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I found out that my new Canon EOS R8 comes with an iOS program that can connect to the camera, together with live preview with Wi-Fi — greatly simplifying the process of taking self-portraits. Today, I placed the camera on a tripod, and took a series of selfies. It’s all natural light, so the ISO is quite high (ISO 10000), but I post-processed the images with Topaz Photo AI to reduce the noise. I’m quite happy with the results.
Quite happy with the results. Will be doing more in the future!
Yue Minjun 岳敏君
La Liberté Guidant le Peuple 自由引導人民前進
Oil on canvas, 249 x 360 cm
1995
A group of men in dull, identical clothes laugh hysterically, likely in self-mockery. They all bear an uncanny resemblance to the artist Yue Minjun. Some of them stride forward in excitement amid the smoke of gunpowder, while others lie fallen on the ground.
Yue appropriates the composition and title of the French painting Liberty Leading the People (1830). He replaces the background and the valiant Parisians of the revolution with a modern cityscape and a group of absurd ‘laughing men’, giving the work a cynical tone.
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Yue Minjun (born 1962, Daqing) graduated from Heibei Normal University in 1989. He is a major figure of the Cynical Realism movement, known for his iconic ‘laughing man’. This image illustrates the irony and boredom of Chinese society during the rise of consumerism and economic reform in the early 1990s. Yue lives and works in Beijing.
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Liberty Leading the People
La Liberté guidant le peuple
Eugène Delacroix
1830
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M+ is an art museum located in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong. It exhibits twentieth and twenty-first century art encompassing visual art, design and architecture, and moving image. It opened on 12 November 2021.
- Camera: Canon EOS R8
- Lens: Canon RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM
- Location: M+ Museum, 38 Museum Dr, West Kowloon, Hong Kong
- Collection: M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation
- M+ ID: 2012.1321
- Date: 2024-05-28
- Art Copyright: Yue Minjun
- Photo Copyright: 2024 See-ming Lee / SML Photography / SML Universe Limited
- License: Creative Commons Non-Commercial
Yue Minjun 岳敏君, La Liberté Guidant le Peuple 自由引導人民前進, 1995 / M+ Museum in Hong Kong (mplus) / SML.20240528.R8.03830
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu 孫原及彭禹
Old People’s Home 老人院
2007
Electric wheelchairs, fibreglass, silicone, and clothing and accessories
M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation
These thirteen life-like sculptures resemble familiar politicians, admirals, generals, bishops, and dictators. Portrayed as frail seniors, they sit dozing off and drooling in electric wheelchairs. They roll on a slow collision course, crashing into each other like bumper cars. The artists seem to offer a grotesque parody of the world order, determined by only a small group of increasingly senseless leaders, and our continuous cycle of conflict.
The Great Hall of Nymphenburg Palace, also known as the Stone Hall, is crowned by a breathtaking ceiling fresco painted by Johann Baptist Zimmermann, depicting the Olympian heaven. This fresco symbolizes the ruler’s duty to bring and receive peace.
ZIMMERMANN, Johann Baptist
(b. 1680, Wessobrunn, d. 1758, München)
The Nymph, as Symbol of Nymphenburg
1757
Ceiling fresco
Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich
I photographed this great hall with the 24-105. It’s clearly not wide enough — so I made a handheld vertical pano with five full frames. Handheld pano can’t correct nodal points, but I wonder if in the future AI would be able to correct those issues (ha)
- Canon EOS R8
- Canon RF 24-105 f/4L IS USM
Ceiling Fresco at the Great Hall, Nymphenburg Palace (Schloss Nymphenburg), Munich, Germany / SML.20240728.R8.07026-07030.Pano.E1.L1.SQ
I have been experimenting with using my own photography as a source image to influence image generation with Stable Diffusion. seeminglee.com/blog/serenity-ai-purple/
The rationale behind this is straightforward — I have taken lots of photos over the years, but the conditions under which they were taken were not always ideal. Photography is subject to a myriad of influencing factors, and even with a specific vision in mind, nature may not cooperate to allow that vision to be captured perfectly. Similarly, the ideal setting we imagine might simply not exist in reality.
