Hello to all

[LeZart]

After receiving a very welcoming greeting from birdhs shortly after my joining this site and an invitation from him to come sit and chat a spell with like-minded people in this forum, I found I could not resist doing so.

I joined the WC site to hopefully garner some feedback on my newest artistic endeavors and in turn fully expect to repay the favor and participate in the general camaraderie. As many others do, I find my interest strays to a number of different mediums and styles. My first subject matters and photographic approach were very family oriented ones. I did this for a number of years and it has been a glorious time but I finally decided I had a need for something new. At the present time, my focus is own creating art based on digital photography, digital manipulation, and some aspects of digital painting. However, my manipulations are not easily understood, my subject matter is not a family friendly one and my approach can be considered bold and audacious. My first posting at this site were images of this new material and they have been almost exclusively posted in the Figure Forum. Only time will tell how that experiment turns out.

In the meantime - I have decided to also spread my wings a bit and go forward by going backwards, lol. By that I mean, I have decided to post some of my earlier subject matter images.

My earliest really serious experiences with photography started with a Nikon 7900 coolpix pocket camera somewhere in early 2005. I was captivated. The convenience and portability of this camera opened my eyes and creative spirit to the wonders around me that I had seen but not seen - if you get my drift, lol. I became fascinated with bugs (of all things). Having been an outdoorsy type of guy all my life, I was familiar with bugs and not at all put off by them. The little Nikon turned out to be an absolutely perfect tool for getting a much better look at the wondrous diversity, beauty and abundance of life all around me.

I had to overcome some steep learning curves concerning photography basics, digital photography techniques, an array of digital editing programs and everything connected to computers. I even had to develop the skills necessary for me to approach my subjects because most of my bug images were taken within a few inches of said bugs, lol. The resulting pics are close-ups (not macros) of some amazing little critters. It took a few years but interest in the project, more than my fair share of free time and sheer persistence finally produced some results I felt good about.

I have since had a regional arts council sponsor an exhibition of some of my works and I have sold a (very) few images to private book publishers as well as having contributed a lot of images to online educational activities. I have not made much in the way profits but I have managed to defray most of the costs of my exhibition and I am quite pleased with that, lol.

My intention is to post some of my family friendly images in some of the photography forums and see how much (if any) of it will be of interest to others. I have previously posted 2 of my new style images to the manipulated photography forum but I will probably not repeat this subject matter there. I will use the Figure forum for the venue of this aspect of my newest adventure.

After subjecting the readers of this thread to such a long ramble, I feel obligated to offer an image for your considerations. Actually I am posting 2 images – one is a cropped close-up of a Dragonfly and one is the full image of the same. Honest critiques are more than welcome.

So there you have it – what’s your story?

This is the close up.



This is the full photo. I included the previous close-up because (despite what the image up-loader indicated, I am under the impression that images posted at WC are now limited to a size of 500w x 600h and less than 100kb. No one has a slower dial-up connection than I do but I do not feel this size provides a 'good' look at the image.



Lee

[birdhs]

Nice d-flys! I always admire macro shots.

PS: the images may be up to 800 pixels x 800.



Life is good

Greg

[Luv2shoot]

Lee,

Well, welcome to WC. Glad to have you onboard and for taking the time to allow us to get to know you.

I have since had a regional arts council sponsor an exhibition of some of my works and I have sold a (very) few images to private book publishers as well as having contributed a lot of images to online educational activities. I have not made much in the way profits but I have managed to defray most of the costs of my exhibition and I am quite pleased with that, lol.

I love your attitude. There are many good artists here in the Photography forums and many of them have had their work displayed in galleries, shows, and on the web. But no one has boasted of getting rich from it. My payment is when the reactions I get from my images are positive. It just makes my day. But in the same breath, it is important to post and get constructive criticism because there is always room for improvement and I have a long way to go.

It also sounds like you are ready to contribute your reactions to other's works, something that we count on (good or bad).

If you are looking for serious "comments and criticisms" on your photos, post it in the DARKROOM. I really learn a lot there just from looking at other's images and people's reactions to them.

Anyway, hope you will feel comfortable here. It is a great group of photo shutterbuggers. Speaking of BUG, your dragon fly on the finger is nice. I like how the image shows how the wings are see through. Although the pattern in the background is pleasing, it is a bit blown out. Maybe the entire photo could be darkened a little.

Looking forward to seeing more of your images and possibly joining us in the Shutterbug Daily. Take a look at some of the other threads too, like My Favorite Photo, Weekly Scavenger Hunt (new topic starts each Saturday), Men and Woman at work, Motor madness, just to mention a few.

