On LinkedIn, Samuel Oluwagbemiga is a brand photographer, a virtual and remote photographer, and a storyteller who is inspiring others to take up virtual photography and earn in foreign currencies across the world – a brand which would have been nothing short of aspirational if it wasn’t a bogus lie.

What is true is that Oluwagbemiga has been claiming copyright over photos belonging to other photographers to pass himself off as a virtual photographer, misleading his unsuspecting audience into paying him to teach them about virtual and remote photography or contracting him for a virtual photo session.

About a month ago, Oluwagbemiga posted photos of Chef Love who, according to him, was Nigerian and resident in the United Kingdom. He claimed that the photos were a result of one of his virtual photography sessions shot using his phone and even posted a snapshot of messages exchanged between him and the said client.

“Chef Love (a Nigerian), who resides in the UK, had her first virtual session with me for her brand, and she’s yet to get over the experience. She was so surprised at how easy it was to get her images taken from a distance, while I was at my end creating clean and authentic virtual shots. And seeing the final image, she couldn’t tell the difference,” Oluwagbemiga wrote on his LinkedIn page.

READ ALSO: Internet Fraudster With 32 Fake Emails Bags One Year in Jail

FIJ found that the person in question was not Chef Love but Sandra Brooks, a clinical psychologist who championed plant-based nutrition, and she was photographed by Meg Marie, a San Diego-based brand photographer.

Similarly, in another LinkedIn post, he claimed to have shot ‘Valerie’ for her birthday, but it was in fact a photograph of Tina Barr, a Ukrainian actress and journalist, which was shot by Nastya Boreiko, a female Ukrainian photographer professionally known as photobypinkfox, who had the photo pinned on her Instagram page.

Oluwagbemiga also had Barr’s pictures as one of his pinned images on Instagram.

READ ALSO: Wakanow Used Copyrighted Image Without Permission, Then Demanded N100m From Photographer

There were also photographs of soon-to-be-wed couples Shelby Alvarez and Fabian taken by Utah wedding photographer Mady, alias visuals.jm, and a family photoshoot taken by BreAnne Weston, a Utah-based photographer, which Oluwagbemiga claimed to have shot virtually.

FIJ noticed that Oluwagbemiga only lifted photos shot by female photographers, among whom were Aubrey Burman, a Michigan-based wedding and brand photographer whose Instagram pinned photo he claimed to own; Utah photographers Hannah Mack, Breanne Weston, and Mady; and San Diego photographer Meg Marie.

FIJ contacted Oluwagbemiga through WhatsApp for comments on our findings, and he admitted to obtaining the photos from Instagram, adding that he had given due credit.

“All these pictures were later given credit that they are from Instagram. And all pictures I snapped, I have it in my portfolio on the app shot virtually (sic).”

FIJ confirmed that Oluwagbemiga had yet to acknowledge any of the original photographers on his LinkedIn posts or admit that the images he claimed to own were taken from Instagram.

Those photographs were still on Oluwagbemiga’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages at press time.

From under the sea to a bush toilet, the beauty of nature can be found everywhere as these talented photographers have revealed. 

Winners from across Australia have been celebrated for their stunning shots in the 2023 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year. 

Marking 20 years of the competition, Australian Geographic picture editor Nicky Catley said the images also depicted the “fragility of our natural world”.

“The competition has become a record of our changing world, an earth in perpetual transformation, and this year we recognise that photography is more important than ever in showing us what is at risk of being lost,” Ms Catley said.

There were 11 categories this year, including: 

• Overall winner 
• Animals in nature 
• Urban animals
• Macro 
• Landscape 
• Threatened species 
• Monochrome
• Astrophotography 
• Junior 
• Our impact
•  Portfolio 

Here’s a look at the breathtaking images.

