In my opinion, a photograph should generally convey a story or prompt the viewer’s interpretation. My photos strive to contain elements of interest and surprise, contrasts and similarities, and idiosyncrasies amidst colors, textures, and patterns of life. Street photography, to me, goes beyond simply capturing pictures of people and scenes on the street. It involves capturing the essence of the moment, the emotions, the stories, and the culture, which serve as testimonials of time for the future. Street photographers must appreciate the culture, history, and social issues that surround the places and people they photograph.
As a perpetual learner in the field of street photography, I frequently revisit the works of Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose artistry continues to inspire me. I am also deeply influenced by the captivating photographs of Vivian Maier, Fan Ho, and Maciej Dakowicz. Within the Indian context, the enduring works of Raghubir Singh and Raghu Rai serve as perennial sources of inspiration. Currently, I actively follow the works of Vineet Vohra and Prashant Godbole, who inspire me with their contemporary approaches.
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About Goutam Maiti
I am a senior professional in an Indian Edutech Business based in Kolkata, and alongside my career, I have dedicated the past 9 years to practicing visual storytelling as a documentary and street photographer. My focus lies in capturing the lives of people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, aiming to portray their intimate moments and the vibrant essence of street life.
While I initially explored subjects like wildlife and landscapes, it was through street photography that I found true fulfillment. The fleeting and unique moments, the interplay of success and failure, all deeply resonated with me, leading me to realize that this was the path I had been searching for. Through my photography, I am able to express my personal perception of the world and embark on a journey of self-discovery.
I am grateful to have had my work recognized and published by esteemed platforms and publications. These include Nat Geo Daily Dozen, IPA Magazine, Lensculture, Chiiz Magazine, as well as several international street photography platforms such as Street Photography Gallery, Street Photography in the World, Progressive Street, Street Core Photography, and Street in B&W, among others. These accolades serve as motivation for me to continue my photographic journey, capturing moments that tell compelling stories and evoke emotions in those who view them.
You can find Goutam Maiti on the Web :
Copyrights: All the pictures in this post are copyrighted to Goutam Maiti. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
The Eretz Israel Museum Tel Aviv, in collaboration with Nature Photographers Association, opened an exhibition for Israeli nature and wildlife photography on June 21.
The initiative is a biennial photography exhibition and competition founded about a decade ago by the museum. It features presentations by some of Israel’s top photographers who show their work to a professional and independent judging team who vote anonymously.
This year, over 4,000 photographs taken by 410 photographers were submitted to the competition, of which 45 participants were selected. The photographs in the exhibition are divided into ten categories, which showcase the diversity of Israel’s nature.
A photo in Eretz Israel Museum’s 2023 nature photography competition (credit: Noam Kortler)
Who was this year’s photography winner?
Dr. Tom Schlesinger, a researcher at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology and Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, was the 2023 winner.
Other finalists include Noam Kortler and Asaf Amran.
The exhibition is set to run through October 14.
Other exhibits at Eretz Israel Museum
In May, the Eretz Israel Museum opened the Black Life White Art exhibit, overseen by the museum’s chief photography curator Guy Raz. It displays the photography of Raed Bawayah, a Paris-based Palestinian photographer. In Hebrew, the exhibit’s name translates to Black Is Life, White Is Art.
Bawayah’s subjects range from members of the Romani community to Egyptian farmers, Austrian schoolchildren, youngsters in remote Russian villages, Taiwanese fishermen and Colombian ladies of the night.
Another exhibit, called “Local Testimony and World Press Photo,” opened in January. It incorporates images captured by photojournalists in Israel and around the globe during the course of the 12 months prior to the exhibition.
Matthew Kaplan will be exhibiting his Calumet River photography in Hegewisch.
He will showcase “The River Divides / The River Unites” at ARTery_SE Gallery at 13302 S. Baltimore Ave. on Chicago’s far South Side. It will be displayed from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday.
It will feature images from an ongoing project exploring the Calumet River as it flows between Lake Michigan and Lake Calumet through Chicago’s Southeast Side.
