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Cephus
Location: St. Louis
Gender: Male
Born: 1942
Interests: Photography, dogs (Borzoi), Orchids, Carnivourous Plants, Antiques
Member: Premier Artist
Joined: October 2008
INFORMATION
Cepheus has now been involved in digital photography for about four years with a previous background of large format black and white film photograhpy.

Currently, he has started doing art fairs, has work in the Creative Art Gallery in St. Louis, will have a one man show running at Northwese Coffee in Clayton, Mo. from Novembver 5 to late December. He will be exhibiting at the Shaw Art Fair in St. Louis the weekend of Octobver 6,7.

Due to personal reasons that do not allow for extended travel, most of his photograpy has gravitated to macro images and local city scenes.

He uses all Canon equipment with his main lenses being the 100 mm L macro and the 65 mm mp-e macro which allows for images to be captured at 1 to 5 times life size.

His location is only a few blocks from the Missouri Botanical Garden which gives him easy and convenient access to one of the worlds premier sites for floral photography.

He hopes that you will find his images interesting as he attempts to improve his skills.

Visit me at my gallery at CharlesTDana.com
contact me at: CTDana@aol.com
FAVORITE QUOTE
Grow old with me, the best is yet to be.
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Cephus: Crossing my fingers. I have not really been out so far this spring to take any images due to excessive back pain. Tried time, physical theraphy, pill, etc. - all to no avail. Went in today for a steroid injection and hope that this provides a resolution - they gave me 90% odds and hope that I am not in the 10%. Said it will take 1 to 2 days to kick in if it does.

Anxious to get out with the camera again.
June 18 at 11:16PM
    Skyangel02: I will keep my fingers and toes crossed for you and hope the treatment is successful.
    Nothing is much fun when you are in pain.

    June 18 at 11:24PM
    Doris1022: Hope it works for you. I have had those before. with a little help.
    June 18 at 11:45PM
    Cephus: Thus far, although the required wait time is only about half over, detect changes that seem positive. Holding my breath.
    June 19 at 7:58AM
Cephus: In the contest I created on extreme macrophotography, one entry is a field of flowers and another is a nest with several chicks. It is explained that all images should be of a 2:1 ratio that is two times larger than what the standard macro lens will do.
Even more amazing is the image of the three chicks has three votes.
June 18 at 12:15AM
    Skyangel02: Some people obviously don't read contest rules or criteria.
    June 18 at 12:26AM
    Lucien van Oosten: I think that the requirements for the specific lens may have made it difficult (your lens requirement eliminated a lot of photographs, knew what I mean?). seeing how humans are inventive, many might have tried to meet the requirements using another method, like working with the Macro setting and then software to get to your 2.1 ratio.

    just my take on what could have a happened.

    have great day, cheers!!
    Lucien
    June 18 at 8:45AM
Cephus: In my ultra macro contest, how in the Hell do baby robbins get entered? and even get a vote? More amazing on entries is the field of flowers. Does anyone on this site have any reading comprehension? It is totally amazing.
But other than these two and one other, it appears as the other entries are legit.
Perhaps I should not make a comment about an on going contest but these are entries that have absolutely no right to be in the contest.
June 16 at 2:12AM
    Keri Harrish: As the contest creator, you should have the ability to remove those images that don't fit the contest requirements. Especially since you pay to create the contest. This is only my opinion of course but I think the site should allow that option for contest creators.
    June 16 at 2:22AM
    Cephus: See thread that I started in the General Forum. Tom, please tell us why this can not and will not be changed?
    June 16 at 2:34AM
    Sange: I have seen this over and over again. There was a shadow contest and most entered silhouettes. A silhouette is not a shadow..This was last year, I wrote tom about it and he said it was up to the voters. NO one reads anything here except ENDLESS Boring QUOTES!
    June 16 at 2:42AM
    michaelsm55: baby robins have two votes. Thats funny. I guess you need a lawyer and a 100 page fine print contract. Stating what can be used and what can't be
    June 16 at 11:28PM
    Radstyle: Yes, funny. I did put in my review of this shot that it's not what it claims to be but I guess I was wasting my time...
    June 17 at 3:55PM
Cephus: What's going on? Nothing on this page more than 4 hours old.
June 15 at 8:25PM
    Badger: Can we quote you on that?
    June 15 at 8:28PM
    Cephus: Only if your name has a K in it.
    June 15 at 8:32PM
    eileen0204: I'll see your quote and raise you three!
    June 15 at 8:38PM
    Cephus: I fold.
    June 15 at 9:32PM
Cephus: Oops - I must have wandered into the home page for Bartlett's Quotations.
June 15 at 4:27PM
    Sinbackkk: Aka-Kimthoughts.com
    June 15 at 4:31PM
    Sange: SANGE love SINBAKKK! Deb said I could from aFAR! =)
    June 15 at 7:43PM
Cephus: Guess what? a miracle has happened. I posted a very so so image with major focusing problems and guess what? No ratings over a four dot five.

