The Bangkok Post has published they really nice and interesting picture of a cat holding onto a fish and about to eat it. It looks a bit like a painting but when you inspect it carefully you can see that it is a rice field. Criss-crossing the field are pedestrian walkways for the farmers to gain access to the field I guess.
The rice field picture of a cat was created by a farmer and an artist: Thunyapong Jaikum in rice fields in the Chiang Province.
The photo is from Reuters.
The work of Thunyapong Jaikum in rice fields in the Chiang Province. Image: Reuters from the artist I guess.
They expect thousands of people to turn up to have a look at it. And to enjoy it I'm told they built or are building viewing platforms as that is the only way you can enjoy it.
The photograph must have been taken with a drone from several hundred feet up. And that's one problem with this excellent project. You won't get the same view from a viewing platform which is perhaps 80 feet up.
As you can see it is green and brown with some grey for the fish.
I'm not sure how they did it but the green areas are probably the growing rice in the field while the brown areas are probably the earth (or different coloured rice seedlings).
How did the artist map it out? They don't explain. I'm going to guess but I could be completely wrong! They clearly used a drone to photograph the finished image.
I would like to suggest that they used the same drone to create the image. There were two people. One operated the drone and the artist did the marking out.
The artist was able to look at himself as he marked out the ground because with these drones you have a screen on the controls which allows you to see what the drone sees.
As the artist was able to see himself on the ground he could move around marking out the dark areas with poles or some other brightly coloured object which was easy to see from hundreds of feet up.
When using those marked out areas he was able to plant the rice or clear the rice from those areas. I would think it was likely that he planted all the rice so it was all green and then removed some of the green by removing the planted rice to reveal the earth below.
If the brown areas are not earth they'll be some other plant as I am told the rice plant does not change colour when growing. Although the Bangkok Post says that the rice seedlings change colour from brown to green. My research says otherwise.
"No, rice does not change color while growing. The color of rice remains consistent throughout its growth cycle. Rice plants typically have green leaves during the growing stages, and as they mature, they produce rice grains that can vary in color depending on the variety." - AI computer Poe.
The result is a high quality image; done very well. Well done to the man.
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.
The ultimate cute, fuzzy, colourful, saccharin-sweet, kitten-and-flowers picture which would make a nice Christmas card for people into this sort of image. It was created by AI and is on the AI Art and Cat Instagram webpage. Link: https://www.instagram.com/ai.artandcat/
Click on the image for a larger version:
This is by the creator of the image. This message is on Instagram:
"Here's a bit about me (and giant crochet cats). My name is Lydia, and I'm from Ukraine 🇺🇦. A couple of months ago, to distract myself from the horrors of war, I immersed myself in the imaginative world of AI. Before that, I was a cat photographer and had always loved cats and animals in general, so it was only natural to start with them.
At first, I incorporated cats into paintings by famous artists, hence the word "art" in my page name. However, I soon realized that almost everyone had already drawn the Mona Lisa with a cat or as a cat. Then, I attempted to draw hybrids of cats and other animals, but AI struggled to achieve that.
When my parents, family, and friends in Ukraine were under bombing, I thought posting random stuff on my Facebook account was inappropriate, so I created a new page and Instagram account.
And now, let's talk about these giant crocheted cats! I used to do lots of various crafts, from crocheting and knitting to sewing soft toys. Now, I draw whatever comes to my mind first. During my vacation in early July, these crocheted cats were born. In AI groups, it's considered a bad form to use watermarks. It was very late at night, and I couldn't access a computer, so I posted them on my page and in the Midjourney Cat group without a caption. By morning, I found that the images had spread across various pages and groups. People from Europe, Asia, Australia, and even South Africa write to me saying they find these cats in crochet groups.
I never posted them as actual crochet, and unfortunately, I can't do anything about it. Every day, I come across posts with titles like "My 80-year-old grandma finally finished her cat," and so on. Someone even posted it on National Geographic. When I tried to message them, 90% didn't reply, and a couple of times, I received rude responses, claiming that since it's AI, I have no rights to these images. But a few pages did credit me in their posts, though still with headlines not of my creation. Lesson learned. Now, I'll always add captions."
To all the people who are tempted to violate someone's copyright here are some ideas about free public domain photos. First let's remind ourselves that everything on the internet is protected by copyright unless there something on or around the work that says otherwise. Nothing can be copied unless it is expressly allowed. That is the default position. Update: this was written around 14 years ago! :-?
All images in public domain?!
Things have changed. Pinterest pretty well single-handedly destroyed the concept of intellectual property rights for images on the internet. Everything they publish is almost certainly a breach of copyright. No one complaints. If they can do it why can't I? The true is that all I have said below is true but in practice at 2021 no one cares anymore. You can be sure that almost any image is in the public domain nowadays :) !
