Back in 2011, I happened upon a pumpkin-covered old pickup just east of Zion National Park. Hoping for a new and improved group of photos, I looked for the same truck again when I was in the area a few weeks ago. While there was a different old pickup in the same place, it was unfortunately pumpkin-less. This is one of the 2011 photos.
I was thinking as I drove about the way southern Utah seems to have so many well-preserved old pickups. I sailed right past the truck below before making an abrupt U-turn. The sign was what had originally caught my eye but the pickup, flat tires and all, made the scene that much more interesting.1 The clouds weren’t too shabby either, and I loved the flourish of blooming chamisa, aka rabbitbrush, as well.2
In New Mexico, many rural mailboxes were long ago replaced with larger structures incorporating locked boxes for multiple households. Somehow the town of Madrid3 managed to hang onto its old mailboxes. I love the skull on the first mailbox, as well as its juxtaposition with the sunny, happy smiley face a bit further down.
On another, only tangentially related note, I began playing around with AI (Artificial Intelligence) image creation back in August.4 The process of creating art using word prompts has been absolutely fascinating. It’s also been extremely gratifying to make new pictures that are not photographic.
I’ve consistently made more día de los muertos images than any other kind. One reason is that AI seems to handle portraits better than many other subjects. The other, main, reason is that I’ve loved día de los muertos imagery for many decades now.5
The word prompt I used for the image above was “old wooden gate to graveyard, sunset in background, intricate dia de muertos sugar skull, hyper realistic.” It took many, many tries to get a few results I liked, which I’ve found to be typical. I might add that AI has almost never generated what I imagined it would, and the image above is a case in point. You can peruse an entire gallery full of other día de los muertos AI images I’ve created here.
I’ve also created other AI imagery, such as the pickup above. I didn’t much like the sky AI generated so I replaced it using Photoshop.6 My word prompt for this one was “side view of old green turquoise rusted pickup truck in a southwestern canyon, photo realistic.” It took even more tries than usual to get AI to come up with something that actually resembled a pickup.
You can see an entire gallery of some of my non día-de-los-muertos AI images here. As always, I’m curious to know what you think.
Happy Halloween!
I was sure the second pickup was in Utah but learned I was wrong when I passed a Welcome-to-Utah sign a few miles further north.
I realize I know only New Mexican words for various natural phenomena in the southwest. For example, what are arroyos called elsewhere? Gulches? Gullies? Washes?
The correct New Mexican pronunciation of this town’s name is MAD-rid. It’s an old coal mining town, now filled with galleries and other establishments designed to part tourists from their hard-earned cash.
There’s been a huge uproar from various corners of the internet about the way AI image creation will ultimately devalue “real” artists’ work, the ethics involved in AI (or lack thereof), and so on. It’s all too reminiscent of the outcry about digital cameras and Photoshop a mere 20 years ago. Now everyone has a digital camera on their phone that automatically applies image edits — some of which, I might add, may very well be AI-powered.
I come by my love of día de muertos imagery honestly, having been born on one of the days during which it’s traditionally celebrated.
I’ve used Photoshop to clean up many of the AI images I’ve created.
so magical and wonderful!!!
Gorgeous images, as usual, Lisa. I'll look at your AI galleries later today. Interestingly, I began fiddling around with AI imagery in August using a new (for me) program which is touted as a replacement for Lightroom. It has a ways to go, but, as I detest Lightroom, I'll stick with the new program plus Photoshop or Elements.