Photography Magazine

Today I’d like to present to you the works of one of the famous photographers - Ruven Afanador. From the start here is the URL to his portfolio http://www.art-dept.com/artists/afanador/index.html so you guys could follow up and agree or disagree with my critics. Today I will be reviewing only one photo session called “fashion”

Those who will be interested in his biography please feel free to use google

So let’s start with the fact that this piece of criticism will be absolutely subjective and reflect only authors personal point of view on Ruven Afanador’s works.

The photo session starts with a mannequin theme where we can see combination of mannequins and models in make up that thematically suits the atmosphere of pictures. I think that by these 6 pictures Ruven sort of starts the main topic called “Fashion” with one of the main attributes that is a model and a dummy. It seems to me maybe somehow it represents the equality of the two but I would consider it to be offensive towards the model as a profession on one hand BUT on the other hand I see where he is going - these two have the same purpose and that’s the level where he equalizes them. Anyway let’s proceed with the next photographies.

Next 6 scenes are a lot different but still represent fashion. We can call it one of the aspects of fashion that is royal or we can say pompous. It is pretty obvious as we see the model in expensive dress, her haircut, castle on the background and of course an eagle that is pretty royal symbol to me and a horse. I can say that each scene is prepared professionally because the combination of dressing, surrounding and background seem pretty elegant, all of the attributes are on their exact places.

Proceeding further with the black and white pictures of a male model - I don’t really get it! I mean what is it? A part of Ruven’s tape that was not supposed to get to his portfolio? It’s hard to believe that these 6 photos can be related to fashion I mean maybe he wanted to slightly continue the royalty theme but guess what? it’s not there, the only thing in this part that can be considered good is the quality but not the idea.

Next 6 photos blow my mind. It’s industrial, psychedelic, futuristic and glamorous. I don’t want to go into a lot of needless details you just check it out. In comparison with the previous 4 pictures these are the combination of fresh idea and top quality.

Proceeding further we come across with strict glamor. You can tell it on the fly as the major colors here are white, gold and black, the others are not as dominating. As for me it looks even creepy as the model looks like a mummy or a patient after brain surgery.

Second page starts with 7 pictures. It is a combination of nu and glamor. In this part the model attracted my attention. Ruven uses not a mannequin type of model but a total opposite. She reminds me of woman image of Leonardo da Vinci period. The main streams of this part are tenderness, sensitivity and beauty and Ruven reflects it pretty clear.

Next is a science fiction and horror part. Models with aliens and monsters representing movie fashion and that’s pretty much it.

The following scenes negatively surprise me again. It looks like Mr. Afanador has some difficulties with picturing just male models or uses them when there is a lack of idea. I can’t get what is he trying to say there. I mean I know we are talking not about art here but about quality commercial photography and from what I know even here there should be sort of an idea. Enough about it NEXT!

There goes another two portions of glamor in a row. Something new? No. Quality? Yes.

At the end of the second page we can see something fresh. I think the idea of it is to show exotic and it works out pretty well. Fine model, professional makeup, cloths, background, surrounding every single details talk to you about exotic. It was a good idea to use african theme here, suits very good.

On the last page there is a mixture of photographies of straight glamor character and starts with hardcore glamor moves to some sort of flower maniac glamor then continues with techno glamor. Then goes chaos that I am still looking at trying to get a single thought but no success so far. Fashion ends with anime containing glamor again. Well what can I say isn’t glamor is still on the peak of fashion? I think yes.

by Eugene Korshunovich

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In this article I would like to describe one of the methods of making money from your pictures. Please note that, first of all, this is the longest method that will not generate your income right away that means that if you are unemployed and looking for ways of making money - leave this method for the better moment and find yourself a job

After you have tried taking pictures with your old camera or cell phone camera and your friends say that you are doing pretty well, not because they are polite and you are a gentle personality, and recommend you to try and develop your skills. I thought it would be a good idea to give you a couple of hints how it is possible to squeeze a little “Benjamins” out of your developing talent. Don’t expect that as soon as your pictures become available in the Internet you will automatically become rich, selling your work is another type of work and it is debatable which is harder.

So first of all you have to define what type of pictures do you want to take and sell, it can be landscapes, food, people, gadgets etc. I see two main streams in the market of photography: easy-to-sell and not-easy-to-sell pictures confused hah? Nothing to be confused of.

