Alex Nelson

Thanks!

A striped mud turtle looks up over the grass on the side of a trail on a sunny morning.

Not quite. I'd find myself banned from the park if I tried that. This was actually taken from a boardwalk just above the bird. Just an uncommonly friendly grebe. All the others dive to safety the second they see you.

Many birds are molting right now, and molting requires maintenance. Fresh after fishing out some loose feathers from its wing, this pied-billed grebe sits with a feather lightly balanced atop its slightly agape bill. A second loose feather floats in the water beside. #birds

A yellow-rumped warbler perched amidst the reeds in the middle of the marsh early in the morning. #birds

Thanks, Rob!

A Carolina wren clings to a palm frond, ready to spring off. #birds

Perched above the nest was an adult great horned owl, lazily gazing from a tree top, bare save for tufts of Spanish moss. #birds

Thanks, Glen. Always cool to find an owl nest.

But when the AI help is being used to replace the iterative processes that result in actual creation, my sympathy erodes because at a certain point you are robbing yourself of the experience of making something. And lying to the audience, because they react to authentic experience.

And I have a certain amount of sympathy for people who use AI (or stuff marketed as AI that isn't) to help themselves out for certain labor-intensive tasks, because it is an equalizer in a field where how much money you have to spend on equipment and how much free time you have matters a ton.

That includes the incremental work needed to learn the species, the habitat, your gear, the fundamentals of photography, and editing/processing. Even when my images are not the result of a ton of planning, they are the result of a ton of hard work, and that's what makes me proud of my images.

I don't particularly care which image is 'better.' But, especially in a field like wildlife photography where almost any image you could want to capture has already been captured, what a lot of people don't understand is that the act of making the image is what's special to the creator and audience.

Thanks, Matthew. I was getting jealous of your images so I decided to check some of the preferred nesting spots near me.

Came across a great horned owlet this evening, sitting behind some twigs and Spanish moss amidst the resurrection ferns. The bird looked to be about a week to ten days old. A tight crop from an image taken at 800mm. #birds

A male cardinal standing in front of some palm fronds while perched atop a tree stump. #birds

Thanks, Glen!

Thanks, Marina!

Thank you!

A male downy woodpecker perched on a twig against a dark background. #birds

A female common yellowthroat in a tangle of dried out vegetation in the middle of the wetlands. #birds

A male common yellowthroat perched on a dry reed in the middle of the marsh. #birds

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thank you, Mark. It was the result of a lot of patience in a really uncomfortable environment, so I'm happy it was worth it.

Thank you, Janet! I was thrilled to find them snuggled up like that.

Thanks, Glen.

Thank you, Lori!

Thanks, Rosemarie!

I might phrase it a little differently on my resume.