I just wanted to point out how wonderful the work of photoimagery is. As a relatively new artist on caedes he consitantly amazes us with professional quality imagery. He is currently dominating the new images holding 8 of the top 15. Just goes to show that a top artist on caedes is not always at the front of the author list.

Couldnt agree more. There's so much to learn from Michael. Not only the technical aspect, available lighting, saturation etc. But also the intangibles of vision and mood. On the day's new images page there are several people you can recognize without moving the cursor. Never thought much about the northwest, but, it seems to be a most facinating area in his hands. Makes you really want to look around wherever you are.

I think he is without a doubt a professional photographer. It's very rare that photographers of that calibur give their work away like this. But his is very good, and he has been kind enough to share, so I thank him for that.

Just wanted to tack on a point here -- the camera one uses also greatly affects the quality of the shot (if only I had an SLR.....my pictures would be much better, but I'd still have a lot to learn ;-). The camera is only around 20% -- the rest is all very important, and Michael gets the full 100% of it.

Bah, camera is like 5% (for the purposes of desktop imagery)

Mike, if you read this, I would just like to confirm that warm spot under your wing;-)

An excellent recruit for caedes.net. I hope he can publish his photos :-)

I have posted a lot of good comments on his gallery.I agree with all. nice talent

Agreed - Michael has a very recognisable style, and a professional quality to his work that stands out even amongst the top images we get here.But we're fortunate here in having genuine artists not only sharing their work with us, but sharing their opinions of our work. Michael is one of a number of people whose images I appreciate and whose comments I value :-)

Anthony -- apparently you haven't seen the output of my camera... but wait, you haven't, because I'm too ashamed to upload any of them... :)

Reminds me of a great joke. I've heard that 70 percent is how you look, 20 percent how you sound, and only 10 percent what you say. Then President Kennedy went to Berlin in the 60s, and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner," which was meant to mean "I am a berliner" but in fact means, "I am a donut." Sort of different.

That's all beside the point really, the camera may be 5%, but Mike really nails it all around. All I'm saying is I wish I had a better camera... :)

I enhance my photos as well, my camera is incredably cheap. I still get good ratings. I had alot of 99s before the change, if I had taken my shots with better than my 1.3mexapixel vivicam, they would have still been 99s :-p

but in all fairness, the camera does help, Si's last macro shot of a lily shows that.

The camera accounts for only some of it, agreed (and they say a bad workman always blames his tools ;-) ).

However, the quality of the equipment does have an impact. Take for example macro shots - I love them and would like to do more. But no matter how I fiddle with my settings, my camera just can't seem to cope with extreme close-ups without blurring. The same is true in low-light situations (I would love to take a good picture of the moon, but it just comes out as this blurred, noisy glowing orb). I am sure that if I had a decent SLR, I could take better photos.

Anyway, I'm rambling. The point is that whilst good photos are not all about the equipment, it is nevertheless true to say that better equipment can take better photos. (To use an analogy: which would you rather edit an image in? Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop?)

Like Tristan, I wish I had a better camera (and a better computer, new car, bigger house, higher salary.....)

mspaint is the bomb, I had to downgrade back to pbrush to get the full use out of this amazing software!!

oh...I mean... Of course... I use only photoshop... go photoshop :-/

j/k :p

"(and they say a bad workman always blames his tools ;-)"

Blast! You caught me! ;-)

Seriously though, you're absolutely right. Photoshop analogy is perfect; you just can't do in Paint what you can with Photoshop; similar with the camera thing. Sometimes the tools really are bad; the difference between a shovel and a shovel is slim, but photoshop and paint... you get the picture (no pun intended).

Suffice it to say, a great photographer such as Michael deserves the best of equipment, and I'm glad he has it, and I say, keep up the great work.

Yes, he has submitted some excellent images.

how about a "Best New Artists" or a "Most Improved" page? Put the link in the Navigation menu?Just a thought.

But how would you define them?

good point, I think we'll have our hands tied enough if we get the comming of a hall of fame gallery

I have to agree completely regarding Michael's (photoimagery) work. It is consistantly first-class and he comments on others are insightful as well. I'm glad he's joined the Caedes community!

i have to love his work, considering he gets most of it in washington state, where i live! they are all beautiful and every shot is better than the next one... i look forward to every new beauty he puts on the site!

Michael, what praises you have here eh? And you do deserve every one. Your work is top of the line, and you work hard to achieve that. Tks for being such an inspiration to so many of us.
JuneBug