This is the episode I’ve been avoiding.
Not because I don’t have an opinion about AI — but because I have too many feelings about it. Gratitude. Fear. Anger. Wonder. All tangled together.
AI has become my external brain — a tool that helps me function, organize, even parent. And at the same time, it’s the thing that might end my career.
In this episode, I talk honestly about what Adobe’s new AI tools mean for photographers, artists, and the humans behind the craft. About the moment when “photo editing” turns into “people editing.” And about what we lose when images no longer require someone to be there — to see, to choose, to feel.
Because when everything becomes generated, the rarest thing left might just be the real.
This isn’t a tech breakdown. It’s a gut check.
In This Episode:
- The paradox of AI as both accessibility and threat
- Adobe’s new AI tools and what they mean for photographers
- The difference between CGI in film and AI in photography
- Consent, ethics, and the human line in image manipulation
- The fear of becoming irrelevant — and the deeper truth underneath
- Why the practice of photography still matters more than the product
- How to reclaim your craft in the age of automation
Featured Voices:
A few members of The Terrible Community share how AI makes them feel — not what they think about it.
“AI is lazy… it’s not intelligent, it’s just reflecting us — all our bias, all our noise — and pretending it’s something new.”
Light Leak:
Go make something where the practice is the point.
Shoot something you’ll never post.
Feel the weight of the camera in your hand — that’s what real still feels like.
Because that’s the thing they can’t generate.
That’s the thing they can’t take from you.
Listen If You’ve Ever Thought:
- “AI is helping me — and that scares me.”
- “What’s the point of creating when machines can do it faster?”
- “I’m grateful for this tech… and I hate that I’m grateful.”
- “I miss when photography still felt like something.”
Credits:
Written & Narrated by: Patrick Fore
Produced by: The Terrible Photographer
Community Voicemails: Members of The Terrible List
Music & Sound Design: Blue Dot Sessions
Robots by Flight of the Concords (1-minute)
Connect:
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Office Hours with Patrick
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What is The Terrible Creative?
The Terrible Creative is a storytelling podcast for photographers, designers, and creative professionals working through the parts of the creative process no gear review or business course ever covers.
Each episode is 30 to 40 minutes. Solo. Story-driven. Built around mental health, artistic identity, and what honest work costs in a career rewarding performance over truth.
This is not a photography podcast about cameras, presets, or client strategy. This is a podcast about the inner experience of being a creative professional, made for the mid-career photographer or designer who has mastered the technical side but lost the thread.
Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer, author, and former lead photographer and brand designer for Taylor Guitars. His work has appeared globally for clients like Nike, Petco, and Verizon. He built this show because none of the podcasts he found addressed the real problem.
If you are a photographer or creative professional who feels competent on the outside and quietly lost on the inside, you are a Terrible Creative. This is your podcast.