You'd be amazed what you can do with a $500 or less DSLR and even a kit lens. Given the context of our conversation, I'd recommend taking the time to learn about the "Exposure Triangle" for photography and get a starter camera and use Manual mode to learn and produce greater and greater images.
Been thinking about the fall colors lately after sitting through this unusually cold winter so here’s something I was looking at that I took a couple years ago
went hiking, starting taking artsy photos with my phone like an idiot, accidentally captured a shot of an airplane flying through the frame. sometimes the picture comes to you. Spoiler
So, I've been experimenting a lot with DeepDream lately. It's a type of AI software that over processes photographs with specific patterns, it's really neat and I've been getting some cool results before Spoiler after Spoiler before Spoiler after Spoiler before Spoiler after Spoiler before Spoiler after Spoiler before Spoiler after Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler
Having a lot of fun with deep dream. Now that I'm getting better with the software I can get into using my own templates to process my photos. My first idea for a template was outer space. NASA publishes many of their photos online, and it's mostly open-source. I took this picture from their site to use as a template Spoiler Now that I had a template, I needed a subject photo. This had always been one of my favorite photographs of mine, and I wanted to combine space with a more terrestrial picture of nature, so this shot was an obvious choice. Spoiler Some cropping + adjusting the settings + tweaking the depth and weight of the new picture, andddd Spoiler
Thanks for your support as always dude. 8) It's a very good question, I'm not really sure to be honest, I've been toiling with that very question for some time now. It is still my photograph, but the AI involvement makes me feel like it departs from photography. Where is the line between photography and graphics design? I'm not sure. but either way, it's cool as hell. I think I'll take some long exposure pictures of the night sky with my dslr. It'll probably make me feel better to know that I own both the template and subject of the pictures I create. I don't want this to be cheap, low hanging computer art y'know?
Dudette & I dig it Let me know how night sky long exposure works out. On my to do list to learn when it warms up
I've done them before, they look pretty decent with a regular tripod, remote shutter and ~20-30 second exposures, but to get the really high quality space shots with 5+ minute exposures, you'll need either an automatic sky tracker or equatorial mount, neither of which come cheap. : ( the stars would be so much easier to shoot if they didn't move around so damn much!