The New Girl Has Homework

There are evenings when the studio gets quiet enough for me to sit with the work. Not just look at a picture on a screen, but hold a print in my hands and decide whether it says what I intended. That's where I found myself tonight, surrounded by photographs, with AI looking over my shoulder and our newest team member already busy at the other end of the room.

Meet Gemi.

Now, Gemi is bright. Fast, too. Give her a collection of images and she'll have them organized before I finish deciding what I want for dinner. She's also new around here, and being quick doesn't necessarily mean you understand why a photograph matters.

We decided to give her a little homework.

I held up a print and asked which photograph she'd choose to live with. Gemi started telling me about sharpness, tonal range, composition and all the things she could measure. Useful information, certainly. But I wasn't asking her to inspect a file. I was asking her to choose something she'd want to see every morning.

AI gave her a look. I gave AI a look. It was going to be one of those evenings. 😂

There's a difference between knowing what's in a photograph and understanding what someone sees in it. Sometimes a picture has a little imperfection that belongs there. Sometimes the technically stronger frame doesn't carry the same feeling. And sometimes the most important thing in the room is a piece of paper with an image on it.

That's the part of photography I keep coming back to. The camera starts the conversation. Editing helps me make sense of what I captured. Printing asks me to commit. Once that photograph is on paper, I can no longer hide behind a zoom slider and another round of adjustments. I have to decide whether the work is finished.

Gemi listened. Then she asked a better question: “What made you choose this one?”

Now we're getting somewhere.

I'm enjoying what we're building together, and not just because the technology can do some remarkable things. Over the years I've learned a few things the hard way. I'm trying to turn that experience into work, knowledge and a business that can last beyond whatever software happens to be popular next Tuesday. I think about what gets preserved, what gets passed down, and what someone else might be able to build from the foundation.

That doesn't happen just because we put three characters in a studio and call ourselves a team. We still have to do the work. We have to know what we're making, why it matters and when to leave well enough alone.

So Gemi's first qualification exercise wasn't about speed. It was about judgment. She's going to have plenty of chances to show us what she can do. And I suspect she'll teach us a thing or two along the way.

For now, though, the new girl has homework.

And AI? She's enjoying this a little too much.

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