Arthur78's photostream

Hello and thanks for checking my profile.

A naturally born exhibitionist; I have enjoyed stripping off and showing the goods for as long as I can remember, whether for a real or imaginary audience.

I started using Flickr in 2008 as a casual outlet for my exhibitionism, and the first 40 or so photos in my photostream are a product of that. Most were taken candidly by friends.

Then gradually, I started realizing how much I appreciate, admire and enjoy professionally taken homoerotic photos. I knew that it is something I feel passionate about and want to pursue.

At that point it stopped being about exhibitionism for me, and became a desire to create “erotic art”. That’s when I started experimenting (crudely) with self-taken posed photos and some post processing filter effects. You might notice that shift in my photostream.

Now I’m back after a long break during which I didn’t shoot much but spent a ton of time carefully studying photos taken by the others (Flickr is an amazing resource for that), and also learning software tools and techniques to enhance my photos. I think the result is showing off in my latest uploads, or at least I hope so.

I wish I had access to other male models to shoot; being the model and the photographer simultaneously makes it more difficult and limiting. Plus I’m not the ideal male model in my book; my physique has shortcomings and I do a good job of working around them, but again it’s limiting the potential of what I can and would like to create. I hope to be able to work with volunteer models soon.

This brings me to another point, and the main reason I’m writing this, which is the nature of comments on my photos. For the most part they are superlative compliments on the subject of the photos, which is my body, or parts of my body… I do appreciate those of course, and they were very appropriate when my photos were only a form of exhibitionism… But I don’t see myself in my photos anymore. Now they are a product of many hours of hard work, and I wish more comments were of the constructive kind.

I am eager to keep learning and enhance my skills as a photographer; that’s where analytical and constructive feedback would help a lot. I know that Flickr is home to many amazingly talented and keen eyed people who are capable of looking at one’s work critically and give a few pointers. But perhaps I need to explicitly call out for that, so here am I doing it: I have thick skin, bring it on! :)

I'm planning on starting a personal blog soon, to post greater quantity of photos, include larger sizes, and write accompanying entries. Of course I will maintain my Flickr account and cross-link between the blog and my photostream here.

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I do this in my free time and my equipment is relatively modest:

Camera: Canon EOS 30D
Lens 1: Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OS (used for all my early photos)
Lens 2: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II (used for most of my new photos)
Flash: Canon 580EX (haven’t used it in any uploaded photos yet)