Overall winner: My Country Burns by Samuel Markham 

Animals in nature: Aftermath by Matty Smith 

Urban animals: Frog in a Bog by Tom Owen Edmunds

Macro: Nectar of Life by Dan Jones

Landscape: Intricate by Tania Malkin

Threatened species: Golden Seahorse by Peter McGee 

Monochrome: Desert Tower by Luke Tscharke

Astrophotography: Mungo by Jason Perry

Junior: Hidden Courage by Isabella Alexis

Our impact: Swamped Skies by Joshua Rozells

 Portfolio: Aerial Oceans by Lewis Burnett

We all know that AI is changing every industry and photography is a long way from being exempt from that. What many may not know, however, is photographers have an edge when it comes to image-generating AI: Let me show you how.

When I wrote my last article on AI, I was concerned that people were experiencing burnout from AI news and debates, but the views said otherwise. So, here I am again. If you’re jaded with the AI topic, save yourself some time and click away, but if you’re not, let me flag to you something I haven’t seen spoken of anywhere else.

I have been using AI in various capacities for several years, but the past 18 months have given birth to a completely new breed of AI, more powerful than anything we’d seen before by lightyears. For the past 9 months or so, I have been experimenting with Midjourney, one of the premier image-generating AI software similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E (which I used before Midjourney) and Stable Diffusion (which I’ve barely used, but is held in high regard.) For the uninitiated, let’s do a quick summary.

What Is Midjourney?

Midjourney is a large language model (LLM) that utilizes AI to create images from text. By describing the image you want to see, Midjourney can generate results by using the enormous dataset of images it has. The text used to generate these images are called “prompts,” and they can be as simple or as complicated as you choose. While early versions of Midjourney were impressive, the most recent model version, 5.2, allows the creation of images indistinguishable from photographs.

The Edge Photographers and Videographers Have

The first thing to note is that anybody can get a photo-realistic image out of Midjourney, even with the most basic prompts. You might be surprised just how strong the results can be from prompts that are a few words. What many people misconstrue about this is that anyone can create anything, but that’s not necessarily true. What makes prompt-driven AI difficult is controlling the output. Yes, anybody could create a photo-realistic image of an elephant, but to have full control over the setting, the colors, the depth of field, the angle, the light, and so on, requires some know-how. Although it doesn’t pertain to Midjourney (but rather LLM such as ChatGPT and Bard), there is a reason why “Prompt Engineer” is the most in-demand new job with over 7,000 roles listed from June 2022 to June 2023, according to Workyard.

Now, having used many different AI software, I feel confident in saying that the skill ceiling for Midjourney is significantly lower than the likes of ChatGPT. Nevertheless, most people do not use text-to-image AI particularly well, just typing basic prompts and hoping to get lucky. You can improve this with various parameters, but where photographers and videographers have the advantage is using our expertise in the prompt.

Cameras and Lenses

Firstly, it has been proven that including cameras in your prompts can affect quality. It isn’t known how many images Midjourney has been trained on, but the general consensus is that it’s comfortably in the billions. When you include a camera in your prompt, it will likely find images taken with that camera (among many other images). In fact, some people found that simply adding H6D to the end of a prompt could yield higher-quality results. I suspect many doing this don’t even know that it refers to the $33,000 Hasselblad H6D medium format DSLR.

In my experience, which modern camera you choose doesn’t affect the final result all that much in terms of quality, though the sensor size of the camera does often affect depth of field. For example, the below images were identical prompts with the results varied only by camera; one was the Hasselblad H6D and one was the Fujifilm X100V. That is, one is a medium format sensor and one is an APS-C sensor.

What’s important here is not that the lighting changed, or some elements, or even the model — they’re par for the course when you regenerate. What’s interesting here is the depth of field. The background of the X100V image is far closer to focus than the medium format — this is accurate, and as photographers, we understand why this happened. So, using a combination of aperture and the camera, we can dictate the depth of field.

Settings

As I mentioned above, the aperture can be used to affect the depth of field of an image, just as it does in real life. If you want a narrow depth of field in your image, you want Midjourney trawling fast apertures. Although it is far from an exact science — primarily because Midjourney has no way of gauging the distance of the subject from the camera in the reference images — the results will be in the right direction at least. Below are two prompts for a headshot on the street, one I included f/1.4 in the prompt, and the other I included f/11 in the prompt instead.

