DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

Why I’m Learning Photography In The Age Of Gen AI

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We live in a world where smartphones can capture amazing images. And if that’s too much hassle, you can just generate something with a prompt. Any yet, I’ve chosen to start learning photography in the age of Gen AI – and I’m loving it.

I’ve always admired photographers. It’s probably because I can’t draw or paint, so it’s the one form of visual art that seemed more accessible. That includes the people I’ve worked with and that were able to make me look good (normally with a crash helmet on), along with the more famous and notable names.

And having recently gained access to a DLSR thanks to some great funding for Peterborough STEM Festival equipment, I’ve become fascinated by shutter speeds, ISO settings and post-processing. Even if I’m very much an enthusiastic beginner.

Why I'm Learning Photography In The Age Of Gen AI - photo of squirrels
Why I’m Learning Photography In The Age Of Gen AI

There are lots of things I know are wrong with the photo above of some squirrels chasing each other. It’s not the right lens, the shutter speed is wrong, there’s not enough contrast, and lots more. I could have generated something using AI which looked similar or better, or used it to make improvements rather than messing around with image editing software.

But that’s not the point.

Taking photos at STEM Festival or out on walks means I have a reason to get out of the house, and gives me a reason to chat to more people while I’m out and about. I even have my own virtual photo assistance from friends online, especially one of my oldest mates. And we’re planning some photo days out in the near future. Unlike AI, he’s less prone to hallucinations unless it’s after a couple of pints.

What may look like an average photo of squirrels to you is a reminder of a pleasant afternoon walk with my partner Liz, chatting and hanging out in a peaceful churchyard on a sunny Autumn day. And capturing an image of animals she always enjoys seeing.

It’s something that I spotted and patiently waited to try and photograph. And the fact that I managed to capture a moment in time (alongside several shots of a tree missing some squirrels), gives me a sense of personal satisfaction.

And if I do ever need to use Gen AI for anything photo-related, knowing the basics of real photography will help me prompt better results.

Buildings are slightly easier to photograph, as they don't move so quickly...
Buildings are slightly easier to photograph, as they don’t move so quickly…

I don’t plan on switching careers to become a professional photographer, or building a following on social media or Youtube. Some of my passions and hobbies have become work over the years, and while it’s a great way to earn some or all of my living, it’s nice to have something that’s just for me. If I take a picture I like or that’s interesting, I’ll share it just to put it out into the world. But I’m not worried about likes or follows – I just love capturing things that I find interesting.

It’s not about productivity, efficiency, or batch-processing a week of AI generated social media updates to build my personal brand. It’s just something that makes me happy.

If I feel like I’m boring friends, I might create some anonymous accounts just to share my photos. But I’m not going to start worrying about uploading every day or week, or posting something that hasn’t been tweaked close to perfection.

When I first heard about Vivian Maier, I thought it was a little sad that she never got recognition while alive. But in an age where you can AI generate and edit fake selfies of moments in your life that never happened, all to get likes and follows from people who will never know you, it’s more inspirational than ever.

From Co-founder To Director At DPiP CiC In Just 15 Years

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I’m pleased to share that after a vote at the recent AGM, I’m now officially a Director at Digital People in Peterborough CiC (Community Interest Company) just 15 years after I originally suggested some internet nerds might want to meet up and hang out.

Things have changed a lot since then. Back in October 2010 it was an informal meeting in the pub. Now it’s a CiC with three existing Directors organising Peterborough STEM Festival and multiple related events throughout the year, along with our monthly DPiP meetups. Other local groups have come and gone, funding has become more challenging, and there’s been disruption due to a pandemic amongst other things.

From Co-founder to Director at DPiP CiC in just 15 years
From Co-founder to Director at DPiP CiC in just 15 years

In that time I’ve also moved from Peterborough and back again, watched my son grow from a small STEM Festival attendee to an enthusiastic volunteer, and watched some of the great things being done by the DPiP team of directors and volunteers both in my absence, and during my trips back to volunteer at every festival.

And since coming back to Peterborough I’ve been involved from the sidelines, partly due to other priorities, and also because my partner Liz has been chairperson for a while now, and I didn’t want to undermine her relentless hard work in any way. But I think we’ve found a way for it to work in a good way, and I have some ideas to help ensure it’s a positive step in the future both for DPiP, and for us.

So expect more updates about DPiP, Peterborough STEM Festival, and running a CiC in the future as I dive back into everything.

And now Typepad is shutting down

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It feels a lot like I’m writing a eulogy for the Web 2.0 era at the moment. Some of my more recent posts have been about the closure of Ello, Keen and Tastebuds.fm. And now Typepad is shutting down at the end of the month.

Originally launched in 2003, Typepad was a simple blogging platform, along the lines of Blogger (launched in 1999), and the hosted version of WordPress (also 2005). Launched by Six Apart, it’s currently owned by Endurance International Group, who also own Bluehost, Hostgator, Yoast SEO and lots more.

And now Typepad is shutting down
And now Typepad is shutting down

I’ve never really used Typepad myself, having gone from Blogger in my very early days to self-hosted WordPress. But after finally starting to go back through old posts and archives on my sites in a bit of housekeeping, it’s noticeable how many people I know who used it ‘back in the day’.

And there are a number of people posting that they’ve experienced issues trying to export their content to upload to other platforms at the moment. That’s causing some stress with the deadline of September 30th, 2025 for Typepad to be completely shut.

It’s sad for anyone that loses their archive, and the fact that it adds to the huge amount of link rot on the internet. If you’re using a standard .typepad.com URL, then you won’t be able to redirect it, and even many of the people using custom domains years ago have either let them lapse, or not put any redirects in place (intentionally or not) meaning that anything mentioning those old articles will be broken.

Letting old content disappear is even encouraged as part of pruning sites, reducing crawl budgets etc. And it’s certainly something which can produce benefits for search rankings, but at the same time as someone who values history it’s sad to see somewhere between 30-50% of pages and links disappear over the course of a decade.

I’d always recommend self-hosting any site, as it gives you much more control over the domain and host, especially if you make sure you’re constantly backing up and exporting everything. And it’s pretty cheap – you can always give me a shout for cost-effective solutions.

And if you are pruning old content, you should always try and redirect anything with value to a relevant page/post that will still be operational.

That includes your entire domain if you’ve decided to rebrand etc, otherwise you might find yourname.com becomes a home of casino spam etc. Sometimes hidden amongst legitimate articles, or alternatively just replacing whatever was there before.

It’s also sad to see so many longstanding Web 2.0 era services slowly disappear. Even at the time, a lot of startups didn’t make it past their early months, but in 2025 it feels like many of the social web aspects have disappeared in favour of a tiny number of walled gardens operated by a handful of monolyths, just as in traditional print, film, TV etc. While I’m still hopeful and optimistic about the Fediverse, it feels that if younger internet users are spoonfed everything by the likes of Google, Apple, Meta, ByteDance and xAI, then they’ll never realise the joy of creating and owning your projects, connecting with people outside of closed networks, building and collaborating, and all the stuff that made the internet a fun and inspiring place.