“Many people experience the Calumet River, if they encounter it at all, as an annoying obstacle. Usually, while they are stuck at one of its five vehicle crossings, waiting impatiently for a boat to pass,” he said in a newsletter. “Others consider the Calumet River to be a slurry of industrial wastewater, fringed with ever-changing mounds of road salt, as well as heaps of metal scraps on their way to the shredder.”
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It’s also been a site for industry, often dirty industry that impacts surrounding neighborhoods.
“One more view is the Calumet River as a conveniently out-of-the-way place for the city to relocate its problematic industries. Hiding them among the rusting shards of massive steel mills long closed. Far from the eyes and lungs of the city’s more affluent neighborhoods,” he said.
But he sees the Calumet River as a hidden gem.
“Perhaps I’m crazy, but I think the Calumet River, with its spectacular array of bridges and fascinating views of lake boats and barges, is one of our city’s scenic treasures. That’s why I’ve been photographing it for decades,” he said. “Furthermore, I truly believe that Chicago’s working river could be a source of recreational and commercial opportunity for the surrounding community – if only they could find a safe way to access and utilize its isolated shoreline.”
He hopes to inspire people to see the Calumet River in a new light.
“This exhibit will display a number of my photos, mostly taken over the last few years, expressing my love for the Calumet River, and the vistas the busy waterway provides,” he said. “My hope is it might draw people’s attention, and imagination, to the consideration of new possibilities for this maligned and sadly degraded resource.”
ARTery_SE Gallery typically exhibits the world of artists from the Southeast Side.
“As I’m currently a north sider, albeit one who grew up just over the state line in Whiting Indiana, it is both flattering and humbling to be included in their company,” Kaplan said.
For more information, email [email protected], visit @artery_se on Instagram or call 312-857-6139.
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NWI Business Ins and Outs: Maple + Bacon, deli and Divalicious Desserts Bakery & Cafe opening
An amateur astronomer points in the direction of a celestial object under exceptionally dark skies at Cherry Springs State Park in northern Pennsylvania earlier this month.
Wassana Laisukang
COUDERSPORT, Pa. — Up a winding road that cuts through the Allegheny Plateau, hundreds of amateur astronomers in campers and pickups stream into northern Pennsylvania each spring and summer in search of one thing: stars.
It’s something they can’t get enough of in the halo of light pollution that surrounds most cities. By contrast, Cherry Springs State Park, located about 135 miles northwest of Wilkes-Barre,is one of the very few truly dark sky sites in the entire eastern United States.
Twice a year, in June and September, park officials and local astronomy clubs team up to host “star parties” that draw people from as far away as Florida and Wisconsin. For these amateur astronomers, there’s no replacement for the inky-black skies that reveal what they affectionately refer to as “faint fuzzies” — dim and distant galaxies, star clusters and nebulae.
The weather, however, is always a wild card. Only the third and final night of the June event this year, timed to coincide with the new moon, delivers clear skies. Molly Wakeling is betting that will be enough to capture LDN 1262, a wispy nebula in the constellation Cepheus. She’s hoping to photograph it, something that would be impossible from her home in Dayton, Ohio.
Red lamps, used to preserve night vision for observing, are seen on a field at the Cherry Springs Star Party in northern Pennsylvania.
Wassana Laisukang
“I do the objects from the dark skies that are hard for me to do from home,” Wakeling says. A quick glance at a dark sky map makes clear why western Ohio is such a challenge for her, and why Cherry Springs is so inviting, even if it means waiting out clouds and rain.
Digital cameras have changed the game
Wakeling is part of a growing trend among amateur stargazers. Traditionally, “visual astronomers” have simply looked through an eyepiece to view objects that are often thousands — or even millions — of light-years away. In recent years, however, sensitive digital cameras have brought amateur astrophotography into its own. Long and multiple exposures collect much more light than the human eye and can then be “stacked” to assemble extraordinary images, as evidenced by Wakeling’s online gallery.
