You have to think about what she's point with.. her hand... her hand... Oh, yeah! Her hand.

That's better than what they tell me when they see my old pictures.... "You USED TO BE good looking."

[quote=Warhorse]I'm just curious as to how many veterans we have here, so I will start the ball rolling.

Army. 20 years in - guided missile man, then intelligence (Russian), then I spent the last 8 1/2 years of service as a "viewer" and then the trainer of the military's (all five services) "remote viewing" unit (called by the press, "psychic spies"). If you've ever seen the film, "The Men Who Stare At Goats", it was a film ridiculing everything we did in the military. George Clooney played me in it. Good film. I laughed all the way through it. Actually the work we did saved lives, made a huge difference in many military operations over almost a quarter century, and saved the U.S. taxpayers megabucks in the costs of intelligence collection. Much of it is still classified.

I hope that's true.

The AI is getting better and better. It looks like art as a paying profession may be a thing of the past. But Ai can't mimic the smell of linseed oil or the feel of moving and blending the paints on a canvas. Art will never quit being a personal joy.

By the same token, I still have my darkroom. Digits on a computer chip can never equal the smell of fixer or the joy of seeing a picture slowly appear on a sheet of paper in the tray.

I taught German n college for a few years and the language department had several Spanish teachers from other countries. One day, I walked into the office and one of the Spanish teachers came over and said, "Lyn, come have a cup of my watermellon coffee that I got straight from home. (He said it with his extremely thick accent, which doesn't come across in print). I had never heard of watermellon coffee, so I tried some. Tasted like very good, but normal coffee. I asked about it and he said, "Chess! (yes) It comes straight from my home in Watemala!

Actually, when we do get into space, we won't tend to build observatories or even factories on the planets, especially the gas giants. Transporting ores and other products from a planet will require massive amounts of fuel, skills, etc. So, small crafts will be used to fly products to the moons, where large transport ships will be able to easily and cheaply lift off and bring those products to Earth. Plans are already in the making for lift-off spots on our moon for traveling to other planets like Mars. It makes sense to inhabit and populate the moons instead of the planets. Observatories, especially will benefit from the thinner or even non-existent layer of atmosphere a moon would have than a planet would have. We will build on moons.

Yes, and he has two right arms, as well.

I will say, though, that I found a very good way to judge what a "good" photograph is and isn't. I take a picture (or paint one - I do artwork, as well) - and show it to my wife. If she doesn't like it, I wait a few days, look at it and wind up totally agreeing with her assessment. Toss it. If she says, "That's nice", a few days later I look at it and know that it's not nice at all. Toss it. If she says, "That's really nice", I wind up keeping it, but it's one of those that I rarely ever show to someone. If she says, "I love that. I want a copy.", it's a good picture.

I would agree. I once tried having a photography business. Was good at it. Sold a lot of work and won some contests. But for me, that wasn't what it was about. I walked away from it and have been an amateur at it from then on. I like it. I take pictures of things I like - the things around me that strike me as beautiful, inspiring, worth recording, etc. I take plenty of shots, now that the digital age is here and I don't have to keep buying film any more, and delete what I don't like, keep what I do. Quite often, people see some of them and want copies, and I give them away at no cost. I appreciate that they like the same things I do. I visit people and find my photos framed and hanging on their walls. I've had some published and been paid for them, but for me, the only "pay" that might off-handedly qualify me as even a semi-professional is the joy I get from doing it. Nothing more.

I was giving a lecture at the Museum of Space History (Alamogordo, NM), and someone took this wide angle shot. The camera they used had a sliding slit screen instead of a mirror that pops up and out of the way or an aperture that just opens and shuts. The result of it was that, because they took the picture right at the moment of slide change in the talk, the slide on the screen and its reflection in the back window show two different slides. Not sure what camera that was, but I found it interesting that that can occur. Basically, the left side of the picture and the right side of the picture were taken at two different times - a microsecond apart, but just enough to catch two slides on the screen in one picture.

That's actually two questions: What's a photographer and what's good? A photographer is anyone who takes photos. As for the "good" part, there's an old saying that goes that a "bad" photographer will take ten shots and show them to you. A "good" photographer will take 100 shots and show you the best 10. So, often, getting the >>reputation<< of being a good photographer is most often in being selective about which photos you show to people. But there are also some very real rules and guidelines for actually being a good photographer. Good composition is always the one. Theme, or having the picture infer a story is another. One example the comes to mind was a picture I saw of snow where there was the outline of missing snow of where a bicycle had been lying there, with a track leading away from it. Simple, but it told a simple story of what had happened with the snowfall before the picture, that someone had then picked up the bike and ridden away. You can't get much simpler story than that in a picture, but it did tell the story rather than just being a static still life shot. If there are people in the picture, they should be caught with expressions and actions that suggest a story that something is going on. Things like portraits tend to be just still-life shots of a person, and have basic standard formats. If that's what's wanted by the person, then stick to the rules and you're a good portrait photographer. But often going out of those standardized formats will show more of the person's personality and make them more real. The creativity of catching the personality as well as the person, in my opinion, is what makes a "good photographer" when it comes to portraits. In the end, whether the picture is of people, animals, or just scenery, the question of a photograph being "good" or not is whether it engages the attention, imagination, even the awe of the person looking at it. If you can do make a picture do that, then you're a "good photographer".

I have purchased several things from Temu and have been satisfied with the quality. HOWEVER - I did buy a drone from them that had multiple cameras on board. The drone was OK and seemed tow work fine, BUT the software to connect and the phone (works with a cell phone) required that I register my name, email address, and other personal information with the Chinese government. No way!!! I sent the drone back and they immediately sent me a refund. Satisfied with Temu so far.

Not just photography. I do realistic artwork and have heard that AI is replacing artists. So, I took one of my paintings, that of an ancient warrior weeping outside a ruined ancient temple. I typed that into the AI just to see what it could come up with and compare my work to the AI's. Sobering results. Mine is the wide picture with the warrior's head in his hands. The AI's is the warrior looking like a statue and holding his hand up to the temple. Other than the fact that the AI's looks more like a statue than a person and that his arm is all gimpy, I'm amazed at the AI's results, just from typing in a sentence. Mine took a really long time (lost count) to do and AI's took seconds. I guess I'm headed the way of the dinosaur. I don't care. I still like mine better.

Great shots!! BTW: That top flower (the one with the spike of yellow flowers) is "wooly mullein", and is one of the best Indian medicines you can find. Every part of the plant is a sedative. A tea from it can be used to calm a baby's colicky stomach or give you a good night's sleep. Chewing the leaves can ease a toothache, etc. Great find.