Reflections, and Thoughts from a Creative Technologist Living in Japan
Hold on to the fire that fuels your passion—even when the demons of doubt tug to pull you back.
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein
I’ve always had images and illustrations in my head, it’s just how I see the world. But drawing share-worthy illustrations takes time, and I often want a visual to go with a thought, either for my personal journal or even for my blog.
We’re now at a point where I can do a quick sketch on paper, take a photo, upload it to ChatGPT, and it will draw it for me. Maybe I’m overly excited, but I LOVE THIS.
Yesterday I was talking to my designer friend Henry about how this feature can elevate visual communication, especially for presentations and content creation. To show him, I grabbed a pen, sketched out a rough idea, and uploaded it directly from my phone while we were talking.
A drew a very rough stick figure with a bow, aiming an arrow at a target. Basic but clear. I then took a photo of the drawing with my phone, uploaded to ChatGPT and entered the prompt below;
Initial rough sketch.
Prompt #1: “Create a minimalist illustration of this drawing showing a person shooting an arrow from a bow at a target.”
Which gave me a pretty clean version of my rough sketch. I think ChatGPT did an awesome job of creating a clean, simple, black-and-white line illustration.
Simple shapes. Clean composition. The sketch was transformed into something presentable for a concept slide or UX wireframe.
I then added one more simple prompt to get a more polished graphic visual.
Prompt #2: “Ok, now make this a creative design graphic.”
Result: It elevated the idea with style—flat design, warm colors, bold shapes. The archer became a stylized figure. The target popped. The whole piece looked like it belonged in a polished brand presentation or digital publication.
This wasn’t about making perfect art, and the sky is the limit for what you can do with this workflow. It was about expressing an idea fast—and clearly.
This kind of flow helps: • Designers ideate and iterate faster, think thumbnails to draft outlines. • Executives or sales teams who need visuals for their presentations. • Writers and marketers create quick visuals to pair with messaging. • Developers or PMs translate whiteboard sketches into diagrams. • Educators and speakers visualize their teaching points on the fly.
Even something like: “Turn this sketch into a Mermaid diagram.” …or “Convert this to a UI wireframe with callouts.” is totally doable with the right follow-up prompt.
While an artist could do much more here, you don’t need to be an artist to think visually. You just need the right tools to bridge your imagination and output.
Rough Sketch it. Snap it. Prompt it. Polish it. Use it.
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
Leica recently released a limited edition (only 250 available worldwide) Leica M Edition 70 film camera that includes a 50mm Summicron APO f/2 lens, a Leicavit fast winder, and a matching silver film canister with film. Leica M Edition 70 Now Shipping
Screenshot above is from Leicarumors.com – source link above to the article.
I will most likely never own such a masterpiece, but I’m grateful limited special edition cameras like this exist—no matter their cost. It reminds me someone is still dedicated to the craft of photography and the gear we love, and it reminds the rest of us to never stop dreaming of owning such things.
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
The body accumulates time, but it doesn’t let it out. — Ishiuchi Miyako, Photographer
I love this quote from a recent documentary I watched:
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
#quotes #photography #philosophy
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” — Stephen Hawking
The irony about “wisdom” with age, is that you question what you think you know more than ever.
Sometimes what we know blocks us from being open to the idea that we might be wrong about what we know…
…and that quiet resistance can keep us from seeing the obvious, the new, or even the truth hiding in plain sight.
So, I guess I’m say, the older I get, the less I think I know.
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
Creativity may begin in a box, but the best creators learn to fold down the sides.—TheTEKnologist.com
Creativity might start in a box, but the best creators know how to break down those walls. Sometimes the world seems round, but other times it feels like we're all stuck in a square, trying to fit in. We hear “think outside the box” a lot, but let's be real: most of us are working within limits we can't change. The trick is learning to make that box work for us.
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. —Francis Bacon
I have a thing for odd numbers, even a little OCD. They’re just more interesting—unbalanced, a little unpredictable.
Odd numbers are the system’s way of embracing controlled chaos. They introduce asymmetry—just enough to make things resilient, interesting, or memorable. Like a glitch that makes the pattern more real.
There’s beauty in things that don’t quite resolve and things that do, oddly, and I love that. :)
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest. ✌️
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
Technology alone doesn’t drive progress — people + tech do. I think hard-earned human wisdom paired with intelligent tools like AI will be unstoppable. —The TEKnologist
For years, technology favored the fast, the young, the fluent.
But everything is changing.
With the rise of AI, the playing field is shifting.
The advantage isn’t in knowing the tools—it’s in knowing what matters.
Life experience. Perspective. Judgment.
These aren’t soft skills anymore — when combined with AI, they’re superpowers.
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
#ai #technology #thinkingoutloud
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. — John Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.
Are we drawing the lines that define us, or are they drawing us?
A reflection on art creation, constraint, and the spaces we inhabit.
Click to View more from my AIArt Gallery
As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️
#creativity #reflection #thinkingoutloud
Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and AI advocate living in Japan.
Sharing my reflections and thoughts on photography, philosophy, and technology.