My mother went to the Guildford school of art and encouraged me to paint and draw when I was young. In the seventies I had some photographs published for the Welwyn Hatfield calendar and since then I was concentrating on travel photography.

 

My earliest photo on Flickr is dated 1979. These days Flickr I regularly add photos of buildings (with historical notes where appropriate) clocks which are a niche interest and continue with travel photographs. After 39 years in customer service I retired in 2016 and set about learning new techniques. I became member of Flickr in 2019 and joined the Kreative People group in 2021.

This is primarily a photo-manipulation group and it took me years to master the various programs.

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The starting point for my manipulated artworks is a photograph (mine or creative commons) a collage or AI output. I use Microsoft Paint and Paint Shop Pro in every picture and add special effects with Filter Forge from time to time. Lately I have been using AI as a tool to improve my creativity using the free versions of Dream by Wombo, Deep Dream Generator and NightCafe.

 

In any case I try to influence AI output, correct the errors, put my stamp on it and finish it off with manipulation techniques. Pure AI art, with its cliches and stereotypes, does not interest me. Nor am I overly influenced by other artists on Flickr. In the various art challenges I deliberately try a different approach.