Speaking of rambling,
It is about time I say goodbye but now before I say once again, WELCOME.
LORELL

[man from ironbark]

Wow, nice work Lee.
Welcome.
Looking forward to being gobsmacked by more of your images.

[vmrs]

How the heck did you get him on your finger. We have bunches of them and they never stay long enough for me to shoot them.

Their eyes are so cool, they look almost like an industrial piece of equipment or such.

[moccasin]

Welcome to the land of craziness, Lee.

I checked out your nude post in the digital manips section here - very cool. What do you use for programs, filters, plug-ins, etc?

I run the gamut with my photography ... landscapes, skyscapes, macros, manips and everything in between. I also shoot anything that moves or even looks like it might eventually move - or not. LOL Once I get relocated (Tuesday, ready or not, the mover loads all my stuff) and life settles back down, I am going to try some microphotography.

Looking forward to seeing your "stuff".

Cheers,
Sue

[LeZart]

Originally Posted by vmrs

How the heck did you get him on your finger.....

You promise them fame and riches, lol. Actually, I just offer my finger as a 'perch' and that one accepted. It takes a lot of patience, slow movements, and countless attempts. I have also noticed that some species or individuals are not as 'skittish' as others and I have had similar results with some butterflies and many bugs. Here is a case in point.This is a Hackberry Butterfly.
As it turns out, this particular species of Butterfly, has learned that humans offer something they do want - the salts in our sweat. They often actively approach people just to get a 'fix' for their salt cravings. The tricky part of these happenstances is for the photographer to actually have their camera handy, lol. I was lucky with my first purchase of a digital camera. It was a Nikon coolpix 7900 point and shoot pocket camera. I had no idea what I wanted to do with any camera other than to take pics but it fit my price range, lol. It turned out to be exceptionally well suited for CLOSE-UP insect pics. I do not mean MACRO pics. There is definitively a difference between the two terms. I eventually moved up to a Nikon D40X DSLR because I could (with the right lens) attempt MACRO shots. In many ways that decision was less than satisfactory for a number of reasons.

Lee

[LeZart]

Thank you Sue for your kind words and interest in my postings. I hope I am not entirely crazy but I have been considered a bit odd my entire life so I should be able to 'blend in'. with the 'craziness'. My primary editing program is Paint Shop Pro XI. It is much more user friendly than Photoshop, does 99% of what Photoshop does, does it better than Photoshop and is much much cheaper.

Good luck on your move and and thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Lee

[birdhs]

I am almost as fascinated by the butterfly as I am by the patterns your fingerprint ridges make. I'm thinking a true macro shot of fingers could have 'abstract' art written all over it. My P&S also does good on close-ups, but is nowhere near a true macro lens.

and see, I told you this was a friendly group, Greg

[vmrs]

You promise them fame and riches, lol

[FromtheDeep]

Aw, those are beautiful! I love the dragonfly and the butterfly's face is so cute (for a bug). Love your work. Hope to see more! Even though I'm not a bug-loving person I think they make beautiful photographic subjects

[LeZart]

I have been exploring the many different forums here at WC and have found a few whose themes interest me. Flowers, the figure, and digital art (so far) - just to name a few. I am still looking for one that caters to wild life and bug photo enthusiasts, lol.

In the meantime, I suspect you good folks here will get the opportunity (occasionally) to see things I bet you have never seen even though they can probably be found in some of your own backyards and if you have seen them I doubt you have seen them as closely as these images show them.. I will try to reveal the beauty and fascinating variety of some of these little critters - even a few spiders (OH MY !).

But today I am posting a specific image as a way of saying thanks to birdhs. who has been exceptionally generousness to me with his replies and assistance. His avatar and name reminded me of having this in my archives. There is a similar feel about them. I call it - Little Houses made of Ticky Tacky - and it was made about the same time as the song lyric (which inspired it) was written, lol



This is sort of a unique photo for me because:

it is a digital photo I took then digitally framed - of a 3D object I made out of wood - that was intended to suggest - it was a framed painting, lol. I am sure this concept has a name but I certainly don't know what that is, lol.

Lee

[birdhs]

Thanx! Some of my earlier birdhouses were actually made of ticky-tacky. Bad choice, they fell apart.

[vmrs]

I love that song! I put it on my husband's IPod and he was like "What is this?"

I like those houses, that's clever.

[Luv2shoot]

Ticky Tacky may be shoddy material, but this is no shoddy creation.
Nicely done and a good image of it.