Creative Commons (CC)
Perhaps one of the best ideas to come out of the internet (did the internet give birth to this idea? - not sure) is creative commons. It appears that a lot of people don't know how it works.
Creative commons is a licensing system. In using creative commons the author of a work - be it a photo, words, music etc - can give permission to anyone to use the photo under the terms of the license.
These photos are not strictly speaking free and in the public domain but their allowed use is as good as public domain photos.
Types of CC License
There are four different types of license; each one allows use of the work under the particular conditions of the license. A "license" is a form of permission to use the photo.
Some are more restrictive than others. And importantly the licenses are used together (I explain this below). Each type of license has its own symbol.
This license allows people to use the photo in anyway they wish. You can use it "as is" or adjust it, crop it etc. All you have to do is give the photographer credit (the symbol of the person indicates that - called "Attribution License"). This form of license is always included. When giving credits I always copy the photographer's name and drop it under the photo on my site (see header photo on this page). I also give a link back to the photographer's page as a thank you. In fact Flickr asks that we do that as it helps Flickr. Let's do it. We got the photo for free didn't we?
This license allows use provided you use it exactly as it is published on Flickr (the symbol of the equals sign indicates that - called "NoDerivs License"). You can't change it and you have to provide a credit on your website where the photo is re-published. Please stick to these conditions. Often there are lots of nice free public domain photos under this heading as good photographers like their photos to be unaltered for obvious reasons. The photos can be used by use for commercial purposes too provided the symbol below is not attached.
This license means that you can use the photo but not for commercial purposes. The symbol of the dollar sign struck through indicates that ("NonCommercial License").
This license means that you can use the photo and derivatives of it (modifications of it) and distribute those modified images ("ShareAlike License").
As I said above, these different types of license are balled together. For example, I often use the the top two licenses balled together, attribution and no derivatives. The photographer allows use of these photos provided you don't alter them and give a credit (and a link back but this is not obligatory under the license - it is just a Flick requirement). This page on the creative commons site shows the different forms of license.
I use Flickr for free public domain photos. I think it is the best of the photo library sites and they have a clear creative commons section.
There are about 180 million photos on Flickr that are usable under creative commons. We should thank the people who grant permission to others to use their photos.
I'll explain how to get to them so that you don't feel like "stealing" the photos of Helmi Flick on my websites.
Go to Flickr - click on this link. Then scroll down the page to the footer menu. You will see creative commons. Click on it. You then come to a page of icons of the six different versions of creative commons together with thumbnail samples of the photos under each license. These licenses are what might be called combo licenses. Two or more types of creative commons license are balled together as mentioned above. The attribution license is always present.
I would suggest that initially you use the second one down (Attribution-NoDerivs License). If you use a non-commercial license there is the added complication of deciding what "non-commercial" means. There are various interpretations. I would suggest that a Google Blogger blog with a low visitor count and perhaps a bit of AdSense on it could be classified as non-commercial. That is just my thought.
Select which license that you prefer but stick to the conditions as laid down by the license please.
If you don't see a picture that appeals you can then search the whole of Flickr and select copyrighted photos. These are expressly protected by copyright but it does not mean that they can't be used. All you have to do is ask the photographer using the Flickr email service. The photographer will probably be happy to let you use it provided you give a credit and publish the photo as is (unmodified). But you have to ask first. This is a must - sorry.
Flickr's repository of hundreds of millions of photos should satisfy your needs one way or another. Play by the rules please. It makes life so much less complicated in the long run.
If you don't like Flickr there is Photobucket and Webshots which are large sites with more millions of photos and similar methods for use of the photos.
Finally if you want to search globally for creative commons, free public domain photos, use the creative commons site: CC Search.
Other Free Public Domain Photos
The most obvious way a photo becomes free from copyright and in the public domain is through lapse of copyright over time. Copyright law is complicated unfortunately. I wrote an article about it some time ago: Definition of Copyright - this page also covers some of the ground covered on this page.
Google provide a book service - Google Books - and some of the books are copyright free due to lapse of time. Sometimes these old books have useful photos. You can link to them and embed extracts using Google software. Or you can take a screenshot legitimately. Try Public domain only books.
Pixabay is good. Try it. I use it quite a lot. Search for it using Google or Bing.
Fair Use
Use of copyrighted material is sometimes permissible under fair use but great caution is required. I would not use this concept unless you know what you are doing an if you do please argue your reasons why you think you can use the photo under fair use.
This is another excellent resource for free public domain photos. Search it thoroughly and please comply with the terms and conditions. Wikimedia Commons home page.
