These snow monkeys are the greatest. I spent so long with them, we almost had a three-way.
They are all wild (in the natural sense, mind you), and they come down from the mountains near Nagano, Japan, for several hours a day to play in the natural hot springs. They gallivant around, have fights, play with their kids, have a bit of sweet carnal monkey fun, check their email, and pose for my camera.
These two monkeys spent a lot of time together… they were in maximum “relaxation mode”. They lounged around in every possible position and took occasional breaks to do a bit of mutual grooming.
Daily Photo – Where Daenerys Targaryen Dragon-Roasted The Slavers
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
This is a Aït Benhaddou, an incredible kasbah near Ouarzazate, Morocco. I’ve always wanted to visit this place ever since I saw it in Gladiator. It’s the place where Russell Crowe was taken on a stretcher and where he learned to become a gladiator. You may also remember it if you watch Game of Thrones. It’s one of the spots where Daenerys took her dragons with the unsullied.
I don’t set up for a lot of selfies because I’m not a vapid Instagram influencer that tries to sell you a special tea that helps your chakras. However, this is a rare selfie.
Where Daenerys Targaryen Dragon-Roasted The Slavers
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
This was difficult to process right but it was a lot of fun. Shots in Manhattan are often filled with all kinds of complex activity, and Times Square amps that all up to the next order of magnitude.
The weather was perfect on this day, and I know that isn’t always the case. Since everything was more or less idyllic, I decided to make the most of it and see how many compositions I could squeeze into the afternoon. The only time I spent waiting around was watching for a few Yellow Cabs to streak by.
This technique combines four different AIs into one to create something entirely new. It’s all 100% AI-generated. One AI is for the photo of Alan. One is for the “speech” about finding zen at Burning Man, a place Alan has never been. Another is to emulate his voice, which I trained with dozens of his speeches. This turned out to be rather difficult because Alan has one of the strangest speech patterns since Elon Musk. The last is video animation that maps his voice to the photo to create a video where he blinks, moves his mouth, twists his face here and there, skin movement, etc.
This art project explores that “edge” between what the ersatz and the actual. Right now, as of the exact time of publishing, we’re right on the edge of creating something that is 100% convincing. Actually, many many people will think this is real as it passes their own semi-Turning test, whereas advanced people in the art/video/CG/AI world will be able to detect some of the little “peccadillos” that feel a little uncanny valley. But, soon enough, all of that will fade away and no one will be able to tell the difference between what is real and what is not. Does it matter? This is the same “veil” between what is real and what is not real that I’ve always explored with my photography and other art projects as well.
And Here’s the Creation
Enjoy!
As for the tools (and I will add more info and screenshots and failures here soon), it was Midjourney for the photo of Alan Watts, ChatGPT for the story about finding zen at Burning Man, Eleven for voice emulation, and Studio D-DI for the animation that brings them all into the final video.
Also, perhaps you’d like to see some of my recent AI thematic creations. Enjoy!
BTW, I started up a new AI Instagram @Trairatcliff account so I could keep my main Instagram more with traditional photography. Be one of the first to join! And tell your friends, but only the cool ones… not the energy vampire friends you are trying to get rid of. 🙂
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
It was my first time in Maui, and all I knew about it I got from Lost. I loved that show. Too bad it ended so badly. But I always loved this talk by JJ Abrams that he gave at the TED conference. He talked about having a “Magic Box” and you never really show people what is inside. I ended up speaking with him at a future Google TED-like conference. He went after me and said amazing things about my photography. God I was so… I don’t know the word. There may be some German word for what I was feeling.
My plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson’s house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no.
So I arrived and then spent about four hours with Neal, Chris Young (master chef who wrote Modernist Cuisine), Nels Peterson (paleontologist++), and a few other people to build a crazy BBQ setup. Neal has this crazy BBQ every year and they try to do something off-the-wall. For this one, instead of spinning the pig over the fire, it was decided that the fire should spin around the outside of the pig.
Many hours later, the creation was assembled, and we turned it on to watch the giant columns of metal begin to spin around the central base. It felt a little like a wormhole generator that would enable fully-cooked pigs to come into our world.
Then, the next day, when the BBQ officially started… here is a photo of the festivities. You can see Neal there in the middle, looking like his usual inscrutable self.
Daily Photo – A Wine and Sunset Adventure in Cape Town
After massive immigration problems (and literally getting Stuck In Customs in Botswana), I finally made it to Cape Town. We had a ton of fun there together! On my first full day, my friend Neville had planned an amazing trip through the wine country. I went to probably one of the most awesome wineries in the world there… I’ve forgotten the name now. It was so good I forgot a lot, in fact. But, I didn’t forget to take this sunset photo as we were leaving.
When you are surrounded by constant strange-light, everything feels like a waking dream. And when I reached this point, my iPod playlist started getting into the forlorn songs. It did nothing to help the reality of the situation if there was one to begin with…
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
Imagine seeing this if you were one of the great sea explorers of yore!
This is the entrance to Milford Sound from the Tasman Sea. It would have been so amazing to come across this and wonder what it was like up inside the fjord. And then, the captain could just decide to sail up inside and land some boats on the shore. Maybe if they were a little hungry, they could even grab a few Moas and cook ‘em up. After a long sea voyage, nothing goes down smoother than a Moa.
Every day during the lockdown in New Zealand, which I think only lasted about four weeks, I would go on an afternoon hike. I found myself drawn to this area again and again… these tiny little perfect pools of water… I actually took these with my mobile phone, although I don’t think most people would guess that in 100 years.