Hurry, take a look in the event that this was an abberation, a once in a life time event that will not repeat.

Could this be the birth of honesty that will echo throughout all of the galleries and make the truly good and great images stand proud above the crowd.

Now that it has been shown that it can be done, lets continue this trend.
June 5 at 9:11PM
    bushimages: No Cephus! I just don't think they like you:) I thought the image was excellent? lol :)
    June 6 at 5:23AM
    michaelsm55: My dear friend. I think they thought it was a contest entry."best worse photo". lol
    June 6 at 7:43PM
Cephus: Did a local art and craft show over the weekend and had a boy about 8 years old tell me why my images are not worth my selling prices. Also, did it in a very abrasive manner.

I also had a woman that said that she loved my work but that my prices were to high for her budget. When I asked how much she was willing to pay, she responded with $10.

Well the results of the show helped to put meat on the table, well that is for the orgainizers. The only person selling anything was someone selling inexpensive, imported Asian items that should not have been allowed in an art and craft fair.

Well some of the the food was good, some nice music and most of the people were plesant. Weather was great Sunday after we had to quickly tear down our tents on Friday night when severe weather was forecast and hit the area.

I now have great emphathy for those that make a living doing art fairs.
June 2 at 10:01AM
    eileen0204: My husband and I do the art shows here in our local area. They are hard to set up taking hours of work be fore we can begin to sell. Let me rephrase that. IF we sell. We get the general oohs and aaahs. We also get the, wow if I only had room on my walls statement. Or, this does not really match my decor. All the while, you stand there with a smile on your face just waiting for the moment you can close it all down and go home. Don't get me wrong, we love the shows. But there is really a lot to do with sometimes no gratification. And you are right. Hard to sell when the five booths of clay flowers that were imported from china are all around you. But we keep plugging along. Because, one day it will all be worth it. Keep going Cepheus, you are worth it.
    June 2 at 11:21AM
    Doris1022: Thanks for sharing your ideas. lol I have wondered about those.
    June 2 at 10:53PM
    Cephus: Two art fairs down and about five more to go for the season. May not make much money but they are fun albeit a lot of work. They both boost and tear down the ego.

    Wish that they were a bit less expensive, about $125 for the small, local one day events and $250 to $800 to participate in the larger weekend events in our area.

    Then there is up to a several month wait to find out if you made it past the jury and were accepted.

    Thus far this year I was rejected at three, accepted at four and placed on the wait list for three (one became a rejection, one an invite and the other is pending).

    At a show that I did not make, apparently about 900 applied for 50 available booths.

    Most shows have an application (jury) fee of about $25-$50, nonrefundable. And booth space needs to be paid for a few months in advance of the show but most will be refunded if you cancel before a specified deadline.

    Most are held outdoors, require a tent and have no refunds in the event of bad weather.
    June 2 at 11:42PM
Cephus: I am making this as a comment to another forum entry. I am making this as a seperate entry as I am apparently muted by the person.
If you want to be a Christan, do not give all 5's - this is not helping people, this is a cop out. People need to learn their strengths and weaknesses are.

