LionheartLive

I really feel bad when I have to do this: remove over 10,000 deviations, over 1,000 journals, over 100 critiques etc without looking or reading any. For the past months I have had no time to do anything on dA and I still have only little time ... the weather is good and I have to open my artisan stand every day in temperatures around 90 degrees to make my money. When I get home at night I am burned out, fried crisp, well done.

But I have done several good shoots in the past 6 weeks plus I made a lot of new jewelry ... so I need to share all on dA. Over the next couple of days I will be uploading selected photos showing what I did.

I network daily on Myspace, so if any of you have an account there please add me as a friend: Lionheart_Live ... please don't send me invites to Facebook or Twitter, I have no time for them and they are less useful than Myspace.

I hope you like my new photos, I'll be uploading them this week. Please comment (and fav?) ... I need to know how I'm doing.

Love & Peace,
Lionheart

I don't even have time to write this journal ...

Real life has hit me with a lot to do and get money for it - finally - a good thing!

At first I feared the worst would happen. The season starts here in South Beach Florida at xmas and normally lasts till Memorial Weekend ... but it never started. January and February were dead, worse than any month last year. Plus the city had changed the ordinance for artisans really screwing me out of getting a good location for the first quarter of 09. Photoshoots vanished from Ocean Drive, I see none anywhere along Ocean Drive or on the beach. Photographers and agencies are going broke, models become restaurant hostesses.

Then in March things started changing. I discovered a hole in the new ordinance. While the city management had mapped the the city like a dart board and defined areas where artisans and performers could setup, they forgot to regulate the bullseye. So now I am setup on Lincoln Road between Collins and Washington, in front of the largest CVS store of the USA. For those who know SoBe you know it is the prime location.

At this time tourists started arriving finally, not just from overseas, but also from the USA, and a small Spring Break season opened along with the World Music Festival. But still no photoshoots anywhere. I'm lucky I'm a Jack of all trades.

Now I'm making jewelry day and night, selling it faster than I can arrange for a photoshoot of a girl wearing it. Just no time anymore for even a shoot with my black mannequin that I pulled out of a dumpster. In between I have to keep up with my order list for materials, very time consuming to ensure maximum profitability.

So now I ask all to be patient with me. I know I have to take care of the three new clubs I joined, just no time to figure out the required details. I also have to send many thanks for favs, watchers and collectors.

I urgently need local models or girls for some photoshoots with my jewelry, maybe some guys too. I offer it as a trade for CD and jewelry I make in adequate value, or I custom make something. I'm also starting a new leather line, so I will also need someone interested in fetish wear.

I biggest sellers are shark tooth jewelry and jewelry with green Aventurine. Nobody forcasted that gemstone and that color as product of the season ... they were very far off.

Bye for now, going to grab more shark teeth now ...

After a few months of debating with myself if I should subscribe I had an evening to myself, drank several Steel Reserve 211, and in a drunken stupor I managed to hit subscribe, enter my Paypal password, and sign my life away ...

The next morning I read my emails and realized what I had done ... at least better than waking up to a person next to you in bed and you don't recognize it  or know its name ...

My inner debate was fierce, the cons always won over the pros. Let me list them:

1. The economy is horrible. My artisan sales are down to 40%, freelance photography doesn't exist anymore. Normally I see daily photoshoots here in South Beach ... in this year none, nada, nothing. So spending money on subscriptions is a luxury, including dA. I cancelled many.

2. dA has some very obnoxious features that piss me off. The start page is the worst, I don't understand how so much crap is set as most viewed, and I don't have the time to dig through all the pages to find the good stuff.

3. I upload stuff and I get favs in a 15 min time range, then nothing, aside from the favs I get from a few watchers. That tells me that 99.9% of dA never get a chance to see me, unless I get a DD.

4. When somebody watches me, I watch back as a courtesy, if they have deviations worth watching. I watch many, but hardly anybody watches me. I can understand some of them, who are focused on nudes or stock and have huge page views. In many cases it appears to me as arrogance or plain self-exposure. I had hoped dA was more supportive to new guys.

5. DDs are the only hope an artist can have to become known on a large scale. While I agree with at least of 50% of the DDs shown, many are not close to what I would call worth a DD. The worst case is seeing an animated emoticon next to an extremely well done photo or piece of art, both receiving a DD. As all emoticons are suggested by one person high in the dA hierarchy I detest it, a reason alone not to subscribe.

6. I get a lot of crap in my messages from people I watch, the worst are the polls. I'll be deleting those who annoy me. Why should I reply to a poll asking me if I masturbate with light on or off, etc?

I got more gripes, but I'm getting tired, the beer is kicking in.

So why did I subscribe?

1. I dunno, I was drunk.

2. I had $10 on Paypal.

3. I wanted to change my pages to look like they are now, with photos sorted in folders.

4. I wanted to show favs only, not all collected stuff.

5. I wanted to feature what I consider as my best stuff.

6. I want to select a few shots for prints on dA, I've been selling some with success in South Beach here.

7. Do I need dA? No. But I want to see if I can do better with a subscription.

I'm finally uploading my jewelry and other stuff into my Etsy store:

LionheartLive.etsy.com

All Myspace and deviantArt friends get 20% discount at least, send me a note here or in Etsy and I will verify and give you the discount.

You can check all my images here and request what you see here as well, since the uploading in Etsy takes a lot of time, especially for complete sets, where you get even more discount. Use the Alchemy option in Etsy for these requests, please.

Do you have a special wish, or you want multiple units of the same item, like for all your friends, use the Alchemy option as well.

First 3 Myspace and first 3 dA orders get a gift as a big thank you from me.

I know I wrote earlier I won't do an Etsy store but I am only offering things there I can replicate more or less similar. The economy forces me to seek all channels to sell what I make.

Love and Peace,
Lionheart

I'm simple photographer, not an amateur, not a professional, not experimental, whatever.

All my life I was a photographer using film, just recently I took the step to learn digital photography. I bought a Nikon D40 and it was a wise choice. I used other point-and-click digitals before that and was not happy. I was used to SLRs like the Nikon F2 or real old cameras like Voigtländer and Rollei. About 5 years ago I lost everything, all films and prints in a flood, then all equipment due to a robbery of my storage unit while I was persuing a new job.

So after a few years of frustration I'm starting again. I'm a professional software engineer and experienced with many graphic programs, as designer, manipulator and artist. Currently this activity is on ice. I prefer working with my hands right now and creating real things, not just computer images of my ideas.

I use PSP for digital darkroom processing and PS for manipulation. Why PSP? It does what I want faster and better, imho.

My photos are not stock and are copyrighted. I may grant permission for real manipulations of photos not containing my designs or named persons. Write me about your intentions and we'll see. I plan to get a subscription soon and talk to the elders (snicker) about a stock account.

I'm trying to get wider recognition on dA ... I get a limited number of favs when I upload new stuff, but nobody seems to look at older uploads. Can anybody tell me some tricks? I know a DD would work, but that is too random to hope for, like playing Lotto.

Love and Peace,
Lionheart