In the spotlight …..

It’s another hospital visit today - this time Dermatology in Liverpool. Efficient as always, it’s still rather vague and inconclusive in terms of diagnostic value. Positives - I’m feeling better and there’s no indication of deterioration; that will have to do for now. 

We’re back to combining hospital visits with a bit or R&R, so our return journey is via Burton Mere RSPB. The late afternoon sunlight makes spotting anything on the scrapes well nigh impossible, but it makes for fabulous light and colour in the trees and around the lake, reflections perfect. 

There are mallards ploughing through the golden water, leaving perfect wakes, and I even get dive-bombed by a late-surviving dragonfly - certainly not something we expect to see. Suddenly there’s a yellow flutter over the waters, and a grey wagtail lands on some disintegrating lily pads. I love their bobbing action, their delicate flightiness - though it often makes them difficult to capture. This little one bobs along in the shadows, hardly visible at times, before moving into daylight, its golden feathers brilliant as it steps delicately into the spotlights formed by the sun rays piercing through the trees. 

Home, there’s time for a short rest before heading off to camera club where there’s a fascinating presentation by two club members. First, a history of image manipulation from the very early early days of photography right up to Photoshop - fascinating just how much of this was done. Then, it’s onto the possibilities of AI. We’re asked to think of images we’d like to see. We have ‘a chimpanzee riding a motorcycle in the desert’ - and amazingly the software comes up with four bizarre but convincing images. Then somebody suggests Trump on a bicycle on Llandudno prom. Again we are presented with four convincing compiled images. It’s fun - but frightening. This - for AI - is basic stuff, but the possibilities for fake news are so clearly evident. And as for the future of photography - I suppose we have to rely on our own integrity. 

Anyway, for now - and free from any manipulation but for Lightroom! - my main today’s the stage-struck wagtail (better large in black to see the shafts of light) with a couple of autumnal shots as extras.