Eric Roth, a past president of the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg, which organizes the annual star party, says 550 people registered for this year’s event, with another 400 on a waitlist. That tops the previous record set in 2022. He says the switch from visual astronomy to astrophotography is “a big-time change” that seems to have really taken off around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roth considers himself an old-school, through-the-eyepiece “strictly visual astronomer.” But today “it seems like everybody is going now for astrophotography.”
He doesn’t think that is a bad thing. It’s helping pass the amateur astronomy baton to a new generation. “We’re skewing younger than we used to, which is good,” Roth says. He surmises that it’s because the gadgetry of astrophotography appeals more to a younger demographic.
Amateur astronomer Molly Wakeling sets up her telescope and camera equipment to capture an especially faint nebula at the Cherry Springs Star Party in northern Pennsylvania.
Scott Neuman/NPR
Trinna Cuellar, 41, lives in New Jersey and has also recently gotten into astrophotography. She talks about her telescope gear the way some people talk about a prized sports car — citing specs and rattling off lingo.
Cuellar has brought her son, Lev, who is almost 11, to Cherry Springs so he can get his first glimpse of “the galaxy we live in” — the Milky Way, she says.
She was first at Cherry Springs as a child and credits the experience with sparking her interest in astronomy. “My first time here, I think I was 7 or 8 years old,” she says. “We came to see the stars, and I was just blown away.”
A few years ago, at the start of the pandemic, she took the leap into astrophotography.
Skip Bird, a retired science teacher, stands next to his telescope last week at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania.
Scott Neuman/NPR
“I love the creative freedom,” Cuellar says. “There’s a lot of flexibility in how you put together that final image.”
“I can actually create something that kind of resembles a Hubble image,” she says, referencing NASA’s famed Hubble Space Telescope.
An escape from light pollution
While the dark skies of Cherry Springs benefit all amateur astronomers, with filters and other workarounds, astrophotographers can mitigate some of the light pollution issues they experience at home. For visual astronomers such as 69-year-old Wayne Petko, though, dark skies are a must.
That’s why he’s been coming to Cherry Springs from his home in New Jersey for the past quarter-century — and not just for star parties but for new moons throughout the summer, when there’s usually 50 to 100 other enthusiasts on the observing field with him, he says.
Wayne Petko, who lives in New Jersey, has been coming to observe under the exceptionally dark skies at Cherry Springs for a quarter-century.
Scott Neuman/NPR
Petko belongs to the New Jersey Astronomical Association, whose observatory is at a state park situated west of New York City and about 40 milesnorth of Trenton, where “there’s been a gradual upswing in light pollution.”
In fact, Petko’s observation about an upsurge in light pollution is backed by data. A study published earlier this year in the journal Science indicates that on average, the night sky has gotten nearly 10% brighter each year from 2011 to 2022.
That would probably come as no surprise to Stephen Alba, who lives “15 minutes from Newark Airport,” where the stars are hidden by a hazy glow. He, his wife and young son arrived at the Cherry Springs party without a truck full of complicated astronomy gear — just a simple pair of binoculars.
“We want to see the Milky Way,” Alba says, smiling. “We’re just here to experience it.”
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
The theme for the fifth round of the Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) competition was ‘Water’, and once again, we were impressed by the interpretation of the brief and the wide variety of images submitted. We are delighted to announce that the following images will be added to our shortlist to be judged by our illustrious panel of judges at the end of the year.
One of these ten shortlisted images has also been selected as the round winner, with the photographer being awarded a voucher from MPB worth £500 – scroll down to find out who.
CJPOTY May 2023 ‘Water’ shortlisted images
Sara Jazbar
Sara has two very different images shortlisted in this round. We love how this image captures above and below the water line as the swimmer approaches the lane’s end. It conveys that feeling of being in a pool perfectly. It’s great to know that she captured the image using the GoPro Hero10 that she bought from MPB with the voucher she won in a previous round!
