The Bogo Times Blog

AI has become a big part of photography and video today. Many creatives now use it to clean up photos, fix lighting, remove small flaws, and speed up their editing. Used well, it is a helpful tool. It saves time and can make good work even better. But there is a line we should not cross. Not long ago, a photographer was called out for how he used AI in his edits. The problem was not that he used AI. The problem was the result. The editing changed the subject's face so much that she no longer looked like herself. To many who saw it, it looked like a photo of a completely different person. For the woman in the photo, that is not a small thing. A portrait is meant to show who you are, not turn you into someone else. What made it worse, at least from my point of view, was how the photographer responded. Instead of listening and owning the mistake, he seemed to brush it off. To me, it didn't feel like he took responsibility. And I think that's where trust starts to get lost. In...

Sunstar Editorial Tuesday, September 2, 2014 Photo source: tourism-philippines.com HOW do we measure a city’s success? Cebu’s newest cities—Bogo, Carcar and Naga—are in a good position to face this question squarely, before they have to bear the problems that older and larger cities now face, including floods and heavy traffic. One measurement favored by some local officials is revenue, which tends to increase after a town becomes a city. In his State of the City Address last Monday, Mayor Valdemar Chiong reported that the City of Naga’s revenues grew by P414 million between 2007 and 2013. Bogo and Carcar, which also became cities in 2007, can also report higher revenues since the change. From 2007 to 2012, Bogo’s revenues increased by P178 million, while those of Carcar grew by P215.5 million, according to the audit commission. But sound financial statements aren’t the only measure of a city’s health. Mayor Chiong acknowledged as much, when he said that the City...