It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that for now, my time in deviantArt is over.

This came about for a number of reasons. Firstly, I was approcahed by a couple of the women who had agreed to pose for me to remove their images. They found them by doing a google search and decided that they didn't want them out there in the public arena. They were happy with them just being on an art site like deviantArt, but when they came up by a standard google image search, they freaked out. It is a pity but I do understand. They were not professional models at all, just friends who agreed that nudity is not a problem. Unfortunately they have professions where nude photos of them are severely frowned upon. So to protect them, I removed the photos.

The second reason was that I was getting sick and tired of all the trolls who have appeared in this site over the last few years who solely look at nude photos of women for their own sexual gratification. Comments like "she gets me hard" or "great tits" etc etc etc show that the ones who appreciate the nude art form are becoming a minority here. These comments made other women feel uncomfortable about their nude photos being here, so I removed them.

The third reason is a little more personal. I am and always have been an amateur with a good point and shoot camera (a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX1). It does not have detachable lenses (although it does have Carl-Ziess ones which are good). It certainly took great pictures, but as it wasn't a DSLR I was fighting a losing battle. I also have a small amount of photoshop knowledge, and with the two I was able to make some good images. The problem then became that I would get comments from other photographers about my work that were rather patronising in their approach to me. That did not bother me as such - they have spent thousands on their cameras/equipment/studios and their images reflected that. Mine were almost as good, but not quite there. For example I know that many of my images had been recommended for awards like Daily Deviations, but because I wasn't a pro, they got nowhere. I do not hold any grudges to that as awards are always subjective. The fact that I have seen many awards given to photos that I personally thought did not look good (despite the full professionalism that apparently went into producing the right effect with all the lighting effects), that did discourage me. I have also been trying to expand my work and tried to use professional models. I felt that I had reached a stage where my skill would be enough to have them interested in working with me. Apparently not. Every single one I approached was not interested. I never really got any decent answers as to why not. My suspicion is that because my camera was 'just' a point and shoot, because I had no studio, because I had no experience in shooting pro models, they did not want to know. I have probably been tarred with the GWC label, no matter how unwarranted it is.

So I realised that I was in a crossroads with my hobby. With no new models to work with (and having run out of friends who were willing to pose nude), it meant that I was effectively going nowhere with it. That and the negative reasons I have mentioned before, I have deleted my gallery from here. Maybe if I manage to convince a model who has no problems being identified as a nude model over the internet then I will post here again. But as I was in a Catch-22 over that before, I don't think it will happen in the near future.

I do want to thank those of you who did support an amateur photographer here like myself. I was gratifying to have people around the world who thought I wasn't bad at what I do. I had over 1000 watchers. Those people made my time here worthwhile. But the rest, well, they started to become more vocal and more obnoxious. That and the problem that non-model women potentially have in having nude photos of them around, I decided that it was best to delete my gallery.  I have also removed myself from all the groups I was a member/contributor for too. As I have no images to share with them anymore, it didn't make sense to stay a part of them.

I hope to one day become good enough to return with photos that blow people away. But for now, I think that it is best for me to exit the arena.

Good luck to all the good people here on deviantArt. The ones who attracted me here in the first place. I hope that your art expands with leaps and bounds and the number of trolls out there finally drop to managable levels for you.

Dave