I took photos of random pens I've collected over the years, had AI turn them into museum-worthy product shots, and wrote down why I still have each one

Six Pens

SXSW scattered across downtown Austin this year. The Convention Center is a hole in the ground, Hugh Forrest is gone, and I still didn't buy a badge. Here's what it looked like from the outside.

SXSW 2026: No Badge, No Convention Center, No Problem

In 1996, I met two musical legends in airports on my way to Japan. Armed with the brand-new Casio QV-10—the world's first digital camera with an LCD screen—I captured moments that would sit at 320x240 resolution for nearly 30 years until AI could finally do them justice.

Meeting Elvis Costello and Erick Sermon

AI makes it easy to subtly tweak our photos. When we reference our photo libraries, those images become the memories in our heads. We are in Total Recall territory now.

Love Locks and the Memory We Choose to Keep

Google's new Gemini 3 model takes another leap forward in image generation - creating surprisingly realistic selfies with historical figures.

Nano Banana 2 ... WOWIE WOW WOW

Using AI to breathe life into black and white photographs, transforming historical icons into vivid portraits that bridge past and present.

Photography

Six Pens

SXSW 2026: No Badge, No Convention Center, No Problem

Meeting Elvis Costello and Erick Sermon

Love Locks and the Memory We Choose to Keep

Nano Banana 2 ... WOWIE WOW WOW

Colorizing History with AI