Sara’s second shortlisted image is one of those shots that many photographers aspire to capture, the moment a kingfisher emerges from the water after a dive. On this occasion, the bird’s beak is empty, reminding us that not every dive for food is successful. Sara’s exposure and focus are perfect, and we can see every detail in the feathers as well as the splash, while the background is blurred beautifully.
Jules Renahan
Jules tells us that this is one of the many stunning waterfalls in UNESCO world heritage site, Plitvice Lakes, Croatia. She photographed it at the perfect time of year and day using her Nikon Z6 and Nikkor 24 -200mm f/4-6.3 lens. We love that the leaves on the trees are turning red while the sun is low in the sky and brings out their colour.
Jules’ composition works very well, there’s a sense of peeping down through the trees to the beautifully blurred water.
Helen Trust
Jokulsarlon Glacier, South Iceland, is a popular location, but Helen has captured it particularly well with her Canon EOS 5D Mark III. The ice in the foreground is shaped a little like a boat and appears to be pushing through the sea, while the foam of the receding wave creates attractive patterns on the black sand.
Janina Wilde
Janina tells us that this is a multiple-image composition of the fountain at RHS Wisley. The background is soft because of the extremely cold, frosty conditions and the fact that Janina used a Lensbaby Velvet 56 lens (on a Canon EOS 80D). We love the muted tones and painterly effect.
Cliff Spooner
Cliff has two images shortlisted in this round. In this image, he’s captured the sea’s power, with the foolhardy people at the centre of the frame adding a sense of scale.
Cliff’s careful composition of the lines and contrasting colours at the corner of a swimming pool caught our eyes. His image has an Art Deco look to it. It’s, in essence, a very simple image, but the lines are perfectly straight, and the balance between the blue and the yellow is well-judged.
Angela Harrod
We saw several images of reflections in this round, but Angela’s was our favourite. The colourful boats contrast nicely with the blue water, and the long masks emphasize the ripples in the water.
Christine Holt
We spent quite a bit of time looking at this image, even debating whether it was created using AI, and if it’s more of a wildlife image than a water image. But as Christine points out, if you take a look at the waterline around the whale, you’ll notice some nozzles. Yes, it’s a fountain rather than a live whale. Nevertheless, the timing of this shot is excellent as the inclusion of the ‘plane adds to the sense of drama and scale.
Carmen Drake
There’s a lovely symmetry to Carmen’s shot of the River Thames, and her long exposure has delivered super-smooth water with almost mirror-like reflections. Carmen’s timing is also very good as there’s still detail and colour visible in the buildings while the sky and water pack a punch.
CJPOTY May 2023 winner: Christine Holt
Congratulations, Christine, a voucher worth £500 from MPB is heading your way!
Christine’s image joins the other 9 images selected this month and goes onto our shortlist for our panel of VIP judges at the end of the year for the overall prize.
CJPOTY June: Wildlife
There are just a few days left to enter the sixth round of the 2023/24 Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) competition, the theme is ‘Wildlife’. We’re looking forward to seeing images from your wildlife encounters, whether that’s with tiny insects in your back garden or majestic elephants from a safari. The photographs can be taken anywhere and at any time.
This round of our monthly competition is open for submissions until 23:59 BST (00:59 CET and 15:59 PST) on 30th June 2023.
To submit your entry, follow the link to cjpoty or click on the CJPOTY button at the top of any of our website pages. You can submit up to three entries for £2.00 plus payment processing costs (£0.26). Images should be Jpegs at least 1920 pixels along their longest side but no larger than 2MB.
Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year prizes
At the end of the month, the Camera Jabber team will pick one winning image and nine runners-up from the June entries. The photographer of the winning image will receive a voucher from MPB.com to the value of £500 which can be spent on anything from a huge range of kit from the World’s biggest platform for used photographic gear.
All 10 of the selected images will go into our shortlist for the year.
We’ll do this each month in 2023 so that by the end of the year, there will be 120 shortlisted images. These will then go before our fantastic panel of judges who will decide the 1st, 2nd and 3rd-placed images.
