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Category: photography

February 15, 2026

How to Use AI to Visualize Your Memories

Using generative AI to create images from your life in cartoon form is one way to reflect the essence of a memory, especially when you don’t have a photo. 

I’ve always been a bit obsessed with capturing family photos to document our story.  And I often refer to my photo library as the official record of our lives. More than just the images themselves, the metadata of the ‘where’ and ‘when’ is quite useful.

But the photos we collect may not always live up to the memories we hold onto. 

And this limitation often crops up for me when I sit down to design and print a photo collage card. Sometimes the pictures from yesteryear just aren’t there.

So, I’ve just tried an experiment…

Text-To-Photo Prompts

I decided to generate new images for a photo collage from my memories. No, this is not science fiction. Thanks to the magic of generative AI, I scanned through my memories and turned a few into photos. 

How? Simply through some simple AI text-to-photo prompting.

I didn’t try to create photo-real images. Instead, I decided to visualize my past in cartoon form… as far away from reality as you can get. That way, it’s just the essence of a memory that’s represented. That’s all I wanted.

4 Steps to Bring the Past Back to (Cartoon) Life

So yes, I sat down at my computer and created cartoon scenes from my life to weave into a photo collage.

Here’s how:

  • Design your character prototypes. You can type in the physical characteristics or use a photo as a reference. A partial similarity is all you need to get to. Remember, it’s just a cartoon. I’m going for fun here… not accuracy.
  • Once you’ve got your character blueprints, upload them as your subjects. 
  • Then simply type in a couple sentences from your memory as your prompt.
  • If you happen to have an actual photo from the location of your memory, you can also upload that as part of the ‘scene.’ 

I found this process remarkably easy and successfully generated a variety of fun cartoon scenes from my life to stitch together into a unique photo-collage card.

I used Google Whisk for this first experiment, but there are many other generative AI platforms to use, including Adobe Firefly.

Cartoon Barrett

Let me share a few examples how this all works. First, here’s cartoon Barrett I created. 

This is the blueprint.

Then I got to work reviewing some of my recent trips and thought about a few key moments that weren’t photographed.

Lost in Alaska

I’ve shared photos from our big 2023 hike up the Harding Icefield Trail in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park. But there’s another moment from this excursion.

I accompanied a group of hikers for this challenging trek, but I was a real slow poke. After a couple hours, I was pulling up the rear. Near the top, I realized I had fallen so far behind, there wasn’t a soul in sight. And the trail through the rocky surface had disappeared. Then, there were a few minutes when I was totally alone… and effectively lost. 

I’m on a mountain, next to a glacier, and it’s cold. Now what?

My heart pumped harder. I had no choice but to keep moving. Fortunately, I walked in the correct direction and soon spotted the lead from our group (who was looking for me).  

So, my ‘moment’ was really just for a moment. Still, I hold onto this vivid memory. 

Crashing a New Orleans Parade

During our 2022 vacation to New Orleans, I captured some great street photos. But there was this one amazing scene I walked through that I just couldn’t get a shot from. It all happened too fast. 

We were strolling through the French Quarter, turned a corner to cross a street and crashed into one of those glorious small parades with music and dancing down the avenue. I was literally in the middle of it all, and before I knew it, they were gone.

The lingering memory feels something like this…

The space was much tighter as everyone swarmed around me, but this cartoon does a good job capturing my feeling. 

This represents the great photo in New Orleans I never snapped.

A Wild Turkey Flew into My Car

One of the freakiest driving experiences I ever had was during a spring road trip with my family. I was driving through the countryside, and a wild turkey flew into our car. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t a direct impact. As I tried to veer away, the turkey clipped the passenger’s window and tore off the side mirror. Fortunately, we were all fine (not sure about the turkey).

This is certainly not a moment you’d expect to get a photo from. This representation does plenty justice to the absurdity of it all.

Camera Overboard?

The truth is none of these memories could really have accompanying photos. 

The fact that I can now quickly generate images (however silly) with a few clicks to reflect my experience is quite powerful.