You can see from the people on the left of the frame how much the aperture impacts the image, and you can see more extreme examples that this. Remember though, your words affect the depth of field too.

Terminology

So, words — rather expectedly — play a massive role and often overpower the settings you use in your prompt if they are at odds with one another (for example, a “cinematic headshot” at “f/18” isn’t going to give you a headshot with everything in focus.) If you type “snapshot of a man on the street” your depth of field will likely be wildly different to “editorial headshot of a man on the street.” Below are the results for exactly those two prompts.

What’s more, you don’t have to use photography terms logically for them to work well. One example would be “macro photography” added to any prompt that has nothing to do with macro photography. Those two words will often cause your results to have a narrow depth of field and a generally cinematic look. The below examples show just how much the term “macro photography” can improve the results.

Lighting

As every photographer and videographer knows, light is the be-all and end-all of our crafts. So, put that to work in Midjourney too. The average person doesn’t know lighting styles, but you can control the lighting in Midjourney by using them. As with every tip, remember Midjourney isn’t a simulator, and you’ll sometimes miss your target, but with some experimentation, you can control the output and look of generated images.

It wildly overcooked the eyes, but you can see how impactful it can be when you dictate the lighting.

Miscellaneous Tips

Remember, there is a lot of what will seem like randomness in the results, but really, we just don’t know all the interactions or Midjourney’s source material. Here are some photography-centric tips:

• Midjourney can replicate film stocks quite well, so use them for a certain aesthetic
• “Tilt-shift” sometimes works, but it often chooses a high point of view
• “Color grading” tends to shoot for complementary and bold colors
• “HDR” does exactly what HDR does most of the time
• “Cinematic” often results in darker, low-key images
• “8K” — lots of people add this to the end of prompts, but it causes the results to look fake and CGI in my experience
• Obscure photography types such as “pinhole” or “infrared” often work well
• Unusual lenses can work too if they’re well known enough, such as Lensbaby
• “Low-key” and “high-key” do exactly what you’d hope
• You can dictate the angle of the shot with “low-angle” or even “drone”
• Not including something, such as lighting, doesn’t mean “no lighting”, it means “Midjourney, pick the lighting based on what I’ve said in this prompt”

The Ethical Elephant

I put some thought into whether I would add this section, but at this point, it’s a widely known functionality of Midjourney and other AI image generators, so I will address it. However, I have decided not to include any example images.

The “in the style of” component to prompts is arguably the most powerful influence on the look of the final image. This can be used ethically and to great effect, as I have shown above, with the likes of “in the style of a National Geographic photograph” or “in the style of a Vogue cover”, but by getting more specific, you tread on ethically difficult ground. For example, you could add to your prompt, “in the style of Annie Leibowitz,” and it will get you closer to her aesthetic. If you combine this with other details — which I am not going to provide — you can get to an image that I’m confident I could fool people into thinking is hers. These sorts of prompts make me uncomfortable, whether you’re referencing a photographer, an artist, or a DoP. This is also one thread to an entire rope of copyright issues surrounding AI image generation.

Final Thoughts

AI is a mixed bag for photographers; it’s powerful, valuable, and revolutionary, but it’s also scary, damaging, and legally uncharted. I resolved to practice using AI of all forms as part of my skill set, and while that is helping me in many ways, it’s also making me aware of where photographers are vulnerable. This is something that is spoken about regularly, so I thought I’d balance the scales a little with some of the advantages us ‘togs have with text-to-image generators such as Midjourney.

The Olana Partnership, in collaboration with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, presents Terraforming: Olana’s Historic Photography Collection Unearthed at Olana State Historic Site. Inspired by Olana’s significant collection of nearly 2,000 19th century international photographic prints, artist and guest curator David Hartt brings Terraforming, a selection of Frederic Church’s little-known photography collection, to reflect on the ways in which human culture and activity shape the land; eroding the boundary between human construction and the natural world just as Frederic Church did while creating the 250-acre earthwork that is Olana. This exhibition will also explore what this global photographic collection tells us about Church’s painting practice, travels, and ways of knowing and collecting the world. Terraforming includes historically significant works by photographers including Eadweard Muybridge, William James Stillman, and Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay, as well as new site-specific work by David Hartt.