The photographer of the first-placed image overall, as decided by the panel of judges , will receive a voucher to the value of £1000 from MPB.com as well as a trophy and the title ‘Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2023‘. The photographers who come second and third will receive vouchers worth £500 and £250, respectively.
About MPB
Founded by Matt Barker in 2011, MPB is the world’s largest platform for used photography and videography kit. MPB has transformed the way people buy, sell and trade equipment, making photography more accessible, affordable and sustainable.
Headquartered in the creative communities of Brighton, Brooklyn and Berlin, the MPB team includes trained camera experts and seasoned photographers and videographers who bring their passion to work every day to deliver outstanding service. Every piece of kit is inspected carefully by product specialists and comes with a six-month warranty to give customers peace of mind that buying used doesn’t mean sacrificing reliability.
Andrew Malcolm with his photo of a Sabre Wasp pictured at the National Botanic Gardens.
WELL done to Andrew Malcolm from Lismore who reached the final 10 in RTE’s wildlife photography competition, Eye on Nature, for his stunning photo titled, ‘Sabre Wasp’ (Rhyssa persuasoria).
Andrew is a photographer and works as a forager who finds and eats healthy, local ingredients that grow in the wild. He lost several trees in his garden to a big storm in 2021. In August 2022 he found an incredible looking insect – called a Sabre wasp (rhyssa persuasoria). Andrew loves taking photos of Waterford wildlife of all sizes from insects to whales and everything in between.
The overall winner of the competition, Daniel Meehan from Murroe in Co Limerick, was revealed on Nationwide recently. Daniel wowed judges with a beautiful photograph of a rabbit licking its paw.
Now in its third year, the competition, in association with RTÉ’s Nationwide, Mooney Goes Wild on RTÉ Radio 1 and the Office of Public Works (OPW), gives wildlife photographers across Ireland the opportunity to showcase their immense talent and showcase Ireland’s biodiversity and the beauty of the natural world around us.
The overall winner, revealed at a ceremony in the National Botanic Gardens, received a trophy and a cash prize of €1,000.
NDMA’s patronized Pakistan Expo on Disaster Risk Reduction will hold painting, short film and photography competitions.
According to the details, themes for all categories are; Pakistan Resilience in National Disasters and Climate Change Impact, Human Induced Disasters, Disaster Risk Reduction and Technology and Better Preparedness Through Innovation.
Students of enrolled in any educational institutions can participate. Minimum age for participants is 18 years.
Top three participants in all categories will be given cash prizes worth 100,000, 75000 and 50,000. Last date for project submission is 8th of next month.
It is pertinent to mention that first-ever Pakistan Expo on Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR-23) will be held from 12-14 of July in Islamabad.
Warren Photographer Sandra Rothenberg won the Female Birds Award of the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards competition with this shot, taken outside Rothenberg’s home, of a female Baltimore oriole collecting horsehair nesting material.
Submitted photo
Sandra Rothenberg spends a lot of time with her birds.
She spends hours outside her Stone Hill Road home enjoying them — watching them, listening to them, and sometimes capturing national award-winning photos of them.
Rothenberg’s image of a female Baltimore oriole surrounded by a wispy veil of horsehair won the Female Birds Prize in the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards.
“I am honored to have been chosen,” Rothenberg said.
The award is icing on the cake. She would enjoy the birds without the recognition.
Orioles are among Rothenberg’s favorites.
“Since I was a little girl they’ve been building nests in our yards here,” she said. “They build these beautiful, pendulous nests that are shaped liked a pear. I’ve been privileged to see them.”
She was in her blind watching the birds come and go, keeping her eye out for a special image.
“I spend a lot of time outside in Warren photographing the beautiful birds,” she said. “Sometimes in May, I spend five hours or more outside.”
One day, an industrious female collected several strands of horsehair — more than the usual haul — for her nest, and Rothenberg was in position to capture the moment.
“It’s unusual,” she said. “Normally, a female oriole comes in and takes one strand of horsehair to build her nest then flies off and weaves it in.”
