I haven't been around here much lately, "life" has been very busy, plus I've lost my work access to this site. I used to get on dA during lunch, but recently some friends of mine at work have been fired for visiting web sites that are frowned upon, even though they won't tell us any details of what we can and cannot do online. SO - with all the mature content on dA I've decided to not browse at work anymore.

Unfortunately I am very behind on saying thanks to all of you who have supported my work here in the last few months. I hate that because I appreciate all the comments and favs that I get here, they mean a lot to me. I hope to be a little more active here in the future!

I wanted to put a very big THANK YOU out there for anyone who has commented or fav'd my "ten Little toes" photo. I usually get one or two favs or comments on a photo, and I got over 100 in the first week or two - that really blew me away. I entered that photo in the annual Columbus Dispatch photo contest, and out of 6000 entries I came in 4th!!!! That was a huge honor! I didn't win any prizes, but it felt great to see my photo in the paper with so many other wonderful entries.

Here a few of my favs from around dA these last few months:

I'm so stoked and I had to share:

I recently put all my old Transformer toys up on ebay, my first time as a seller. My cousin had recently made a few hundred dollars selling old toys, and with the new Transformer movie out, we thought it was time to sell those as well. I had a pretty big collection that I kept in great shape for my kids someday (as if once I have kids they'd want to play with those old things!), so I put them online and waited to see what I would make. My hope was to make about $500 so we could buy a cheap camcorder.

Well, it passed $500, lol! The total after one week was $2000!! So not only do I have a new Canon HV20 HD camcorder on the way (with a wide-angle lens in addition), but I also purchased a Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens for my camera. I have always loved wide-angle photography here on dA, and I hope to add some of my own in the future.

Here is some of my favorite work from a few of the artists here:

I did something similar to this in the thumbshare forum, but I didn't get the responses that I was looking for , so I thought I would try here! I have always been fascinated by the Lord of the Rings, and one of my ongoing series has been to photograph my sword replicas and alter them to make them look like they were taken somewhere in Middle Earth. Here are the ones I have so far:

Gandalf's sword in Rivendell:
Glamdring
Foe-Hammer
The Sword of Gandalf

Aragorn/Elendil's sword in Gondor:
Narsil
The Sword of Elendil

Frodo's sword in Shelob's Lair:
Sting
The Sword of Frodo

Arwen/Elrond's sword by the ford:
Hadhafang



Ok - now for your help. I have 2 more swords, the sword of Theoden, King of Rohan, and Aragorn's Elven fighting knife. I think the perfect place to photograph Theoden's sword would be at a horse stable, not a modern looking one, but an old medieval stable (if I can find one, lol). But I have no clue about what to do with Aragorn's knife. What do you think? I would greatly appreciate any help with this dilemma

Have a great week!!

Just wanted to say hi to everyone, and to thank everyone for their support. I honestly feel so uplifted with each and every one of your comments. I also must apologize to all those artists that I watch - I am TERRIBLE at keeping up with all my deviant watches. I think its a great way to browse new art, and I am so impressed with all of you, but when I see 638 deviations I am a little bit intimidated, as dumb as that sounds. I want to leave comments on most of what I see, and lately (last few months) I have been so busy I seem to just keep putting it off. I have so much I want to comment on, as well as so many photos of my own that I would love to get up here...AAAHHHH!

Phew, ok better now! I promise I will try and get my comments out there. Just wanted to let you know I appreciate your art as much as I appreciate you viewing mine.

Have a great day!!

Matt

Well, my wife and I are going back to Hawaii tomorrow. We went there on our honeymoon but the trip was bittersweet. Her mom was suffering greatly at the time with her fight against cancer. My wife tried to have a good time for me, but sat up every night crying, which I didn't learn about until very recently. Sadly, her mom passed away last October. She was only 43.

We've had a rough time, but Jennifer is starting to get through her healing process. She and I have taken many small trips since October to get away from reality for a few days, but this summer we decided to redo our honeymoon. Last time we went to both Oahu and The Big Island in just 7 days. This time we have 10 days on Maui. No time wasted island hopping. We're both very excited!

I'll be back here in Ohio in about two weeks - hopefully I'll have some great photos to share with all of you. Last time in Hawaii I only had my Sony Cybershot, but this time I have my Canon EOS 350 and several lens...I can't wait!!!

Take care,
Matt