Recent Professional Works

[andreagenor]

awesome, five stars *****

[SecondFocus]

Haven't posted here in a while. City experimental, natural light, as simple as it gets

I especially like "City"... Outstanding!

[Graham Mitchell]

Some of the pictures from the series might look better in BW, I think.... Will try

I like the colour series better. Very simple and bold.

[Frank Doorhof]

Some recent shots.

[ARP]

I especially like "City"... Outstanding!

Agreed.  Lovely dof.

[SecondFocus]

Some recent shots.

Frank WOW! Love the first two of Nadine!!

[HarperPhotos]

Gidday,

Here’s a shot I did for VW and yes this Amarok was shot on location using a few lights to ping it up.

The link below is a little video of the shoot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inYE8tlFfmU&feature=youtu.be

Cheers

Simon

[mcdronkz]

Hello Simon,

I might be not in the position to critique your work since you are a much better photographer than I am, but I'm not really impressed by this photo of the Amarok. It has a very 'decent' feel to it (which in itself is not bad) and it gives a good representation of the car but it looks also somewhat boring and lifeless. Technically (sharpness, color correctness, lack of distortion, etc.) it's very good, artistically you could have made a lot more of it.

The lighting looks somewhat flat, everything is equally lit. The elements in the foreground are competing for attention, you could have made those darker. The color palette is all over the place, lot's of satured yellows, reds, blues... very little harmony. A monochrome, complementary or analogous color scheme would make a huge difference. The composition and perspective are not very exciting in my opinion. I like the environment, it totally suits the car although it would be cool if there was some action going on, a person using the car as a workhorse for example.

It's easy to critique while it's very hard to make these kind of photos, I know. If you don't appreciate this comment, just ignore me.

By the way, I really liked pretty much everything of your previous photo of the VW's! Both you and Lightfarm did a really good job there.

[MrSmith]

"it gives a good representation of the car"

that's all the client wants

[HarperPhotos]

Gidday mcdronkz,

Feel free to critique as much as you like. I wouldn’t put my shots up in I couldn’t handle constructive critique's as you have mentioned.

I would just like to say is if you have a look at the short video my producer did with my Fuji X10 there is a chap sitting in a chair texting. He is the Art Director and what ever he say’s I do. I can make suggestion but what his say’s is final.

Personally I am very happy with the shot as is the client which is the most important thing a advertising photographer wants to hear.

Cheers

Simon

[mcdronkz]

"it gives a good representation of the car"

that's all the client wants

That's very true! But besides that, as an artist you have the ability to give a certain emotion, a certain feel to a subject which eventually might help to sell the advertised object. On a somewhat related note, there is a television commercial for the VW Crafter in the Netherlands which is a good example of how you can make a certain emotional statement about a car.

Gidday mcdronkz,

Feel free to critique as much as you like. I wouldn’t put my shots up in I couldn’t handle constructive critique's as you have mentioned.

I would just like to say is if you have a look at the short video my producer did with my Fuji X10 there is a chap sitting in a chair texting. He is the Art Director and what ever he say’s I do. I can make suggestion but what his say’s is final.

Personally I am very happy with the shot as is the client which is the most important thing a advertising photographer wants to hear.

Cheers

Simon

Cool, thanks for your reply! Your point of view is very understandable, and a happy client is what counts the most.

[MrSmith]

are you a working pro (advertising/design/editorial etc) mcdronkz?

[mcdronkz]

are you a working pro (advertising/design/editorial etc) mcdronkz?

Aside from some publications in car magazines, no. That's why my views on professional photography may be totally unrealistic and the things I say may not make any sense at all.

[Rob C]

What none of us has been informed about is the medium where the work is to be shown.

What looks perfect for trade mags isn't the same as for a Sunday supplement nor, heaven forfend, Playboy. From my personal perspective, I have to confess a preference for natural.

Of course, that's an unavoidable problem/consequence of showing pro work on what's basically a very popular 'enthusiast' site: people apply their own, unrelated and essentially uninformed values.

Rob C

[MichaelEzra]

Last weekend, ZD+80mm

[MrSmith]

stunning. on many levels, lighting/model/composition/and the naked honesty.

[MichaelEzra]

Gary, thank you for the kind words

[wolfnowl]

Nice to see you posting here again, Michael.  Beautiful work, as always.

Mike.

[andreagenor]

Awesome!

[JoeKitchen]

Here's a cool hallway I shot recently.  Usually color shifts would drive me insane, but here, I dig it!