“This particular female took an entire clump,” Rothenberg said. “She’s entirely surrounded. It was quite comical.”
The nest material did not inhibit the bird’s flight.
“She flew off as easily as could be,” Rothenberg said.
Female birds are not as prized by photographers as their male counterparts that almost always have brighter plumage. The Audubon Society has offered the Female Birds Category to help recognize photographers who capture the females.
Rothenberg wasn’t particularly aiming for a photo of a female. She sent three photos in to the Audubon competition for judging.
She does, however, do her best to keep orioles around.
“I always feed the orioles,” she said. “They love grape jelly.”
She borrows some nest materials from her sister and her horses just up the road to help keep her visitors comfortable.
“There’s lots of horsehair available,” Rothenberg said.
Near the jelly and the horsehair is a spot for Rothenberg to keep watch.
“I have a photography blind,” she said. “It’s a little tiny shed. I have camouflage material hanging down so I can see the birds but they don’t see me. I just stand there for hours and hours taking photos of whatever comes by.”
For the shot of the oriole, Rothenberg used a Sony Alpha 1 mirrorless camera with a 200-600mm zoom lens.
“I keep the aperture wide open,” she said. “It lets in more light so I can have a faster shutter speed.”
The wide open — low — aperture setting results in a shallow depth of field in the photo –the subject is in sharp focus and everything else is blurred. The winning photo has a pleasantly-blurred green background. “I’m shooting up a hill,” Rothenberg said. “The background is green grass. It complements the orange of the birds.”
Warren County is a good place for nature photography. “I feel so lucky to live in such a spectacular natural area,” Rothenberg said.
She has advice — for those looking to take some great pictures of birds or those looking for something to do.
“My advice would be to get outside as often as you can, listen to the birds, watch the birds,” she said. “You learn so much from them. They are so calming and energizing at the same time.”
A new study reveals Cardiff has seen an uptick in photography services, bakeries, and garden centres which have all been identified as the city’s fastest growing businesses between 2017 and 2022.
In particular, the number of businesses specialising in photography grew by 419%, showing that people are increasingly looking for gear that goes beyond what our smartphones are capable of. Also making their mark on the city’s economy, the number of businesses specialising in physical wellbeing has increased by 294% increase, propelling the popularity of fitness through alternative means such as yoga or dance as people look to maintain a healthier quality of life, especially in a post-pandemic world.
Tyl by NatWest, the payments partner supporting UK SMEs and micro businesses, commissioned the Evolving Enterprise Index, showing the fastest growing (Table One) and fastest emerging (Table Two) industries across the UK’s largest cities[1], including Cardiff.
In partnership with Data City, Tyl by NatWest analysed data from Companies House, showing the number of businesses newly opened in Cardiff’s most economically significant industries between 2017 and 2022.
Table One: Cardiff’s fastest-growing enterprises
Sector
Growth rate in new businesses opened (2017-2022)
Photography
419%
Bakeries
340%
Garden Centres
322%
Physical Wellbeing Activities
294%
Hairdressing and Beauty
240%
Financial Management
195%
Travel Agencies
183%
Dry Cleaners
136%
Management Consultancies
101%
Last year, research from Tyl by NatWest revealed that hair salons are some of the most sought-after shop on a ‘perfect high street’, with Cardiff seeing a 240% increase in new hair and beauty salons founded since 2017.
Mike Elliff, CEO of Tyl by NatWest comments:
“This research is a testament to the very best of British business and shows that Cardiff’s SMEs are responding to local demands. Entrepreneurs have had to weather an unprecedented global pandemic, a shifting political landscape and a rapidly transforming hybrid world. Our Evolving Enterprise Index shows that the UK is a thriving climate for new entrepreneurs who have cemented themselves as the epitome of resilience given the challenges of recent years. Whether SMEs are looking to start, scale or grow their business, we are proud of the role Tyl can play in helping them do so. Our index offers valuable insights for SMEs to better understand the unique business blend of their local communities, and which markets they can take advantage of.”
