I’m into photography myself.
Nice stuff, Helena.
I did a 360 mural on my niece and nephew’s bathroom walls; an all-around underwater, coral reef scene. Took me two years!
Well, you need to get busy, girl!
I love your portraiture - it brings out a huge amount of character in the subject. Might you have any input on what I could do to improve my photography (or otherwise)?
Here’s my stuff over at deviantart.com; mainly works done in Terragen, but there’s some photography as well.
Pretty! 
Whats Terragen?
Yosemite, very good, very strong drawings.
I don’t have the patience for artwork. The only thing I can finish before I get distracted are little three-minute silhouette-portraits, like these ones. The’re also great conversation-starters.
I ask my subject to sit still and then drway his silhoutte. That ususally takes two minutes. Then another minute of cutting, and voila.
Is that upper right one a silhouette in a silhouette, or are my eyes playing tricks on me? Looks like a smaller, lighter head inside of the main one.
You’re right, I never saw that before! I had them in an envelope a long time before scanning, and maybe another silhoutte left an imprint on this one.
HA! Cool.
I just realized the other week where a white box that kept showing up every time I printed out Sheryl Crow was coming from - I had taped the original up at my store and when I took it down, instead of removing the tape and possibly damaging it, I had cut a small rectangle to size and put it over the tape. So when I scanned Sheryl in, it had somehow picked up the paper, even though it was on the back.
PhotoMAX fixed it up real quick though.
Thanks. For me, I always find portraiture the most difficult. Some people are absolute naturals at it. With me, either it all clicks together, or I feel like I’m wrestling a bear. Having a good source of directional lighting always helps to bring drama and character out of a face.
I’ll have a look at your work again tomorrow morning and see what suggestions I have.
Terragen is a landscape renderer - you can download it through that link. You can control the landscape, the clouds, the size, color, brightness of the sun, depth of the water…it’s pretty cool to play around with.
Well, thankoos. I am proud of how far I’ve come… I would pinpoint my improvements as mostly in the realm of sharpness and overall cleanliness of the image, whereas, in the past, I used to have far sloppier pencil/pen strokes…
'At said, I’ll post up a work in progress and then call it a night…
The mule was kule . . . but I liked the torso moreso. 
Here’s a few photos: A couple of my dog, and two where I was experimenting with mundane objects (a remote control and a mouse) under a certain quality of light:
Okay, here is some of the stuff I flatter myself is art, some doodles, and some photos I’ve taken in my travels thither and yon.
Desert Geezer, those three links don’t work for me, and I’m curious.
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/jomomojojomomojo/myhomepage/spiral1.jpg
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/jomomojojomomojo/myhomepage/starspiral.jpg
Well, I checked out the website again, and from what little I’ve seen of your photography, it looks pretty decent. I’d have to see more of your portraits to give portrait advice, but your photographs show good use of light and good compositional skills. You fill the frame with your photographs and you’re clearly aware of lighting. Your still life with spoons and such attests to this. Personally, I would have cropped a little less tightly than that, but all in all, a good study.
If there’s a specific complaint, it’s that I don’t see enough people in your pictures. This is what I react to, so this is what I want to see more of. The photo of the kid was OK but, honestly, nothing incredible. I’d like to see more of the face, a better composition, and less grain. Grainy can be good, and the picture does have a lot of mood, but I don’t think it works for this picture. The shadow areas are just too clumpy and muddy for my tastes. Given the scratch and dust across the picture, I assume this was taken on film, and I’m guessing at 800 or 1600 ISO. Either that or it’s a big blow-up. It’s not a bad photo, but personally I think it would look much better with a slower speed film taken at an angle further left of the baby, with a tad bit more of the face in view. Just my opinion.
Generally, my advice with portraits is to take advantage of soft directional lighting (windows do wonders for this purpose). Light gives a lot of character to your portraits. If you’re doing head shots, a slight to moderate telephoto works best. Try an 85mm, 105mm, or 135mm. I’m a fan of very wide aperatures (my favorite portrait lens is an 85 f/1.8, shot at f/2.) Get in close, focus on the eyes, blur out the background by shooting at f4 or lower and, if you have good lighting (like someone next to a window), you will have a striking direct portraits. Easiest way to make a quick character study.
Another word of advice is to keep on taking photos. Don’t take just one or two photos of a subject you like. If something catches your eye, just keep on taking photos. Film is cheap. If you’re digital, even better. Explore your subject, work with it. I often find that either my first picture or my very last picture in a sequence are the best. Either my first impression is right, or I have to explore and discover a subject to capture it as I see it.
If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. I hope my advice is not too vague.
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