was a little-known store in a remote place on a lightly-traveled highway because it generated such a surprising and unusual number of page views and comments.

In 1937 (the year of my birth!) W.L Coker and his wife Belle built a two-story brick building on a remote stretch of gravel road in east Tennessee's mountainous Anderson County. The first floor was a general store, and the Cokers had living quarters on the second floor.

I can't imagine how the business survived, but there was a great deal of coal mining activity in the area in those day, so the store apparently did okay. It's still very much in business, now operated by a Coker grandson, although he does supplement his income by driving a school bus.

 The Blue & White Service Station next to Coker's Store.

The Blue & White Service Station, located beside the Coker store, is kinda dilapidated these days, but the pair of gas pumps between the two buildings are still very much in use.

That stretch of gravel road where the store is located is now paved and designated as Tennessee Highway 116, also known to some motorists as the Devil's Triangle because of the way the road winds around challenging curves and over steep mountains.

The Devil's Triangle is not as well-known as the Dragon, that stretch of U.S. Highway 129 between Maryville, Tennessee and Robbinsville, North Carolina, but I've driven them both and I believe the Triangle is even more challenging -- and dangerous, with sharp, winding curves, narrow shoulders, loose gravel and minimal guardrails. But of course, all that makes the road even more attractive to adventurous motorcyclists and sports car drivers.

Both photos were made with a Fuji X-T3 camera and the Fujinon 16-80mm f4 lens.

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography     travel photography     east Tennessee      Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     Fuji X-T3 camera     Tennessee Highway 116     Anderson County     Devil's Triangle     The Dragon     U.S. Highway 129

Success or. . .?

 Abandoned. U.S. 27, Rhea County, Tennessee.

 Over the years this blog has had maybe 5,000 hits, more or less, per month. Ten thousand hits in one month was cause for celebration. Recently, that number has increased radically to 15,000 hits, 17,000 hits, 25,000. . . Then in May the number shot up to 60,000. So far, there have been nearly 40,000 hits in May. 

Success, right? Well, maybe. Posting three times per week usually, I've racked up more than 800 original posts. Yet, there have been only a little more than 400 comments, and none duriing these months of greatly increased hits. Something smells. So what's happening? 

I think ny blog is being raided by bots, or more likely, by AI, pilfering content while ignoring my copyright. 

Master photo blogger Kirk Tuck suspected something like that was happening, so he shut down his blog and removed all his content, thousands of posts over 18 or so years, and stored it all in a safe place.

He's back now, but on Substack, where his content is only available to those he personally approves. Maybe I'll look into that, or a similar option. We'll see. I write for my readers and for myself. I don't want my work pirated.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: Last week Louise had surgery on her shoulder, broken in a fall last February. It never healed properly and we were not happy with the orthopedist, so we went to a different one and she finally got the surgery she needed. As for myself, I'm being treated for an infection in my right foot. I'm also looking at procedures to open up the arteries in my legs and probably an aortic valve replacement. Getting older is definitely not for sissies!

 

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography  blogging     bots    AI

It's Been a Busy Week!

 Abandoned store, Georgia Highway 100, Meriwether County.

 The past week or so has been busy, busy, busy, with two days of Devlin's and Anna-leise's wedding celebration at Pigeon Forge. It was a great time, with lots of family all in the same hotel, and a shuttle to the wedding venue on a nearby mountain. I did too much walking on my game legs and have still not fully recovered. But it was a great time.

Five of my six grandchildren are married now, and have produced ten great-grandchildren, with one more on the way. Glad I'm still around to see them.

In contrast to last week's busy-ness, this week has been doctors, doctors, doctors. I have already seen one about an infection in my foot, and will be seeing two more about other issues. I've spent more time with doctors in the last three years than in all my previous life!

Louise fell in March and broke her shoulder. It has never healed properly, so finally this week they're going to do the surgery that should have been done months ago.

But we're grateful. God has been gracious to us and we are blessed to have lived so long.

The photo of Dave's Place was made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera and the Panasonic 14-140mm lens.

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography  digital photography    Olympus E-M5 camera    Panasonic 14-140mm  lens    Family events    weddings aging    senior health issues