BOCA RATON, FL (August 17, 2023) — Lana Davis Photography, a flourishing name in the realm of high-quality food and beverage photography, is pleased to announce its membership with the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. This strategic affiliation marks a significant step for Lana Davis Photography in fortifying its presence within the local business community and enhancing its artistic contributions to the culinary sector.

Renowned for her exceptional skill in capturing the essence of gastronomic delights, Lana Davis has consistently demonstrated an innate ability to transform food and beverage imagery into captivating visual narratives. Her dedication to detail and design innovation has led to collaborations with culinary establishments, marketing professionals, and hospitality ventures seeking to showcase their creations in the most creative and tantalizing manner.

Lana Davis, the visionary photographer behind the eponymous brand, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership: “Joining the Boca Chamber is an exciting new stride. I look forward to fostering meaningful connections with marketing professionals and engaging in collaborations that help culinary businesses draw attention to their offerings. My aim is to contribute to the promotion of Boca Raton’s culinary scene and its broader economic vitality.”

The Boca Chamber serves as a dynamic platform for businesses to thrive through networking, advocacy, and community engagement. The alliance with Lana Davis Photography exemplifies the Chamber’s commitment to supporting enterprises that bring a unique and artistic perspective to our local marketplace.

Visually translating the artistry of food and beverages is a remarkable asset to our community. We believe that Lana Davis Photography will play an integral role in our collective efforts to showcase South Palm Beach County’s culinary excellence.

Lana Davis Photography’s membership in the Boca Chamber signifies a collaborative venture dedicated to fostering creative enrichment in the marketing industry. As Lana Davis embarks on this new chapter of engagement, it is poised to elevate the art of gastronomic and commercial photography and contribute to the visual narrative of South Florida’s thriving culinary landscape.

For media inquiries or further information, please contact:

Lana Davis Photography
Phone: (561) 542-3275
Email: lana.m.davis@gmail.com
Website: www.lanadavisphotography.com

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – For the past 15 years, Clinton Lewis has been documenting life on campus at Western Kentucky University as the official staff photographer. If you’ve seen photos of campus life over the past few years, odds are that it was taken by Lewis.

Tasked with capturing and preserving unique moments in time, his photographs stand as historical records for the university.

To honor his extensive body of work and service to the WKU community, the Kentucky Museum is honoring Lewis’ work with an exhibition called “The Lewis Lens.”

“He’s been there for 15 years and what a great time to celebrate why he’s such an important voice and conduit for everything that has to do with WKU. He’s an amazing talent that’s long overdue in celebrating,” said Director of the Kentucky Museum Brent Bjorkman.

His photographs offer honest glimpses into the lives of the people on the university’s campus and beyond.

“I really took the ethics and the core of photojournalism that life unscripted is the best way to tell a story. That’s the way I prefer to take pictures and I think that tells the most genuine, authentic stories,” Lewis said.

The visual stories that he tells provide a modern historical record of college life.

“I like to think of my job as part as National Geographic photographer for the university, and part historian, visual historian, and part you know just really telling the story of WKU in a visual manner,” Lewis said.

His passion for photojournalism started when he was a student at Bowling Green High School where he met a photojournalism major who was working as a volunteer lab tech. It was from there he decided that he would study Photojournalism at WKU and make it his career.

Lewis went on to work for 8 years for the Bowling Green Daily News before taking the job at the university.

He also combines his passion for photography with an equal passion for outdoor adventures.

“Trail running, road and gravel cycling share equal passions with photography and they overlap but it also brings me balance. Just anything to disconnect from the hectic world and find solace in the natural world,” Lewis said.

