![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Photography-and-AI-2-1024x683.jpg\")
The author of this article working with Elle Jaye at a photo shoot. Photograph by Elle Jaye<\/p>\nBy Casey Rafter<\/p>\n
Water seeped into my clothes as I waded into Dry Creek: I was fully awake, dressed smartly but casually while stepping deeper and deeper into the Rio Linda waterway. Nearby, Sacramento photographer Elle Jaye was wrapping her hand in electrical tape after she\u2019d gouged her palm while setting up on the grassy embankment.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t let the wound stop her from descending into the current to shoot photos.<\/p>\n
An hour and a half later, we were both soaked to the chest.<\/p>\n
Weeks later, I received 66 striking images\u2014looking friendly in some and mysterious in others. But in every single picture, Elle Jaye showed me a perspective of myself that I wouldn\u2019t have been able to capture without her experience and creativity.<\/p>\n
Using a lighting diffuser\u2014which resembles an umbrella\u2014and a variety of lenses, she had led us both waddling in zig zag motions through Dry Creek. Elle Jaye guided my movements until I went from ankle deep to gradually sitting cross legged on the muddy floor of the stream. As she worked, my photographer companion fine-tuned her camera, already knowing she\u2019d only want to make minimal digital edits once dry and warm at home.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s clear users today are finding AI imaging technology more user-friendly and accessible by the minute and, in some cases, more affordable, current bots won\u2019t come up with ideas like plunging into a slough for self-exploration.<\/p>\n
Along those lines, fans of Elle Jaye\u2019s work say that one of her strongest skills is the ability to understand the psychology behind a subject getting photographed. Her way of establishing a connection has yielded widely admired photographs of The Gold Souls, Eli Conley, Drezden and participants in Girls Rock Sacramento.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come to me because we get to have a two-hour therapy session,\u201d Elle Jaye observed. \u201cIt\u2019s the experience of being there with somebody and saying, \u2018I see your vulnerabilities, insecurities, I see your heart in this. We\u2019re going to walk through that to get to that other side.\u2019 And AI can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The author of this article working with Elle Jaye at a photo shoot. Photograph by Elle Jaye<\/p>\n
After graduating from Sacramento State in 2024 with a degree in journalism, freelance photographer Alyssa Branum began working with Comstock\u2019s Magazine and Solving Sacramento. Those experiences, and Branum\u2019s work as visual editor for the State Hornet, ultimately landed her a position as Community Services Specialist and department photographer with the City of Davis. Like Elle Jaye, Branum acknowledges AI tools are available, but approaches implementing any form of AI in her work with skepticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can help, but it\u2019s not the end all, be all,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that there\u2019s a big difference between using AI as a tool to bypass the work or using it as a tool to make your life easier doing the work. Do you have the skills initially versus just using it because you don\u2019t want to do the work?\u201d<\/p>\n
Elle Jaye says she\u2019s seen a shift in her clientele, though the people who have dropped off relied less on her more than 20 years of mastery of photography \u2013 and the creative prowess such experience brings \u2013 and cared more on what kind of deal she could offer them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see the competition yet: Maybe I should,\u201d Elle Jaye mused. \u201cThere are certain customers who were always nickel-and-dime people who were trying to get a discount. Those are the people I\u2019ve seen move away from my customer base.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branum and Elle Jaye think there are certain events and circumstances that may always call for a professional photographer. Elle Jaye doubts that AI will be able to take the kinds of intimate photographs expected at a wedding. Branum notes that live music performances can only be effectively captured with boots on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, I try to cover Aftershock,\u201d Branum explained. \u201cI love being able to showcase that to Sacramento, because it grows every year. With how big the music scene is, I think having whatever coverage we can of those types of situations is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Photography-and-AI-4.jpg\")
A photograph of the Katie Knipp Band recently playing at Harlow\u2019s taken by Phil Kampel<\/p>\n