Tyl’s research also spotlights which sectors in Cardiff have gained completely newfound momentum between 2017 and 2022. The emergence of 87 brand new clothing stalls and markets shows entrepreneurs are eager to tackle a competitive fashion industry and make their own statement. Additionally, the founding of 46 new games and toy shops suggests physical outlets with hands-on moments still inspire a sense of wonder among children and nostalgia for parents alike.
Table Two: Cardiff’s fastest emerging enterprises
Sector
No. of newly opened businesses (2017-2022)
Clothing, Textiles, Footwear Stalls and Markets
87
Games and Toy Shops
46
Recreational vehicle parks, trailer parks and camping
32
Bookshops
29
First Level Higher Education
26
Post Graduate Level Higher Education
26
Food and Drink Stalls and Markets
23
According to small business expert, Teresa Heath-Wareing:
“The key to a thriving SME economy is in a wide variety of sectors that will appeal to a diverse range of consumers. It’s reassuring to see the positive outlook for small businesses who take the time to understand their local landscape and business climate.”
She adds, “Small businesses are fighting an uphill price battle against larger organisations. To succeed in such a competitive environment SMEs must embrace the ways they add value to their customers that go beyond the bottom line.”
Tyl’s top tips for SMEs to improve their products and services:
Get to know your customers better
Tailor your product and service offerings to fit the wants and needs of your customers using data. AI tools such as chatbots and predictive analytics can help you make informed business decisions to help grow your customer base. Investing in business analytics is a useful way for SMEs to have an accurate handle on sales, payments, and inventory, often keeping track of everything in one place and at the same time. Features like the Tyl Portal help by providing visibility over transactions, invoices, and settlement history, and can help you find out when the busiest times are in your business. These insights are vital when it comes to refining your business model and gaining an understanding of issues such as staff numbers and what products are flying off the shelves, ultimately helping you maximise your profits.
Embed your business’ purpose in the community
With the role of business increasingly recognised in the fight against the climate crisis and social mobility, showing that you at least consider these factors in your business model is rapidly becoming a minimum expectation for many consumers and investors. However, the real growth and strengthening of customer relationships comes when you go that one step further, showing how your business’ commitment in these areas specifically improves life for the local community.
Diversify your payment methods
Bricks and mortar shops are an important brand building piece for retailers, but consumers want flexibility and choice in how and when they pay. With more ways of taking payments than ever before, like Tap to Pay and Buy Now Pay Later, it’s never been easier to give your customers a payment method that suits their spending habits and gives them more transparency over their finances. Adopt new ways to pay like payment links and QR codes to give your customers the most convenient shopping experience.
Download the full Evolving Enterprise Index report here.
To create the side-by-side images that accompany contributor Allen Murabayashi’s essay below, we asked the six photographers who won 2023 Audubon Photography Awards to describe their photos in a few sentences to someone who can’t see the image. With their permission, we fed their descriptions into a popular AI image generator. The results, shown alongside the originals, are based on this single prompt. — The Editors
In 2012, footage of an endangered Bengal tiger marooned in a lifeboat captivated moviegoers. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi adaptation was clearly fiction, but many viewers didn’t realize that the majority of tiger shots were computer-generated. Hundreds of artists worked for years to create the cutting-edge visual effects.
A decade later, a photographer’s stunning images of an elusive snow leopard near Mount Everest went viral. When media covered the work uncritically, Alpine Mag’s experts revealed some of the images as composites—carefully stitched collages of preexisting photos rather than real moments.
Staged photos, composites, and jaw-dropping digital manipulation aren’t new to photography, especially where wildlife is concerned. Yet these illusions still took human labor and expertise to make convincing. In the past year, “generative” artificial intelligence (AI) technology has dramatically reduced the need for such effort. As a tech entrepreneur in the photo industry and former Audubon Photography Awards (APA) judge, I’ve been stunned at the rapid transformation.
Whatever you can explain in words, publicly available programs can conjure into a visual, whether a realistic image or fantastical artwork. Simply type a prompt, no matter how far-fetched—“snow leopard on Everest” or even “Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Central Park”—and software such as DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney will quickly render a synthetic image in a style or level of detail you specify. Video isn’t far behind.