I have found that most of the reviewer nominations that I receive are from people to whom I have given a very low rating to. With low ratings, I try to give feedback that will help them to improve, which this site if for.

This is a great place to make friends but I do not want to make friends with those that have very elevated egos and are not willing to accept an honest review for what it is.

Many photographers may see the world differently than me and I will not give a reduced rating because I do not like their subject matter but I will so do if they do this in a technically poorly executed image.

Did you dislike your teachers becasue they gave you less than an A - if so you are a bitter person that believes that the whole world is out to get you.

Why limit your self to loving Christians, are you so biased that you love your own way of seeing the world without believing that other religions are not worthy of respect. Religion shoud have nothing to do how we treat others, everyone should be treated with respect.

Why can you not recognize a poor review as being just that a review, it is not anything personal and anyone that is not willing to accept critical reviews should be wary of becoming involved with the world of art. I am attempting to sell my work and in so doing, I receive and must learn to accept very critical and scathing reviews and not to take it on a personal side.

If you are not willing to give me a low rating when deserved, you are not the type of person that I want to review my work as I am after that thing called honesty.

If an image contains major faults, are they OK becase that is the way that the artist intended to display the world.

By the way, please insert some paragraph breaks to make your message a bit earlier to read.

May 7 at 2:12PM
    Badger: Well said that man!

    I'd have thought the right thing for someone that thinks they are a Christian to do at a time when this site is leaching members because of the disingenuous nature of so many reviewers would be working towards educating others to review as honestly as they are able to - she would do well to take a leaf out of Lucien's book.
    May 7 at 4:30PM
    Cephus: I just reviewed the review that apparently got me muted. I apologize in that this was not well worded and not my usual style, and yes I was a bit too brash on this one.
    May 7 at 5:26PM
    Skyangel02:
    Telling people no improvement is needed by giving them 5 stars and then telling them in the same review how to improve the work makes a review very hypocritical and superficial and meaningless. For a professing Christian to do that is plain stupidity and hypocrisy. You would think the Christians would set the standard of truth and honesty on this site more than the non Christians do but I find it makes no difference if people claim to be Christian or not. Superficial people will always be superficial regardless of the label they stick on themselves.

    I think if people on this site cannot handle getting less than fives for their work and refuse to hand out less than fives with the excuse that anything less than five is not encouraging, then they have a very wrong concept of what encouragement really is.

    Telling the truth and calling a spade a spade is far more loving than muting those who do call a spade a spade.

    May 7 at 8:52PM
    davywavy: If you take issue with the way a person expresses themself,why are you on an artist's website?And how come everyone is an expert on Christianity?Lay off!Not just because you bore me, but because you are at your worst and most unattractive when expounding on your moral superiority.
    Giving 5 stars across the board is probably the most noble option for somebody trying to excuse themself from this dumb-ass rating system.That's how I understand it is intended.So shut up.
    May 8 at 3:08AM
    Skyangel02: Davy, If you take issue with the way a person expresses themselves, why are you here? No need to tell Cephus or anyone else to shut up. We are just expressing ourselves.

    I agree with Cephus, giving everyone the same scores is not helping them.

    If giving everyone the same scores is noble we might as well hand out one star ratings across the board in that case. It's all the same and just as meaningless if we give everyone the same scores regardless of the quality of the work.

    Honesty seems to offend a lot of people so people are afraid of being honest for fear of being disliked. It is amazing how the Christians mute the honest people and are dishonest themselves in order to get people to like them.

    Christians are supposed to be far more tolerant and understanding and forgiving than anyone else. This is obviously not the case.







