Hello there Mr Russ! First of all I can?t thank you enough for ur comment. Its actually mean a lot to me especially from someone who I truly admire (and I don?t admire lots of people)
I wasn?t lazy lol! ,but my summer classes just started and my psychology class is totally suck most of my time.
About this series! I totally agree with u. as u can see that it?s an elements series and I didn?t even put the ?Air? picture up. Im glad that I have a genuine comment from you and I will keep up to good works. I didn?t take any pictures lately, but I?ll put one of myself portrait up tonight (in case u miss me that much LOL) thank you once again Mr Russ and looking forward to see ur new work soon:)
sounds like you're getting lazy just like me. my warning to you about not keeping in shooting shape is that if you don't practice, it eventually shows up in your work. i know this from sad experience.
i chose this image because nobody has commented on it. i've had a chance to look through your entire portfolio and have been very impressed by some of your work and a little lukewarm on others. "arising from despair" is a brilliant piece that i was absolutely blown by. it is beautifully lit and sensitively executed. "gas mask" and "arabian myth" are creepy enough to give the faint-hearted the willies. there are a few others i quite like as well but i think i'll eventually comment on them individually. as far as this and some of your other heavily manipulated images go, i don't feel they have the same power as your other, 'straight' images. i think what you're trying to do with the manips is stretch yourself and expand your visual horizons by trying out new things. while some of them make for interesting images i'm not sure if they carry as much emotional resonance as your other work. this image for example just feels too 'worked on'. there's a whole lot going on in it but i'm not sure that the story or intent of the image comes through as clearly as it could or simply gets lost in the glitz of the manipulation. it's less a photograph and more an illustration with so many competing visuals that i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be looking at. now i can tell you that i'm still a die-hard film guy who is ever-so-slowly entering the digital age. i barely know anything about photoshop and thus any manipulation takes place in-camera using alternative processes and lighting effects. this may skew my perception of some of your manip work but i guess if i was to suggest anything to you at this stage of your photographic career, it would be to go a little easier on the flashy manipulation stuff and concentrate more on the heart of your work. look for the meaning or the core emotional power in your images and have that as your driving force. whether it's a fashion shot or something more artistic, try to find the truth in each frame you take. now i know that sometimes a picture is just a picture and that's fine. just remember that if trying to find the truth in each picture is the driving force behind what you do i think you and your work can only get better. you've got a lot of talent ethan, the world deserves to see more of it. cheers russ
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