For almost 20 years, Phil Kampel has been in the eye of Sacramento\u2019s live music storm. Throughout that time, he\u2019s been spotted \u2013 camera in hand \u2013 crouching, ducking and dodging through crowds to get amazing shots. Kampel is known for framing locally iconic images of performers like Katie Knipp, Peter Petty, Jessica Malone and Zenn Vudu.<\/p>\n
Kampel\u2019s approach to AI\u2019s presence in the realm of photography is cautious and a tad dismissive. If there\u2019s a hesitancy to use a professional photographer like himself, Kampel thinks it\u2019s less about the increase in AI, specifically, and more about a general increase in tech availability in the form of smart phone cameras. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople could use AI to improve their photos, but if they\u2019re not artistic to begin with, that\u2019s where I think I separate myself from other people,\u201d Kampel reflected. \u201cThey might be able to adjust the skin tones or isolate their subject from the background\u2026which normally you would do with a wide aperture when you\u2019re shooting\u2026For the most part, they probably won\u2019t be able to find the same combination of composition and use of existing light and balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kampel has noticed a trend that troubles him when it comes to a photo getting altered with AI but having no attribution such an adjustment was made. He said that, over the last 20 years, even without AI, he\u2019s experienced issues with people using his photos without attribution. Those issues get muddier when an image he may have taken gets altered using artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I see something that looks like one of my photos, I\u2019ll generally be able to get into my archives and kind of verify that it actually was one of mine,\u201d Kampel said. \u201cI don\u2019t always feel like I need to be paid for my work, but I do feel like if I let somebody use my photos, I want them to give me credit for having shot that photo. In the long run, that will produce additional business for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kampel is also bothered by the now well-documented toll that AI data centers have on the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill McKibben was interviewed recently<\/a> \u2026 and he was talking about how many different aspects there are that are affecting global warming,\u201d Kampel pointed out. \u201cAnd the data processing centers for AI are energy suckers, and they suck water also, so those are things that are really significant, and I think we\u2019re going in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Elle Jaye, she is continuing to expand her own collaborative portfolio of musical acts. She doesn\u2019t feel threatened by software-based competition, given that people know what spaces she\u2019s worked in and what accomplishments she\u2019s had.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I\u2019m in the music industry, I have my fingers in lots of different little pockets of social spaces,\u201d she acknowledged. \u201cIt may not even necessarily be because I take good pictures. They just want to be adjacent to the people that I\u2019m adjacent to. I\u2019m in a really interesting position, because of where I sit in those circles. AI can\u2019t replace that, or the experience of going into a creek.\u201d<\/p>\n Elle Jaye doesn\u2019t hate AI. Laughing, she recalled submitting her own likeness to an AI prompt and getting back 16 versions of herself \u2013 and being delighted by the results. With tools like that in existence, Elle Jaye speaks confidently that there\u2019s plenty of people who might flock to the technology, but there will still be those who prefer a more analog experience.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot force AI to create something that has to be done in a tactile manner,\u201d Elle Jaye reflected. \u201cWhile it\u2019s very exciting right now, I think we\u2019re going to see a pendulum swing to people wanting something that\u2019s more authentic, genuine and real because (AI) is going to be everywhere. I think that we as humans want to touch grass.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was funded by the City of Sacramento\u2019s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to\u00a0Solving Sacramento<\/a>. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, CapRadio, Hmong Daily News, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer.\u00a0Sign up for our \u201cSac Art Pulse\u201d newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Casey Rafter Water seeped into my clothes as I waded into Dry Creek: I was fully awake,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122,97862,97863],"class_list":{"0":"post-213030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news","11":"tag-sacramento-photographer-elle-jaye","12":"tag-sacramento-photographer-phil-kampel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Photography-and-AI-3.jpg\")
3.\tElle Jaye photographs grammy winning percussionist Robert \u201cSput\u201d Searight (Toto, Snarky Puppy) in a sea of cymbals and drum heads.<\/p>\n