Challenge Night #5: Mix 'n Match, 1st October

Last night we held our 5th Challenge night of the year and I was approaching this night with some trepidation – would it work?  And did we provide suitable base images to work from?

I needn’t have worried; our members rose to the challenge yet again and presented some interesting and thoughtful interpretations of the subject matter provided.

Our members were encouraged to think outside the box with this challenge and the idea of providing a series of base photos to work from removed any preconceptions that would arise if working on your own photos, so that they would be free to interpret the photos in any way they chose.

We had in total 50 different photos and it was very interesting to see how individual members used similar base photos to achieve very different results and interpretations.  The consensus amongst the members was that this was a good challenge, and everyone enjoyed the process.  It looks set for a repeat next year.

One point of discussion was around the use of AI tools to process the photos – Google Gemini and others, using a series of prompts to instruct the AI agent what the user wanted.  The results are very interesting, and it raises the question and no doubt an ongoing discussion on this topic of what is acceptable use of AI in photography?  Jim Crew has suggested that using AI tools to enhance photographic content should be acceptable, but adding elements that were not in the original photo (i.e. using Generative tools) would cross a line that moves from photography to something else entirely.  This discussion will continue and no doubt many people will have opinions and ideas, so please let us know your thoughts.

Our next meeting on the 15th is a normal evaluation night and I am looking for a volunteer to step up to act as facilitator on the night.  If you would like to have a go, please let me know before the next meeting.

Following the next meeting, on the 29th we have our “Photography My Way” night where members can make a short presentation on any photography related subject.  The presentations can be short – 5 to 10 minutes is ideal and I have several people already indicating they will have something to share.  We can use a few more, so I am asking anyone interested to contact myself or via David to let me know if you will have something to include on the night.

P.S. the photo accompanying this report has been enhanced using Google Gemini, courtesy of Robert Shaverien.

Michael Smyth, President.