The retrospective exhibit was the idea of Lewis’ wife who presented the idea to the Kentucky Museum. It was up to Clinton to go through his entire body of work to choose the 65 photographs that would be on display. This process took him around 4 months of consultation with his peers and other professionals.

“We average so many pictures every academic year, well over 100,000 a year and so after 15 years that adds up to a lot of editing,” he said.

He says that seeing his work displayed in the gallery on the campus where he works and loves gave him an overwhelming sense of pride.

“Definitely a high point in the career to have a full gallery in the Kentucky Museum. Just a gallery for sure anywhere is a highlight for any artist or photographer but one here that’s on the campus of a place that I work and love is even more special,” he said.

The Lewis Lens will be on display at the Kentucky Museum for everyone to enjoy. Admission to the museum is free and they are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Copyright 2023 WBKO. All rights reserved.

… a few people have asked which of my photos I hang on my walls at home and the second photo in last night’s missive was one of them and the photo above of an Osprey lifting off from a branch in Lake Pleasant is another one … it is 48″ x 24″ and is in a permanent frame on a dining room wall which allows me to swap it out for other photos when I feel like a change. All total I usually have a dozen or so photographs on my wall in addition to the paintings that are up. I also have a wall that is dedicated to the photographic art by friends of mine and who’s work I admire.

The photo below was taken from the back deck of a friend’s home above the Pepperdine campus in Malibu where I will be doing a show in September … I love that place. Above the peaks on the left of the image you can see the shoreline of Santa Monica and the homes on the shore close in are on some insanely expensive beach front property … then there is the ocean and the knowledge that far over the horizon there is another land and more people … all of us on this little planet … our self-contained spaceship hurtling through space with no input or guidance from us. About the only thing we can exercise control over is ourselves and sometimes we do not do a very good job of that, but when we do, life is very good.

This evening I was introduced to some very fine cookies that are made and distributed by my friend Eric’s daughter. They are absolutely amazing and fair warning, they are addictive! The company is called Share Bear Bakes … click to go to her website.

My friend, Kathryn Lee is doing a free webinar on content creation for your website this Saturday. She does great work and I think you’ll enjoy … and my friend Tom Filsinger will be giving a live presentation at the Sedona Library, VOC branch this Friday on The Psychology of Creativity. between 1PM and 2:30 PM in the Javelina Room.

Into the weekend for me and the plan is to be back Monday morning. Have beautiful days, smile and choose to find joy in each day you are here. Be kind.

Ted

Though changed as are my songs from youth,
A voice within my heart still sings.
“Live thou in tenderness and truth,
And love mankind instead of things.”
And often in the crowded mart,
With wrangling. selfish slaves of men,
These words like some old song will start,
And bring me to myself again.

Often In The Crowded Mart by Max Ehrmann

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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com

In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.

Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses.  By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.

More about Ted Grussing …

These images have been described as the greatest photographic document of Caribbean people in post-war Britain. Hear what creator Vanley Burke himself has to say about his iconic “Rivers of Birminam” photo series.

Vanley Burke is a British Jamaican photographer and artist. “Rivers of Birminam” is a photographic exploration that spans several decades, beginning in the 1960s. The series provides an intimate and honest look into the lives of the Caribbean immigrants who settled in Birmingham during the post-war period.

Through his lens, Burke captures candid moments, portraits, gatherings, and community events, effectively creating a visual narrative that preserves the heritage and identity of this community.

Burke’s collection of 100 black and white photographs chronicling 40 years of Caribbean heritage in Birmingham, was acquired by Birmingham Museums Trust in 2017.

For this video, he selected and talked about some of the “Rivers of Birminam” photographs. Vanley Burke talked to Katie Morton, Exhibition Team Leader at Birmingham Museums Trust at the Museum Collection Centre. The “Blood & Fire: Our Journey Through Vanley Burke’s History” exhibition can be seen at the Soho House museum visitor center on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until November 4, 2023. The open times are 11 am until 4 pm.

Images and archival material from his personal collection will take visitors on a journey through the artist’s history and the Black British experience. The exhibition is free, and donations are welcomed.