And sometimes, it’s the story behind the story. Like the time I worried I would lose my camera overboard on our cruise while I shot a few timelapses.

This never happened. It’s simply a memory of how I felt. (Now, we’re drilling deep into my head.)

A New Way to Tell Your Story

Whether reconstructing past moments or simply visualizing old feelings, this AI-fueled image creation process is just another way AI is empowering us with new artistic and storytelling skills.

Impressive. Most impressive.

For your consideration.

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January 25, 2026

How Real Is This AI Video If I Created It Using My Own Photos?

This sunrise over Delray Beach is AI generated by Google Veo, but it’s inspired by my own experience on that beach. I also prompted Veo to follow the creative direction from the photos I took. So, is this AI video clip moment real or not? 

Technology has chipped away at the definition of reality. Digital photography and photo editing software provide almost endless adjustment opportunities for creative expression. But now, with AI-powered tools, you can literally reconstruct an entire photo. You can remove distractions and even people. So, what’s real anymore?

For the past few years, I’ve been fighting a certain sense of guilt as I’ve learned to ‘improve’ my photography using AI-fueled enhancements. Sure, my resulting photos are better, but I sometimes worry that they’re no longer the pictures I captured. But I’ve been careful, and I’ve worked hard to keep it real.

Today, I happily use all the AI-powered photo editing tools in Adobe Lightroom, because I make sure my modified pictures are still faithful to the core images. This is essence of my rule book, and I follow it without angst. 

Next comes video.

AI Can Turn Your Photo into a Video
Text-to-video prompting and photo-to-video magic is today’s big creative disruptor. And I know I must face this revolution head on, as it changes everything about the work I’ve been doing for decades.

I’m particularly interested in the generative AI power to to turn a real photo into a video that looks shockingly similar. AI can replicate and then extend the creative elements in your photos into full motion video. Remarkable. (The results are not always perfect, but they’re improving.)

So, I embarked on a little creative exercise. I chose a few silhouette photos I snapped during a sunrise over Delray Beach on our recent Florida vacation and ran them through Google Veo. This process generated 8-second video clips that almost exactly followed the visual elements from my photos. The only exception was Veo created alternate, though similar, people on the beach. (And that’s fine.)

Then I edited the AI video clips together to create this sequence representing my own sunrise experience on that beach.

AI Video Generated from My Photos

As Real as Art Can Be
So, what exactly is this? What have I created here? Well, it’s simultaneously real and not real.

My photos provided enough creative direction for Veo to effectively clone each photo and then extend each moment.

So sure, then it’s easy to call this sequence ‘fake’ as Veo has invented 8 seconds from each frame I gave it.

But these individual scenes faithfully reflect the reality I saw.  They do express the essence of my experience.

So perhaps this entire AI-enabled creative process should fall under the category of art. Yes, maybe that’s what I’m doing here.

No Professional Video Crew Required
I also found it wildly fun that I’m able to generate video clips that would otherwise require me to hire a professional video crew for the day.

In my AI video, the opening shot of the two people walking on the beach… yes, I might be able to capture that with my DJI Osmo 3 gimbal. 

But that closing tracking shot of the paddleboard man surfing? That’s a clear step beyond Barrett’s personal filmmaking chops (for now).

The Limits When Recording Real B-Roll
Of course, I don’t need AI to create video for me. Here’s some actual b-roll I recorded on Delray Beach that same morning with my Osmo.

Real Barrett B-Roll

But while I also like this ‘real’ b-roll, these are necessarily wider shots, limited by the realities I encountered in those moments on the beach. (Shooting b-roll can be an intrusive process. And I didn’t want to mess with people’s sunrise Zen.)

Snapping a photo is quick and usually less invasive. As a result, I think my original silhouette shots had additional visual impact.

Real Barrett Photos

But now, I can also use my new AI tools to express my creative interpretation of these same images into longer scenes. I can build on these moments, magically extending my stills into the video realm. That’s so cool!

