tom_johnston4

Absolutely beautiful shot! I wish I had taken it!

Technical info: 4x5" Wisner Technical Field camera, 180mm Caltar, Fuji

Velvia 50 @ E.I. 40

I stumbled across your portfolio while searching for something else. There is absolutely no doubt that your pictures are stunningly beautiful but I have a problem with how heavily they are manipulated. That's just a personal thing and only my opinion, of course. There is nothing really wrong with heavy manipulation of non-journalistic photographs but, for me, they have been so overdone that I have become numbed to them. The world is now flooded with "perfect" photographs of things that never actually existed. In a way, it's like the heavy use of digital special effects in movies these days. It is beautiful at first but it quickly loses it's impact. There are photography websites now that feature almost nothing but heavily edited photographs and it wears thin for me after a short while. What I am really impressed with these days are truly "natural" images that the photographer had to find and work for in the field, not in front of a monitor using Photoshop. I mean no offense by this. I am just expressing my personal opinion. Your work is beautiful and you are very skilled in image manipulation but the the heavy use of manipulation no longer appeals to me much. I suppose it can be justified by comparing it to painting, though. I guess I'm just old-fashioned but I will not be surprised if a day comes when "straight photography" comes back into popularity as it did with the Group f.64 in the early 1900s. But it really comes down to simply being a matter of "each to his own." It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's only a matter of personal taste and, for me, much photography these days has become so far removed from reality that it loses it's naturalness.

Your photography is terrible!

 

JUST KIDDING!

 

It's always nice to see your photographs, Mauricio. I hope everything is going well with you and your family. I don't post much on photo.net these days but I just opened a rare thread and saw your name. I've been almost afraid to post anything because it seems as if all too often, no matter what one posts, it becomes a digital vs. film war. On the other hand, I guess it's time that I learn something about digital myself so I may have some really dumb questions to post on that subject.

 

Your photograph is beautiful! I love how your depth-of field focuses on the old man and how his deep skin tones also draw the eye right into the picture. The photograph has almost three-dimensional depth. This is one picture where putting the main subject right in the center really works. Beautifully done! Keep up the great work!

 

Tom Johnston

When you asked me to take a look at your shadow portrait, I hoped that it wasn't like so many copies of Ansel Adam's self-portrait that we see so much these days, but I suspected that it would be done with fresh creativity like your other work. But, WOW! What a surprise! This is definitely the best self-portrait of this type I have ever seen. I love the tones and textures and the abstract nature of the shadow really makes this something special. Strangely, there is also something "friendly" about it. As abstract as it is, it actually tells us something about you. Maybe I'm just biased because I know what a nice person you are.

 

Darn it! I wish I had thought of this!