These systems still have limits of verisimilitude, often producing uncanny and strange effects. To create pictures from words, AI models analyze and learn from millions or billions of captioned images. Some use open-source databases or photos scraped from the internet, while others aren’t transparent about source material. In any case, when these training data are sparse, biased, or insufficiently nuanced—as seems to be the case for many birds—results vary. In my experiments, Midjourney struggled to render the delicately curved beak of the ‘I‘iwi, a threatened honeycreeper in Hawai‘i. With each month, however, generative AI models are improving at creating images and making art, as well as writing articles, songs, recipes, and computer code. These giant steps are forcing many industries to grapple with existential crises.
In photography, seismic technological shifts have long precedent. In the early 2000s, for example, wildlife enthusiasts with DSLR cameras began selling quality images for pennies, upending the careers of full-time stock photographers. Today AI’s growing ability to generate realistic images seemingly threatens wider swaths of the profession. Last year’s Audubon Photography Awards grand prize winner, Jack Zhi, studied the behavior of White-tailed Kites for three years before capturing a perfect midair shot of a father teaching a fledgling to hunt. Now AI trained, in part, on images from photographers like Zhi might produce scenes of hard-to-capture behaviors—and a person scrolling on a phone may not know the difference. Even photo contest juries have already been fooled by AI-generated imagery, and current vetting mechanisms may be insufficient to detect the best attempts.
It’s not just photographers, but also conservationists who must contend with these developments. Photography has long been used to build wonderment of the natural world and to bolster arguments for protecting declining species, addressing habitat decline, and boosting public trust in the reality of climate change.
In the “fake news” era, however, generative AI makes it easier to sow doubt and spread disinformation designed to alter our beliefs and behavior. Ironically, these dynamics may also make it harder to trust remarkable yet real photos. Meme culture fueled by generative AI could further weaponize images by turning complex issues into punch lines. The tendency for generative AI to “hallucinate,” or confidently present a wrong answer, exacerbates these problems.
Even well-intentioned misuse could erode trust: Amnesty International recently faced criticism for using AI-generated images to depict a protest in Colombia—ostensibly protecting activists’ safety but risking the credibility of their cause.
While it’s easy to demonize a technology, AI is also a powerful tool for conservation. In the past decade, scientists have harnessed advances in AI to better protect wildlife. Automated machine-learning programs now comb through camera-trap, drone, and satellite images, as well as audio recordings, to monitor birds around the world, especially in remote areas that few people visit. Predictive models based on such data are helping to proactively combat threats such as poaching. Similarly, generative AI holds the potential to assist conservation causes by spurring innovation. Visuals in particular have the power to enhance our emotional connection to issues in ways words or data alone cannot; this ability is democratized as generative AI tools become available, extending human creativity.
For all these pros and cons, it’s clear that in the short term, AI’s rate of evolution is outpacing legal, ethical, and technological frameworks that might constrain its use and protect society from harm. We don’t want a system that is reliant on experts to detect hallucinations, or what’s real from fake, nor to have to fix a broken technology after it has inflicted harm. Researchers, policymakers, lawyers, and consumers need to seriously and quickly consider negative consequences as these tools proliferate.
But fear not! AI won’t replace photography. Just as I can hardly imagine families forgoing a holiday photo to render one instead, I doubt AI will end our drive to document everyday wildlife moments. Photos capture our experiences; generative AI captures our imagination.
My own experience has reinforced time and again that we can’t predict how technology will evolve, or how society will adopt it. For all the transformation AI may bring, I find it unlikely that it will turn human effort, expertise, and experience into quaint anachronisms. The joy of observing a bird and the effort to trek into the backcountry to capture an exquisite photo remind us of nature’s beauty and necessity. It’s up to humans, not AI, to act accordingly to preserve our world.
This story originally ran in the Summer 2023 issue as “These Birds Are Fakes.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.