    May 8 at 4:26AM
    davywavy: Did you hear that, you Hindus and you Moslems and you Jews and you Buddhists?Christians are supposed to be far more tolerant and understanding and forgiving than you.FYI
    Christians did not invent censorship nor do they have a monopoly on dishonesty.I think your comments tell us more about you than about Christians.You should work out your issues somewhere else.I suggest that you redirect your venom inward.
    And so to bed.Good night.
    May 8 at 5:26AM
    Atjoybell: Thank you for these words. I wish I have read this a few days ago. As usual your words of wisdom have motivated me to continue.
    May 15 at 3:38PM
    EvaB: Charles, as you might remember, I reached out to you precisely because of your honest and helpful yet KIND and often humorous reviews. You have also gone above and beyond to help me improve and I am proud to call you a mentor and friend. We are here to help one another grow- which can be done with respect and consideration...and you have been a leader in doing that. As to treating each man with respect regardless of race or religious beliefs....RIGHT ON! And you are right Davy, Christians have nothing over other religions as far as tolerance and understanding. There are both loving and hateful people of all faiths, it is about what is in the heart of the individual.
    May 22 at 3:58PM
    Doris1022: Skyangel, your animosity to christians has nothing to do with the ratings. Human beings have to do with the ratings and should be considered as such. don't take what people say so harshly. Expect the best of all. If yo u are upset by something a person says, go to them and work it out.

    The numbers in my opinion don't really mean alot. some people give 1-3 just because they don't like abstract or your subject.
    some people don't like to review flowers. etc. if you don't like to review certain things skip them. you don't have to review them.

    we all have opinions. I as a christian take offense to christian bashing. just because you have a problem with one person or two even. don't put us all in the same mold.

    We are artist! Inspire. have fun. teach others your craft. that is the joy of FAR!

    Cephus, I am not critical of your ideas. I understand your point but some people just don't know how to rate people. I am never exactly sure myself. so lay off people on the ratings. read their comments. some people just are not good at reviewing and making good sense.

    I hope this helps.
    May 22 at 8:17PM
Cephus: Now official - signed the contract.

I will be having a solo show consisting of 25+ large images displayed in the entrance hall of the Missouri Botanical Garden for Spring of next year - March 14 through May of 2013.

Looking forward to it and have started preparing images but also a bit (read - 'a lot') of anxiety in the thought of having my work viewed by thousands.
April 21 at 1:23PM
    fila4: Congratulations! I have no doubt you will do good.
    April 21 at 2:27PM
    avmurray: Congratulations Cephus. Really good news.
    April 21 at 2:52PM
    Skyangel02: Congratulations Cephus.
    April 21 at 7:09PM
    RavnAdairDesigns: Oh, what a lovely place for a showing! It will be marvelous for the Botanical Garden
    April 21 at 7:21PM
    MGTF Blue: I have no doubt that your work will be well received in 2014 (not 2013 as you put)
    April 22 at 6:23PM
    EvaB: Bravo!
    May 3 at 3:08PM
    michaelsm55: Congrats my friend. I always loved your work and reviews,
    May 3 at 9:43PM
    Mara del Mar: Congrats Cephus. Well deserved
    May 3 at 9:56PM
    Levon7: Conrats on the first place for Abstract contest. It is a super great accomplishment.
    May 5 at 4:26PM
    bushimages: As they say in Australia "you'll shit it in"!
    your good!
    May 6 at 10:06AM
Cephus: If someone mute you, can you still review them in blind contests?
April 13 at 6:09PM
    Skyangel02: I don't think you can even see their work Cephus so it is impossible to comment on it.
    When you click on it to see the larger picture it says "This work is not available"

    April 13 at 8:54PM
    Cephus: I was able to go to a past review that I wrote to a muted person and change the comment. I also believe that the contest entry was for a person that muted me.
    April 14 at 1:44AM
    Flight_of_Raven: I used to be banned by a member who'd enter contests constantly. I could see the thumbnail but never the full-size image. It got incredibly irritating. I have since been unmuted by this member. I have no idea why, presumably other active members have decided to speak honesty to her since the two+ years I've decided to not really be here...
    April 14 at 4:15PM
    Flight_of_Raven: (In other words, gotta love that three member limit!)
    April 14 at 4:16PM
Cephus: Lady luck just smiled on me.

