There's just something about sunsets and water that seem to go really well together. Some of the best photos I have taken in my life have been of sunsets over a lake. That's not to say sunrises can't be equally as beautiful. @tattoodjay has made a fine portfolio of amazing sunrise photos.
I remember when I was a kid we took a trip out to "The New England States". At one particular campground, on the shores of Bar Harbor Maine, my dad nearly broke his neck trying to get down to the water in the dark so he could get a shot of the sunrise.
There's just something about sunrises and sunsets that draw us in. Perhaps it is some latent memory of our ancestors worshiping the sky god as it makes the way across the sky. Then again, it's probably just the beautiful colors they give us.
As I mentioned in some of my other posts, a couple of weeks ago we were on the shores of Black Lake in Onaway, Michigan. In addition to catching some awesome shots of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights), I was also able to snag some pretty cool shots of the sunset.
Although the area of the campground we were in was pretty busy, we had some great views the first night of the trip.
Unfortunately, the second night, our neighbors decided to park their boat out in front of their campsite. While technically they have every right to do that, it kind of killed the mood for my sunset shot that evening. Don't get me wrong, the boat does look kind of cool in some of the shots, but you also kind of wonder how nice the shot could have been if it weren't there.
Thank goodness for AI. Thanks to the Google Magic Eraser tool on my Pixel 8 Pro phone, we no longer have to wonder.
Not too bad right?! I know, if you want to knit pick, the water does look a little fake, and if you compare the shoreline between the two photos, it's pretty obvious that there was some editing done, but really, it's pretty dang impressive I think.
As someone who admits to having zero artistic skill, I find this absolutely amazing. Trust me, I have tried to use Photoshop and all of those other tools to touch up or remove objects from photos in the past. Some people are awesome at it. I am not one of those people. Being able to circle the part I want gone and letting the Google AI do its work amazing!
Here's another example of how amazing the Magic Eraser is. It's a bit tough because I actually kind of like this photo. The pontoon boat doesn't bug me too much and the lens flare that I was able to get with my smartphone is quite impressive.
Then we have the edited copy of the photo. Some of the lens flare is still there, but the effect isn't quite as dramatic as it is in the first photo. Again, if you look at the water really closely, you can see some inconsistencies, but for the most part, the result is actually quite amazing.
I was showing this to my dad when I was over the other day and he thought it was pretty cool. He also shared a memory with me of how back in the day there were purists who felt that photos shouldn't be edited. There was a firm belief that what you shoot is what you get whether you messed it up or not.
I wonder what those people think of all the tools that are available to us today.
I was really trying to get the orange on the water in this photo. The neighbors dog was just an added bonus. It was a bit hard for @mrsbozz and I to have a dog so close given the recent loss of ours.
Eventually, I got smart and I ask my wife if she wanted to take a little walk down the road. We moved past our neighbors to a site that was empty with no boats between us and the sunset and I got these last photos.
As I was kneeling down to take these photos I kept thinking to myself "I smell mint". That's when I looked down and I saw this:
I'm not sure if it was naturally occuring, but I found myself in a whole patch of mint. I know that mint is kind of an invasive plant, so it wouldn't shock me if someone was making a mojito and threw the rest of their mint on the ground and then nature took over.
However it got there, I got a good laugh out of the fact that the reason I smelled mint was because I was knee deep in it.
Finally, I wanted to share one of the photos that @mrsbozz took of the sunset on our trip. It turned out really well. She has a Samsung Galaxy S21+ phone if I remember correctly. It does a good job of taking photos, but she doesn't play with all the manual settings like I do on mine.
Have you played around with the Google AI photo editing yet? What do you think of it? Is this the first time you have seen it in action outside of a commercial on TV? Are you impressed?
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
