09/06/2026
Here’s another composite I created with AI, Adobe Photoshop, and a touch of oil-painting artistry.
For those who are curious: yes, AI is part of this image. But AI doesn't create my vision. I use it as another tool, together with Photoshop, artistic techniques, and my own imagination. Photography has changed dramatically since the days when I worked with film, but the most important part has always remained the same—the person behind the lens and the story they want to tell.
But this image isn't really about AI.
It's about 27 cents a gallon.
Look at that number for a moment.
27 cents.
I remember seeing prices like that, and sometimes I wonder what happened to the world we once knew.
Today, we have phones that are more powerful than the computers that once sent people to the moon. We have cars loaded with sensors and computers. They warn us when we're speeding, tell us when we're getting too close, tell us when we're leaving our lane, and sometimes it feels like the damn car knows more about what we're doing than we do.
Everything has a sensor.
Everything has a computer.
Everything wants our attention.
And now artificial intelligence and robotics are becoming part of almost everything we do.
Don't misunderstand me—I love technology. I'm using technology right now to create images that I could never have imagined creating years ago.
But sometimes I ask myself a simple question:
Has all this technology actually made us happier?
We have more things than ever before, but we also seem to need more money than ever before just to keep up.
We work longer.
We pay more.
We worry more.
And sometimes it feels like we need two or three jobs just to maintain the lifestyle that modern society has convinced us we need.
Back then, you could put a few dollars in your gas tank and drive for miles.
Today, you can spend a small fortune just filling up the tank.
And it's not only gasoline.
Everything seems to cost more.
Yet somehow, we keep chasing the next phone, the next car, the next computer, the next piece of technology.
Maybe we gained convenience, but somewhere along the road, we lost simplicity.
I sometimes think about going back in time.
Not because the past was perfect. It wasn't.
There were plenty of problems.
But people seemed to have more time for one another.
Families sat together.
Neighbors talked.
People helped each other.
Children played outside instead of staring at a screen.
And when you talked to someone, you actually looked them in the eyes.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic.
Maybe I'm remembering the past better than it really was.
But when I see an old photograph with gasoline at 27 cents a gallon, it makes me stop and wonder.
What happened to us?
We invented technology to make our lives easier.
But somewhere along the way, technology became part of the reason our lives became so complicated.
Maybe the real question isn't whether technology is good or bad.
Maybe the question is:
Who is controlling whom?
Are we using technology...
or is technology slowly using us?
Because at the end of our lives, I don't think we're going to remember the newest phone we bought.
We won't remember how many sensors were in our car.
We won't remember how fast our computer was.
We'll remember the people we loved.
The conversations we had.
The laughter.
The moments when we were together.
And maybe that's the one thing no technology in the world will ever be able to replace.
Sometimes I wish we could go back—not to live without technology, but to remember how to live without needing so much of it.
27 cents a gallon.
Funny how one old photograph can make you think about an entire lifetime.
Maybe the world didn't become a better place.
Maybe it simply became a faster one.
And I'm not sure faster always means better.
