I have decided to close my account at dA. Yes, I did the same about two years ago, but decided to give it another go after being away for a few months. There are a few of reasons for my second departure.

First, I finally have an actual website to showcase my work, which was primarily my reason for having a page here at dA. It's still under construction, but is up and running.

Second, I managed to invest in my first D-SLR last week. I got a Nikon D60 (10.2 megapixel) and a couple of lenses. Needless to say, my future work will be of far superior quality to anything I have posted previously, so I kind of feel that I'm starting a new chapter in my still developing (no pun intended) photography career. If I do return to dA one day, it will be with a new account.

Third, I receive virtually no feedback on my work here anymore. Feedback is very important to me, as is networking with other artists and those interested in my work. I literally have received more feedback on my work on Myspace this year than I have here. There's still a lot of quality work to be found here on dA, but with the staggering number of deviations that only increases by the second, most of us just get lost in the sauce. As far as photography, most of what I see being posted here these days are crude snapshots. There are a ton of websites devoted to online, personal photo albums, which much of the "photography" here would be better suited for. dA should be better than that. It should be a place for ART, not just another online gallery. Sadly, I think it's much closer to the latter at this point.

I thank all of you who have commented on/faved my work, and I apologize that all those faves are now gone, but you know where to find me.
www.jocphotography.com
Or, if you're on Myspace: [link]

Hope to hear from some of you.

Sláinte!

Jim