That’s where the power of AI comes in. I’ve discovered its phenomenal ability to materialize the concepts I feed into it. A potential point of contention is that since these images are AI-generated, they might be perceived as the product of AI rather than my own creativity. This viewpoint occasionally arises among those unfamiliar with AI work. I personally disagree, but I’ll reserve that discussion for a separate post.
Considering these images are the fusion of my original photographs and my descriptive text prompts, the notion that they’re devoid of human creative input seems baseless. As such, in my opinion, they are completely entitled to copyright protection.
I plan on experimenting this further, exploring diverse series and themes. My archive is filled with photographs that I find intriguing but seem to be missing that final touch to elevate them. I’m optimistic that by leveraging text prompts, I’ll be able to address these shortcomings and conceive new creations that blend my photography and the power of imaginative prompting.
1-9. Night Serenity 夜之寧
Stable Diffusion with SDXL, using my own photography as source image.
- 50 Steps, DPM++ 2S a Karras
- SDXL Base 1.0, SDXL VAE 1.0
- Automatic1111 Version: v1.6.0
10. 春夜霧朦朧 紫空燦金輝 / 香港中文大學夜之寧 CUHK Night Serenity (60-sec LE) / SML.20130513.6D.06547
- Canon EOS 6D
- Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L
- Manfrotto tripod
- Remote release with Canon TC-80N3
- f/11, 24mm, 60 sec, ISO 100
I spent five days in Helsinki at the end of my month of Europe. I went there, mostly, to see a show of Alexander Aristoteles — someone I met originally from LinkedIn, randomly, because I responded to an equally random post.
Titled “Conversational Semi-Self Portrait,” this show / performance art / idk-what-to-call this is a “thing” where you would sit with Alex to have a conversation on the streets of Helsinki. At the end of it, Alex sets up his analog camera on a tripod in front of you, give you the remote release, and let you take a self portrait of yourself.
I arrived at Narinkkatori Square around 5pm on August 14, 2024 — during the Helsinki Night of the Arts. I saw that Alex already had everything setup, and was talking to a man. I waited patiently and took a few photos while they talked to each other. There was a line.
Alex saw me, and told me that very sadly, his camera was malfunctioning, and must thus end the show early.
“Would you still like to chat anyway?” He asked. I said, “Of course. This sounds like fun.” I offered to let him use my camera to take my photo at the end of our chat.
“But you must press the button. Do you have a remote?” Why, of course I do. The brilliance of modern digital camera is that I could use my phone as a remote. No more release cable, baby!
He reminded me that I could only take ONE photo. One. The age of digital photography meant that one is so hard. I took it. I completed the event as a participant. I processed the photo.
We talked about many things — things that I probably should never write about. I have always enjoyed our conversations. They are always very real.
I tend to avoid talking to people because I tend to say what I think without edits. I learned that I really shouldn’t be doing a lot of that — the right to say anything is sometimes highly discouraged by my logical brain.
Alex would always tell me to just say what I want to say — it’s almost like a dare. It’s hard to believe that when we met for his “thing” that night in Helsinki, it was only the second time I saw him in person. We did have extensive chats on various apps. He is one of the people who have been on the receiving end of my essay-length messages — but who actually read it and answered. I don’t know if you know how rare that is.
Conversational Semi-Self Portrait
Alexander Aristoteles
2024-08-15
Helsinki Nights of the Arts
“Take a seat next to me. Let’s encounter the moment and converse with each other. Before we depart, we’ll share the creation of an analogue photographic portrait of you.”
More info: www.alexanderaristoteles.com/conversational-semiself-port...
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu 孫原及彭禹
Old People’s Home 老人院
2007
Electric wheelchairs, fibreglass, silicone, and clothing and accessories
M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation
These thirteen life-like sculptures resemble familiar politicians, admirals, generals, bishops, and dictators. Portrayed as frail seniors, they sit dozing off and drooling in electric wheelchairs. They roll on a slow collision course, crashing into each other like bumper cars. The artists seem to offer a grotesque parody of the world order, determined by only a small group of increasingly senseless leaders, and our continuous cycle of conflict.
Official Squad Busters merchandise sent to Supercell Super Creators during the game launch.
I received these items as a Super Creator — as the Founder of RoyaleAPI, a strategy site for Clash Royale.
Camera: Canon EOS R8
Lens: Canon RF 24 f/1.8 Macro IS STM
Lightbox: OrangeMonkie Foldio360