Mad Squirrel Update 5/10/10

As I'd been meaning to do all semester long, but never found the time for it, I've uploaded 30 black and white images that I'd taken over the course of last semester.

You'll find the new uploads, and all my other images, at my deviantART.

Have a look, give me some feedback, and if you want to buy any prints, let me know and we'll talk.

Now, another State of the Squirrel.

In recent weeks, I'm coming to the conclusion that if I really, REALLY want to get serious about my photography, dA is not the best place to do it. While dA is a nice place, with tons and tons of artists, I'm realizing that deviantART is like the FanFiction.net of the art world; lots of crap, with relatively few gems. I've seen so much cosplay photography on that site, it's not funny. It's becoming harder, at least for me, to establish myself amongst the photographers who are great, when my images (which, not to toot my own horn, I think are also great) are floating out there amongst an ocean of crap. However, I know that there are groups of good photographers out there that I can join and get what I'm looking for. The trouble is finding them.

Not to mention the fact that deviantART is really not the best place to get good, honest, constructive criticism/praise. I'm glad that people out there like my images, but when all the comments I get are, "I like that," "Cool," "Awesome," etc, it really doesn't help me to improve my eye and my work; I want in-depth critique, what you liked, what you didn't like, what you think the image needs (or doesn't need), WHY you liked or disliked an image--detailed feedback. Not only do I want it, your critique will do nothing but help me improve as an artist. If I want simple, one-word comments, I'll just keep going to class, where really, the only one who gives me really good feedback are my professors. Again, it may just be that I'm not looking in the right places on dA; if I'm not, give me some direction.

I don't have that big of an ego where negative feedback will cripple my self-esteem; this is why I find in-class critique so frustrating. No student wants to offend anyone else by offering a shred of negative (or even constructive) criticism. Oy.

Also, on a technical standpoint, it's very easy to steal images from dA. People do it all the time--hell, one of my classmates in a Digital Imaging class stole 3 images off dA (and as far as I know, didn't have permission to do so), incorporated it into a final project and called it her own. My work's now hanging in galleries; I don't want someone to find those images on my dA, steal them, and potentially profit from my work.

So, I'm going to be reverting back to my old PhotoReflect site, the original Mad Squirrel Photos (while also still being on dA for a while to come). My first exhibit, at Albany Molecular Research, last year, was the result of the librarians finding my work on that PhotoReflect site. No one's found my images on dA and wanted them hanging for an exhibit. Not to mention that there's copy protection on PhotoReflect.

This doesn't mean I'm gonna stop using dA entirely--in fact, I'll be on it for quite a while longer, I'm planning to try out a paid membership and seeing how that works; but as I progress deeper into the Fine Arts degree (and hopefully, have my images in more exhibits), I will eventually stop using my dA and remove all my images. But again, not for a while yet. Who knows? I may reconsider and stay at dA.

In the meantime, enjoy the new images on my dA.