This guy is awesome!

[Murph]

Ok, I am a sucker for Japan anyway, having lived there for three years as a teenager. But this guy is awesome, check out his website: http://www.alaindavreux.com/index.php?page=toc_japan

[Thorpeland]

Those are some really nice shots. He's got a creative eye to truly capture the feel of that culture.

[d2creative]

There's some nice images there.
A pity though that some were forced into that odd crop.

[lscottpht]

If you think those are nice, you should check out this guy's work. He's actually gotten famous just from being on PBase. Now, it's not Japan, but it is Asia. http://www.pbase.com/manny_librodo/root

[Hanky]

Way cool, I discovered their old black and white movies over a year ago and they are 10 times better than the waste out of hollywood these days.
Thank's!

[ShutteredEye]

Originally Posted by d2creative

There's some nice images there.
A pity though that some were forced into that odd crop.

From his bio section:

Q : Why do you use 16/9 ?

A : I like it much better than 3/2 or 4/3, just feels more natural to my eye. NO, I don't have 16/9 lines on my viewfinder, I'm just carreful about it when I shoot.

I rather enjoyed his crops.

In fact I find it admirable that he purposefully composes his images to work in that crop dimension--he's using a 20d, so he's composing 16/9 inside of 3/2. Anyone that deliberate in the making of their images has my admiration. Personally I often settle for the boundaries the camera gives me by default.

[seawings]

Originally Posted by lscottpht

If you think those are nice, you should check out this guy's work. He's actually gotten famous just from being on PBase. Now, it's not Japan, but it is Asia. http://www.pbase.com/manny_librodo/root

Wow...now those are striking. I could spend hours studing how he accomplished those shots....thanks for sharing.

[ShutteredEye]

http://www.alaindavreux.com/index.php?page=2-017-930-1

Holy DOF Batman!

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by ShutteredEye

From his bio section:



I rather enjoyed his crops.

In fact I find it admirable that he purposefully composes his images to work in that crop dimension--he's using a 20d, so he's composing 16/9 inside of 3/2. Anyone that deliberate in the making of their images has my admiration. Personally I often settle for the boundaries the camera gives me by default.

I like it in some but not in others. Maybe 50/50. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I found some quite annoying, actually. I could choose to shoot in a 2/31 format, and just because that's original, doesn't mean it's always going to work for every subject. Being different for the sake of being different is not admirable imho. What's he's doing is taking the shot, then going home and using his crop tool to figure out what part of the image works best in that format. I bet you he's even enlarging some images within that space, effectively cropping in even more. Of course that's just speculation on my part, but I think it's a valid assumption unless he has electrical tape across his viewfinder.
All just my opinion, of course.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by lscottpht

If you think those are nice, you should check out this guy's work. He's actually gotten famous just from being on PBase. Now, it's not Japan, but it is Asia. http://www.pbase.com/manny_librodo/root

Those are gorgeous.

[johnastovall]

I just see a lot of western visual clichés of Japan. If you want to see Japan see it through Japanese eyes for that I turn to photographers like Daido Moriyama or Nobuyoshi Araki.

[ShutteredEye]

I guess I should only wish I thought enough of myself to be able to look at someone else's (relatively) well executed work and frown on it.

There's a real undercurrent of (upper) crustiness around these parts lately. Having been away for a year or more, and now spending more time here, I've noticed the difference.

Not sure if it's a good thing or not.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by ShutteredEye

I guess I should only wish I thought enough of myself to be able to look at someone else's (relatively) well executed work and frown on it.

There's a real undercurrent of (upper) crustiness around these parts lately. Having been away for a year or more, and now spending more time here, I've noticed the difference.

Not sure if it's a good thing or not.

You have got to be kidding me.
Ever attend art school?
I guess not because you surely wouldn't make it.
I've had my worked hung up and critiqued every day since high school and my job still requires my artwork to be critiqued every day. Infact, 99% of what I do goes into the trash. My peers critique my work, my creative director critiques it, my Account Executive critiques it, even his assistant critiques it. And this is all before it even gets to the client! If I cried like a baby every time someone didn't like something about my work, I'd be out of a job before I even got started. It's also my job to critique others work. There is absolutely nothing wrong with forming your own opinion, and yes... EVEN if it's a negative one! Wow, imagine that... you actually don't have to think every photo or piece of art is amazing. You can actually form your own opinion and <gasp> disagree! </gasp>. I could walk into a museum and tell you that I love this Picasso over here, but that Van Gogh hanging on the wall across from it is one of my least favorite paintings in the world. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's the way art is... everyone sees something different.

If you look back in this thread, I originally said that there are some great images. I just didn't like the crop on some. If that is too upper crusty of an opinion for you, I really don't know what to tell ya.

So yes, if you think so low of yourself that you can't look at someone else's work and find something you don't like about it and man up and express that, you've got issues to deal with before proceeding further. At the very least learn to deal with someone else having a different opinion than you.

[nash]

My favorite photographer of Asia, who is based out of Japan, is James Whitlow Delano. See http://www.jameswhitlowdelano.com/index.html and http://www.digitalrailroad.net/james...o/Default.aspx.
He also seems to have a well-informed ethos.

[ShutteredEye]

Originally Posted by d2creative

You have got to be kidding me.
Ever attend art school?
I guess not because you surely wouldn't make it.
I've had my worked hung up and critiqued every day since high school and my job still requires my artwork to be critiqued every day. Infact, 99% of what I do goes into the trash. My peers critique my work, my creative director critiques it, my Account Executive critiques it, even his assistant critiques it. And this is all before it even gets to the client! If I cried like a baby every time someone didn't like something about my work, I'd be out of a job before I even got started. It's also my job to critique others work. There is absolutely nothing wrong with forming your own opinion, and yes... EVEN if it's a negative one! Wow, imagine that... you actually don't have to think every photo or piece of art is amazing. You can actually form your own opinion and <gasp> disagree! </gasp>. I could walk into a museum and tell you that I love this Picasso over here, but that Van Gogh hanging on the wall across from it is one of my least favorite paintings in the world. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's the way art is... everyone sees something different.

If you look back in this thread, I originally said that there are some great images. I just didn't like the crop on some. If that is too upper crusty of an opinion for you, I really don't know what to tell ya.

So yes, if you think so low of yourself that you can't look at someone else's work and find something you don't like about it and man up and express that, you've got issues to deal with before proceeding further. At the very least learn to deal with someone else having a different opinion than you.

Dennis,

I don't even know how to respond to this. Obviously I've touched a nerve with you for you to take the time compose such an artfully sarcastic, yet exquistely forceful response. Frankly the last paragraph, with the personal attacks, is my favorite.

If you'll notice I didn't say I like every image either. If you'll notice I only applauded the forethought in creating images with a particular, if odd, crop in mind. I believe I also noted that perhaps I could use some of the same deliberate intent in my process.

Perhaps artistic criticism is your trade--fantastic on you. What I was reacting to was your tone of arrogance--which you delightfully demonstrated in your subsequent response. To say that someone has 'some nice images,' but it's a 'pity' about the crop says to me: "It's a pity he couldn't get it right, thankfully I'm better than that." That's not a gentleman's agreement to disagree (of which you speak so highly,) but a rather bold statement of "I'm right, so you must be wrong."

Maybe I do have thin skin, but I hope I never get so callous as to tell someone it's a pity their work was done poorly.