I think you are heading towards a time when you will want to get a film Leica and shoot some black and white film of the bands. I hope that happens.

Dan

1. I apologize in advance for being my usual self, blunt, straight forward and honest.

2. Awesome work! Keep rockin’!

3. Don’t let those so-called “Purists” get to you. Franky, most of them have either no talent whatsoever and therefore believe they have the right to tell everyone how a “good” picture is supposed to look like (particular one taken with a Leica) or they read a couple books and are completely stuck up on rules and stuff that everyone who dares to differ has obviously “a lot to learn”.

4. Know the rules. And then break them. The most important thing you can do is to experiment. That will teach you more about photography than anything else. Remember, it’s a journey and you want to get the most out of it.

5. About the never ending photoshop vs. darkroom/film debate … I worked for more years in advertising agencies as art director than I’d like to admit. I worked with more amazing, some of them well known photographers on an international basis than most here will ever meet in their entire life. Trust me, in commercial photography there has always been more “tweaking” going on than most people think. Until the arrival of digital entire industries existed that did nothing else but enhance a photographer’s work.
Just because some people don’t know about it doesn’t mean it wasn’t possible. The only difference is that with the arrival of photoshop things got a lot easier and faster to do.

6. Last but not least, be yourself. Forget what others say (unless your gut tells you to listen up). Forget even my ramblings. This is your photographic journey. Make the most out of it.

See http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/113601-awesome-m8-shooter.html

Also, here we go again with the “over-processed images” talk. I made a post about that a couple months back and like it or not, photoshop is the future of photography. Obviously many people like Megan’s work, myself included. I would love to have at least two of her images on my wall at 20X30 just the way they are.

I feel Photoshop can be a great tool to express your vision you had in mind when shooting the image. Anyway, I know of a few photographers who are insanely successful and they all “do it their way” and many love their work just for that reason.

At the end of the day it is all about difference of opinions. Some photographers hate photoshop, some love it and embrace it. We are all free to have our own opinions. Megan seems to already be enjoying some success so I applaud her for that. Doing it her way seems to be working and at only 18, she has many years to build on that success.

I see immaturity and some over processed images. To be a successful artist/photography means having maturity and a sense of professionalism; being able to relate to customers and clients, and being able to relate and adapt to the needs of the job. The quickest way to be a ‘starving artist’ is to say the heck with everyone, I’m doing it my way.

Good luck to Megan, but I hope she learns some respect and gains some maturity in her journey to be a photographer.

Randy

Anyway, best of luck with all future endeavours – you deserve it from what I’ve seen of your current work and your dedication to the cause

Geronimo – I’m not sure what you meant by ‘a good education’ I am completely self taught in everything that I do, even in school I was on a curriculum without any real ‘teachers’ where the students taught themselves, and after that I was ‘unschooled’ which was also about teaching myself. In a way, I haven’t had any ‘education’ but have lived my life with an open mind to learning things. Just wanted to get that out there. And the same thing to
Anthony- I am not in university, have never been, and never intend to. I have more money to focus on my photography rather than throwing bucket loads of it at schooling. I also make money off my photography with print sales along with my work in the music industry (you can see some of my photos in Owl City’s new deluxe edition cd which came out this week)

Oh and Mr. V- I see what you are saying, especially in this collection of photographs. You’ll see there is a broader range of composition in the photos on my website.

Also I wanted to mention that people can join my fanclub on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/meganbakerphotography?ref=ts

or follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/mbakerphoto

thanks again everyone.