Neighborhood Tree (292/365)

Auto-generated description: A solitary tree stands prominently on a gently sloping grassy hill under a clear sky, captured in black and white.

iPhone shot & processed

My favorite neighborhood tree in B&W. Why not.

I’m seeing the surgeon tomorrow for my all-clear on the thyroid surgery. 🤞🏻

Blog work today on Cliff538.com was just organizing and tidying up the Blog Roll page, plus some CSS tweaks.

Down in Stray Pixels, I tested the Apple Photos A.I. Extend feature. Interesting results. Not very good results, at least on one picture I tested. I won’t use it, since I take multiple pictures at different zooms when I like a subject. I say it’s better to shoot wide and crop in as needed. Plus, the results are poor at best. I’m sure other pictures would do better, and the feature will improve with age, assuredly.

Also, in my testing, it’s much better to “Extend” the original photo first, then process it or apply a filter after. Standard Photoshop technique. You can see in my shots below: I took the original, made it into B&W, then extended it, and you can clearly see the original framing lines in the grass. It’s a very obvious box.

I won’t use the feature; I forgot it existed until people on Masto mentioned it. I thought I’d test it. Not impressed.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

All photos in 48MP RAW • Description below each photo • iPhone 17 Pro Max

Auto-generated description: A solitary tree stands on a gently sloping grassy field under a clear blue sky at sunset or sunrise.
This is the original shot. You can see just a hint of two palm tree fronds in the background on the left side of the frame.
Auto-generated description: A solitary tree stands on a grassy field under a clear blue sky, with some distant trees and small structures in the background.
You then zoom with pinched fingers to whatever framing you want. You can't zoom in very far; it's limited, but it shows you how much will be added.
Auto-generated description: A solitary tree stands on a gently sloping grassy hill under a clear blue sky, with a palm tree visible in the background.
Here are the results. Interesting huh. It made a whole palm tree in the background because of the palm fronds in the original shot. Notice in the grass, not much of a hint of the original photo framing. The new palm tree looks very fake to me (right, because it is fake!).
Auto-generated description: A solitary tree stands prominently on a gently sloping hill under a clear sky in a black and white landscape.
Here I took my processed B&W shot and ran it through Extend to see how it would do. Look at that box in the grass! It clearly shows the original framing. Eek.
Auto-generated description: A lone, large tree stands on a gentle grassy hill with a clear sky in the background, accompanied by a distant palm tree on the left side.
This final shot was the original photo, extended first, then processed to B&W. Noticeably fewer lines in the grass from the original framing. Just proves you should extend the photo first, then process.

iPhone 2026