By easy-to-sell I mean those pictures that will be further used as an element of a design by a professional who is looking for a picture to use in his web template, ads banner, company logo whatever people sell tons of them over the internet. Anyone can take a digital camera and start picturing anything from the plane far out in the sky to a sandwich on your plate it all depends on quality of the picture and your ability to see the right frame and be able to take it exactly as you see it.

By not-easy-to-sell pictures are the once that will be printed and framed by custom buyers, the difficulty in this one is that your pictures must be decent, original. People say they buy mostly landscapes and portraits but I say that you can sell a piece of shit only if it’s pictured revolutionary cool. But I am talking not about the art of photography now.

Any type of this business can be profitable and I think that the best approach to start it is to start investing time, efforts and some money in this stuff. You have to have tools and material in order to produce so I would recommend buying a new camera first. The problem is that no one will pay for a picture made from a cell phone camera. So not a bad camera starts with $500 like for example - Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT ($549 on bestbuy.com). Be aware that if you succeed in future the lens for you $3000 camera will cost at least $500 :). But anyway next investment is money again but this time not so much, you will need $5-$10 monthly for hosting your domain and about $15-$20 for a domain name but once. The best way to show what you’ve got is to create portfolio of your pictures. You can update it every day if you want to. There is no sense to create all this fuss if you have just a couple of dozens of pictures, you need hundreds, you need to create a good proposition and the better you categorize it the easier it will be for people to view your works and the more professional you will look.

Next step is to find a good deal for you. One of the ways to sell your pictures is to let sales professionals do it for you. No need to hire them and pay tons of money as there are plenty of services that will sell your works for a certain amount of percent and in order not be an empty worded here is a couple of examples:

www.bigstockphoto.com

www.dreamstime.com

www.submit.shutterstock.com

www.stockxpert.com

Absolutely free registration.

Well I guess that’s it for now. Having all this stuff in your inventory you should be able to start some business of yours. Oh and one more thing while taking pictures of anything don’t think of money you will get for this picture because you will get nothing turn on imagination inside your head and fancy yourself and artist.

by Eugene Korshunovich

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I know a lot of people who had that sparkle to do photography. In order not to confuse you guys I am talking about photography as an art. Their first and the main mistake was to make tons of money by making masterpiece from the first click and then creating exhibitions where photography critics would lose their consciousness. Guess what they all have failed because the motivation from the very beginning was wrong. They’ve invested a lot of money into top professional and expensive photo equipment thinking that this is the key to success. After making a couple of hundreds of pictures and creating entire albums, portfolios and electronic databases with usual picture taken by not a talented individual but by a hi-tech digital camera. Pictures that have no sense or soul. All of those guys at the end had to sell their fancy equipment because they had families to provide for and rents to pay. As a result we have money, efforts, time losses and depression. You have probably done all the necessary conclusions by just analyzing the information above but in order to make myself clearer I will quickly go through “how do I start?” methods I know.

So first of all it does not really matter how much does you camera cost, It can be even a freaking 1.3 megapixel phone camera. If you really have that feeling of a frame it does not really matter to you what to use in order to take the picture you just take it. As opposed to being all damn dressed into last models of digital cameras with all those $1000 lenses and tripods wondering the streets like an idiot picturing god knows what representing 0 value as a work of art.

If after 10-20-50 shots you’ve lost that sparkle of a photographer - you never had it. The motivation or, I should say, passion you were experiencing was nothing but an envy that came to your head after you’ve heard on the news that some fellow sold his photography collection for X million dollars.

If after more than 100 shots you can pick up at least 5 pictures you like and after showing 20 so-so pictures to your friends they say “not that bad” to at least 2-3 then I think you have it. BUT that’s far from even “so-so” remark of a photography critic. It can be a good beginning of your hard work becoming an amateur and then evolving to sort of professional.

Never lose passion, always be open for criticism of whoever you show your photographs to. Always take your time and observe works of famous photographers, read/listen what they say, they are never too greedy to share experience.

And one more thing, I think the most important one. Don’t you ever think to quit your job that generates your monthly income, feeds you and dresses you to do photography before you have reached a certain level where photography generates more monthly income than your job as whatever you are.

by Eugene Korshunovich

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