By Ian Hollidae, 2025/11/17

Wall Street is starting to get nervous about AI spending. Services such as Sora are raising prices and scaling back features on their free tier. I think it's safe to question whether this is a make or break moment for AI.

My particularly interest in all this is the generative media sector. I'm reminded of the old saying that if you want to make millions in Hollywood, start with billions. That used to be an exaggerated (somewhat) joke. It appears that SoftBank believes it's a possible path forward.

You have to wonder how many generative videos need to be created for everyone to recoup their money. I'm guessing not enough.

Tags: AI

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/11/09

Fresh off losing their lawsuit against Stability AI, Getting Images is finding more success on a different path. This time around, the company decided to partner with Perplexity to provide legal access to their image library. A quote from their published press release:

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Perplexity, which acknowledges the importance of properly attributed content and its value in enhancing AI-powered products...Partnerships such as this support AI platforms to increase the quality and accuracy of information delivered to consumers, ultimately building a more engaging and reliable experience. This agreement paves the way for a productive and collaborative partnership between our companies, where we will work together to improve attribution of our contributors' work and Getty Images' high-quality creative and editorial content will enhance Perplexity's platform." -- Nick Unsworth, VP Strategic Development, Getty Images

Despite the usual corporate-speak, you still have to wonder about how AI and copyright can co-exist long term. Will this arrangement be the norm? How does the partnership evolve when the AI-side of things is far from mature?

I get that everyone, especially content providers such as Getty, want a certain level of stability going forward but this move seems rather low effort. Maybe that's good enough for now.

Tags: AI, Photography

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/10/31

I've been running across a lot of articles related to RSS lately. It makes me wonder about which way the tides of blogging are shifting. Is a return to organic posting really under way? I get the feeling a lot of the noise resides in the more tech-oriented communities.

Personally, I'd like to see a larger segment of the web get back to independent blogging, but as some have pointed out, the issue of discovery, outside the social media format, still hasn't been solved. Simply putting an RSS feed on your site has never been the answer. Feed aggregators were a step forward, but clearly, they couldn't keep up with web indexing. I don't blame people for sticking with social media. A ready made gathering place is hard to ignore. I think if there is a solution, it'll have to be something no one has thought about.

For now, here's some of what I've come across:

• A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape (Lighthouse)
• Have we passed peak social media? (Financial Times)
• In Praise of RSS and Controlled Feeds of Information (Tom Burkert)

Tags: blogging

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/10/16

One goal of my photography project is to take pictures of mundane or average things and try to make them look good, or at least, presentable. I would say a common street sign is as mundane or average as it gets.

I was hoping to focus on some of the weathered patterns along the wall but finding a good one proved challenging. Focusing on the sign instead and letting the wall add contrast seems to have been a better move. As a bonus, I got some reflected sunlight from one of the top floor windows behind me to go along with the ambient light of the alleyway.

Photo Only

This post is a continuation of the Beginners Photography Project.

Tags: Feature Photos

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/10/07

This is one of the better responses to the latest over-the-top, sensational story about AI generated something I've seen to date:

AI actors are a long con... a grift... another bull**** tech fantasy Silicon Valley is using to drum up another round of sweet, sweet V.C. cash. It's just another iteration of the same insanity which convinced Hollywood to toss out the theatrical film and ad-supported network TV models in favor of streaming-based subscription fees... a decision which almost everyone in the industry now regrets.

-- George MF Washington, regarding the Tilly Norwood buzz

Personally, I see Tilly as nothing more than a logical next step: a fancy, non-cartoonish animation.

As for the larger implications for Hollywood, maybe this is the twenty-first century equivalent of talkies replacing the silent film. Or maybe we're now getting the first full view of a completely democratized media landscape. Regardless of what has been tossed aside, or where things are going, profit motives will always decide everything. Unfortunately, no one knows where the money trail is right now.

Tags: AI

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/10/01

So OpenAI has decided that mixing social media and AI (generative video) is somehow a good thing. Yesterday's announcement highlights all the things you can possibly do with their new Sora 2 model and iOS app:

* From words to worlds: Start with a prompt or upload an image to create videos with unprecedented realism in any style: cinematic, animated, photorealistic, or surreal.

* Cast yourself and your friends: Create together. With cameos, you and your friends can be characters in your videos. You control how or when your cameo is used.

* Remix everything: Take someone else's creation and put your spin on it. Swap characters, change the vibe, add new scenes, or extend the story.

* Cue the sound: Music, sound effects, and dialogue are automatically included in videos to make every scene complete.

The most obvious question is how is this better than shooting a real video and utilizing all the same features The next most obvious question is does anyone really need this. The third most obvious question is will this be the "killer app" for generative media (or at least enough of a success for VC's to recoup their investments).

I'm sure people will come up with all sorts of responses. I'm guessing a lot of them will not be overly favorable to OpenAI. This all still feels like scrounging around for questions that no one has asked to fit answers only AI companies are shouting about from rooftops.

