I like its simplicity. The only thing that distracts me is that the window frame is the only thing in focus, instead of the card. Knowing your skill, I realise it's a choice you have made, but I can't see why you'd do that.

I think the focus in the window frame was a good choice. It made the face in the card more soft and pleasing to the eyes. It's a fantastic composition and for me one of your best photos.

This is today's photo of the day in The Invisible Man. :-)

The only thing that bothers me a bit here in the amount of "head room." Like a nervous passenger slamming on the imaginary brake, I find myself reaching toward my screen to tilt the camera down. I like the soft focus on the card though -- nice touch.

simply but nice

it may be a bit nitpicky, but did you not completely center the dividing line on purpose? i understand each side has a bit different perspective, but it just doesn't quite come together for me :]

damn, you always find ways so surprise me! :)
great portrait! very original composition.
Also very beautiful young girl.

You know, I loved the photograph until I read the comments. I hate it when people ruin things for me.

cw: lol. The same thing has happened to me ... on numerous occassions ;-)

I didn't like this photo before or after I read the comments. Kind of boring.

i'm from brazil and me and my brother are always here checking your new pictures.
i love photography, and your pictures are the best ever.
i really like them. :)

I thought I was seeing double. The slight color tone works very well.

The nice thing about post processing is you can take a good picture and make it great I've been lurking around your site for quite some time now being dumbfounded by your skills and creativity as a photographer and as a graphic artist. well I guess you've not only inspired me but also a lot who have been visiting your site almost every minute... Cheers to you and may you inspire even more with your work!

Ok, Dave. I think I have to comment again.

I think the original photo is better than the subsequent posts, at least it was your original intent. To some extent, I believe that art is not a democratic process. What would have happened if Picasso or Monet listened to their contemporary critics? They probably would not be famous now and their innovations would not have been recognized. I think you should worry more about what _you_ want in a photograph rather than what other people would prefer to see. Of course some people aren't going to like your photos, and of course some people are going to like them, but I don't think you're ever going to make everyone happy with every photo.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes other people suggest things that influence you but sometimes they're just trying to convince you that their way of art is better than yours. My only suggestion is to listen to yourself and put yourself before the opinions of others. It's your art, after all.

(Ok. This time, I'm leaving my real email address.)

cw: I absolutely love your sentiment and sticking up for Dave.

But, I gently suggest you're contradicting your own advice by offering that the original "is better" and presuming to know the original intent; pretty much displaying the same subjectivity against which you argue.

Dave states that something was bothering him about the original but he wasn't sure what until he had a rethink based on a insight given him by one of the comments. Hell, by the time we're finished he might post yet another "better" version, according to *his* judgment.

I think you'll find that David has no lack of confidence in his work, marches to his own accomplished drum kit, and is more than willing to call a spade a spade when it comes to the slings and arrows of subjective judgments.

That's probably not much different, by the way, from Picasso or Monet. Although they may have abhorred the banality of commercial critics, I'm sure you can imagine they didn't live or work in a vacuum and might have been guilty of taking the occasional suggestion.

But, again, I do love the general sentiment you've expressed here. And I hope David doesn't mind both of us presumptuously sticking up for him in slightly different ways.

Bob: Yeah. I was hoping that no one would notice my contradiction. Ah hypocrisy's a bitch. :)

Maybe my comments reflect my own attitude a bit too much. I find that whenever people tell me not to do something, it only makes me want to do it more. My own stubbornness in refusing to listen to others is perhaps restricting my own artistic potential, but on the other hand, I certainly have a lot of role models, David being one of them. Then again, if I emulate or listen to others too much, I run the risk of just being ordinary. In the end, I guess my attitude runs something along the lines of: "I made this the way I like it, you are free to like it, if you don't, that's too bad."

I guess in a way I just wanted to expose my opinions on the artistic process in this very popular forum. Thanks for putting up with me.

I often use the 16:9 aspect ratio. A good choice for this shot, I think.

cw: you're right, art isn't a democratic process, but unless you view art as nothing more than a therapeutic venture it does have an audience. In my case that's an audience of several thousand people a day, who will, or will not, like what I put up. So, on the one hand I could say (on those occassions when an image isn't particularly liked) "sod you, it's my vision, take it or leave it". But most of the time my own views pretty much tie in with the reaction an image receives. Take today's shot for example: it has 'something' - otherwise I wouldn't have posted it - but it's far from being one of my better efforts ... and the (lack of) comments reflect that (I might try a fourth edit later today)

I guess that what I'm trying to say, or one of the things I''m trying to say, is that I intend my work to communicate something. If very few people comment, or the comments are generally luke-warm, the chances are I didn't manage to get the message across.

So yes, artistic vision is important, but I don't have a great deal of sympathy for the idea that artists should be tortured souls, doomed to a life of being misunderstood.

Bob: one of the key things here, and this is a limitation of the compressed time-frame of the image-a-day thing, is that I'm not always entirely clear I've worked out my "original intent". Again, this image is a good example. I roughly know what I want it to say, but I don't know how to realise that message.

Was about to say something along those lines djn! It might be MY journal, or YOUR journal - but if noone looks at it because they don't like what you produce, then why bother setting up that journal? You may as well just have the photos sitting on your pc, or prints dotted around your home for your own pleasure. I find that by posting regularly on my photoblog, it forces me to be a better photographer (and postprocessor) because I'm thinking about the standards that others would like to see and I do everything I can to meet or exceed those standards and hopefully impress a few people with the odd photo. The end result being I take better photos that give greater pleasure to me, not only because I know I like them, but because I know others like my work as well.

I definitely prefer this version of the photo, an ALMOST black and white shot, just enough colour left in.

Knowing how you feel about crops, this one is a very unusual crop for you, but works well. Before you know it, you'll be cropping 17:11, and 9:4, and maybe even, God forbid, just cropping with no regard for the ratio at all! ;-)

"God forbid, just cropping with no regard for the ratio at all! "

Never ;-)

For my surprise, I came here today and saw a different version of your photo. I like all the work that you've had with post processing till you find something that you're more pleased at, but for me, your first photo is my favorite. It was instant love with the tonality and the warm of the composition. Now, I see a forced version. Don't get me wrong, I like it also but not as much as the first version.

What matters here is that you feel that this is the best one for you. Comments from visitors are very important but they tend to lead the author far from his intentions and style. You've proved since 2003 that Chromasia is a place of multiple visual techniques but it's also a place where You and only You have to choose what's best and what you like. Keep up the excellent work. :-)

I guess I got here at the right time, I get to see this, the final version. I like the colors on the this, and such a good concept from the start.

Thanks all.

very cool idea. well done!

If you're looking for some controversy put up several versions of a picture and ask for opinions... speaking from my own experience ;)

Personaly, I still prefer the subtlety of version B.

And on the aspect ratio, I crop freely most of the time, but on quite a few occasions upon measuring after the crop I had achieved an almost perfect 16:9...

the mirror theme is well known but u did so well, like the wau u postprocess
ur photos.