But what does this all mean moving forward? Well, I’m not exactly sure. 

A Digital Painting in Motion
I don’t truly understand my little Frankenstein video. Yes, I made it, but what is it? 

  • It’s alive… and yet not 
  • Fabricated, but very close to reality
  • Hard to exactly define, other than an artist’s interpretation

Perhaps I’ll simply call it my digital painting in motion. 

Of course, there are any number of unanswered questions regarding the broader topic of AI-generated video for our society. But I’ll leave that for another day.

For now, I’m pleased that I was able to simply share with you the flow and true ‘spirit’ of my beautiful sunrise experience with a little artistic help from AI. 

And I hope you liked the paintbrush I chose to use.

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January 11, 2026

Family Vacation Activities Near Delray Beach, Florida

From alligators to birds and butterflies in wetlands and nature centers, there’s an abundance of wildlife to safely enjoy (from a distance) when vacationing north of Fort Lauderdale. Here’s what we did.

If you’re planning a Florida vacation in the Delray Beach and Boca Raton area, you might be looking for a few activities to pop into your schedule beyond beach time and browsing the shops on Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue. During our recent Florida visit, my family and I greatly benefited from some local expertise on this front. (Thank you!) 

And so, I thought I’d pay it forward by sharing four of our fun outings.
(I’ve also included a few photos and video clips I captured along the way.)

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
Who knew there’s a century-old connection between Japan and Boca Raton that began with a Japanese agriculture colony? Strolling through these 16 acres of Japanese gardens and exploring the museum exhibits can easily take a few hours. (You can rest up and refuel at the cafe.) It’s all an amazing experience.

Here are some of the serene moments I captured with my DJI Osmo 3 gimbal camera…

Butterfly World
If you want to hang out with 20,000 butterflies in three open-air aviaries, this is the place to go. In addition, Butterfly World, features exotic bird aviaries and exhibits with cool bugs (safely enclosed).

I tried to capture some slow-motion video of butterflies in flight using my Osmo. It’s a lot harder than you’d think, but a few butterflies took pity on me and cooperated with my camera.

Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center
This nature center features a 1.5 mile elevated boardwalk that winds through 100 acres of wetlands. There are birds absolutely everywhere, making this habitat a photographer’s paradise. I passed by people sporting huge lenses on their cameras. One photographer was even rolling around his impossibly massive lens in a little wagon. (He told me he used to work for the NFL.)

Needless to say, I had a bit of lens envy while I walked about. Still, I stayed focused on my own experience and found my own photographic Zen…

Everglades Holiday Park Airboat Tour
For a bit of ‘adventure,’ we headed down to the famous Everglades and Everglades Holiday Park in search of alligators in the wild. And we were not disappointed.

For me, the other highlight was spending time on an actual airboat, which Hollywood has romanticized in TV and movies for decades. 

Airboats are loud (they give you earplugs to wear), and I found it thrilling to experience the ride at full throttle.

All this said, here are a few tips:

  • Choose the private airboat tour option. Yes, it’s more expensive, but being on a smaller airboat without a canopy helps avoids the more traditional ‘tour bus experience.’ And it helps you feel like a private observer in this incredible environment as opposed to an intrusive tourist.
  • Go early. We arrived at 8am, and our airboat was the first one out for the day. We didn’t see or hear any other airboats for the next hour. But when we got back, the docks were teeming with people, and many packed airboats were heading out. That’s just not going to make for the same journey. 
  • You need to wake up early to hit your 8am arrival time, because it takes about an hour to drive to Everglades Holiday Park (west of Fort Lauderdale) from Delray Beach. So, plan your breakfast accordingly.

While we did spot a few alligators, birds were everywhere. Here’s some of the wildlife we saw…

Don’t Forget Your Beach Time
While it’s always great to spend time exploring the surrounding area when you’re on vacation, it’s also nice just to hang out on a Florida beach. And that’s exactly why we chose Delray Beach as our home base.

For me, that means sunrises.

Enough said.

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