Tags: AI, Social Media

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/09/23

This is a flat concrete wall captured in low light. There are plenty of interesting patterns and imperfections scattered throughout the original shot. One subtle detail I left in the crop is there seems to be a slight brushed area near the center of the image. Not sure if that was intentional or if the builders even cared. I’m thinking this texture will be used as a standard wall or a floor for future 3D presentations. I don’t see a wider use but you never know.

Select a thumbnail to see a preview.

Download the A Splash Of Concrete texture set under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0).

Tags: Texture

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/09/16

I've written before about why blogging on the web is still a great path. It seems I'm not the only one who thinks this. An interesting blog post, "No, RSS isn't dead", outlines a number of really good reasons why. One particular point caught my attention:

You're exposed to the remnants of the indie web. These are the people who are still creating cool stuff and sharing it because they want to, the people who don't know or don't care about SEO, the people you could have discovered in search results a decade ago but who have now been shunted down to page 25 by a massive fatberg of over-optimised content. They were probably on Twitter ten years ago but have now walked away in disgust. When you find someone like this today, you need to follow them because you won't find them again. RSS can help with that. In an age when search results have become polluted by SEO spam, think of RSS as an anti-SEO strategy.

I admit, I like the term "indie web". There's something underground-ish about it. It also reminds me of why I started Chromalucent in the first place, even though I'm not really a natural writer. Having a space where I can post all sorts of things without worrying about algorithms, likes, and memes seems like it should be the future. At least it did years ago when RSS was more widely in use. Sure, going it alone has downsides. You have to find ways to generate your own traffic. You have to manage site features on your own. And if you want to monetize your outlet, you'll have a harder road because there may not be as many available options.

On the other hand, I don't see these issues as downsides. Going your own way is just the flip side of the social media dynamic. Breaking through the endless noise, trying to differentiate yourself within popular memes, and dealing with the corporate limitations on the space allotted are all things that remain roadblocks with today's social media scene.

So will RSS-style content consumption make a comeback?

Maybe if a platform can capture more of the original web experience without the supposed handicaps. Maybe if readers and writters continue to get fed up with the current monotonous nature of social media. Maybe if everyone decides a more organic approach to online consumption is a better way forward. Sure, there's a chance. After all, the "indie web" never really went away and I don't think it'll be leaving us any time soon.

Tags: Blogging

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/09/06

I've been reevaluating everything related to my photography project for past couple of weeks. Mainly, I've been asking questions about the future direction I want the project to take, including the question of what have I learned from my experience. It's probably the type of evaluation one might expect from a relative beginner.

Thankfully, I've come up with a few answers.

What I primarily learned is that I don't have to be bad at photography. Constant practice makes a far bigger difference than simply soaking up YouTube tutorials. In the early days of the project, I took a lot of photos. Over time, I took fewer and fewer photos but not because I didn't find anything to shoot. I stopped filling up my allotted photography time taking random pictures with filling up the time trying to see shots. The spray and pray approach became inefficient.

Another thing I learned was that having your own space to post photos is a big benefit. I do have a Flickr account, and briefly had an Instagram account, but the social media aspect of photography hasn't been what I originally hoped for. One of the main goals of my project was to gain some real feedback on what I was doing. More often than not, what happens is a few "Nice shot" comments which are appreciated but aren't all that helpful. There might be some forum out there where deeper interaction happens, but so far, I haven't found it. So I decided if I'm not getting extended feedback, I might as well get rid of other things such as format and compression restrictions. Everything posted here is displayed exactly as I want it. No need to compromise.

In the end, the biggest lesson learned is that regardless of standard rules or conventions, the end result is all that matters. Obviously, the rules are time tested and exist for a reason. But after all the effort of taking and editing a photo, if you can view your work with some level of satisfaction, that might be the most important thing anyone can have.

For now, I'm still happy with the current project direction of learning photography.

Tags: Photography

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/08/28

A number of years ago, before I started a beginners photography project, I made a far less organized attempt at taking pictures. Shortly after Flickr became popular, I bought a FujiFilm S3000 (FinePix) point and shoot. I knew absolutely nothing about photography. And since there wasn't a wealth of photography information at the time, learning was slow. Although I enjoyed myself, the effort eventually fizzled.

Fast forward to 2025 and I'm buying a USB to USB-C converter for my MacBook to use some old thumb drives. It occurred to me that my old camera connector was USB. But where was the cable? Fortunately, it was neatly coiled up in storage.

Obviously, while going through the old photos, I found that most shots were useless. But there were a few close and could-have-been shots as well. I remember taking this one. It was a street side restaurant with a glass enclosed patio. I even remembered the original title, so I used it for this post.

In the end, it was good to look back and gain a new perspective on current photography efforts.

Photo Only

This post is a continuation of the Beginners Photography Project.

Tags: Feature Photos