Just received an invite to do a three month exibition of my work at the Missouri Botanical Garden for the summer of next year in the main entrance hall. Will be seen by tens of thousands of visitors.

Totally unexpected but it should be an interesting trip.

March 22 at 4:32PM
    Badger: Cool!
    March 22 at 9:09PM
    donkeyoatey: I can not think of anyone who deserves it more..and what a great venue for your type of work!
    March 22 at 11:33PM
    Wolfdancer13: Congratulations, Cephus!!
    March 23 at 11:28AM
    supong: Congrats.
    March 24 at 9:12AM
    Cephus: Thank you all.

    Now all I have to do is wait a year.
    March 24 at 2:25PM
    ALSvec54: Congratulations, I just discovered this feature. Well deserved as I think you do an excellent job with your flower portraits.
    April 4 at 1:49AM
    shadopups: Well done Cephus, Well done. Your work is exquisite and deserves all the notoriety it receives. Bravo to you.
    April 8 at 9:09AM
    pattigirl: Congratulations! You will do well. Your work is extraordinary.
    May 7 at 1:56AM
Cephus: A while back, I asked for help in selecting photographs to use out of my portfolio to use for art fair submissions. Thus far, was accepted at the first art fair where the list was used. Thank everyone for their assistance.
March 18 at 7:20AM
    Skyangel02: I wish you all the best at the art fair Cephus.
    March 19 at 8:13PM
Cephus: What is or is not going on? I have not seen an interesting posting in the forums in a while? No discussions with a bit of life in them. Almost no discussions of any kind.
March 16 at 10:47PM
    Lucien van Oosten: What interests you? discussion about reviewing, squelching, contests, how to better post an image?
    by the way how did you show go, or are you still wanting on results?
    have great one... cheers!!!
    Lucien
    March 17 at 9:04AM
    Cephus: Do not have a formal show going on at the moment but for the next month my gallery has 16 of my works on display up front. One week now and no sales as of yet.

    Funny story though. I went by the gallery Friday to see if there was any activity and the owner said, "Oh, seeing you gives me an idea. The buyer for a string of nursing homes wants some large, up close floral photographs with a lot of color for the dining rooms and I have been looking all day trying to find some with no luck. When you came in, I thought about yours."

    Amazing, she is walking in past my large, colorful, floral up close photographs every day and she did not think of them? Amazing. She asked her gallery manager where she could find Jpegs of my work and was told to click on my name in the center of her computer screen. She will be forwarding my work to the buyer, hopefully I will get some sales from this.

    The site has not had a lively, perhaps a bit too much, discussions/threads going on and all has been quite quiet for a while. Have no idea of a topic for a spirited discussion, if I did would post it.

    March 17 at 9:37AM
Cephus: Good day, the gallery where I have my work here in St. Louis has given me my own wall for the next month. This is the wall that faces the door.
Now, perhaps with a bit of luck, someone will purchase an image or two.
I posted an image, not for rating, in my porfolio. Unfortunately, the images are full with reflections.
March 7 at 8:10PM
    Shakeadog: Good Luck with your exhibit :)
    March 8 at 6:20AM
    bushimages: They look good, hope you sell all of them!with all the extra sunshine in Australia sometimes facing a door is not such a good thing?I even advise customer not to hang the images directly facing doors or windows in there own homes due to refections and changes in temperature, but we get 35*C temps in summer!:)
    March 8 at 8:31AM
    Cephus: Thank you. I need all of the luck I can get. At this time, I only have the spot for a month and they will not receive any direct sunlight. Would be very concerned if they were dye prints.
    March 8 at 10:56AM
    Skyangel02: I wish you all the best of luck Cephus.
    March 8 at 8:01PM
Cephus: Help

I am applying to a number of Art Fairs and for evaluation, most require the submission of four images upon which your either accepted or rejected.

If you would be interested in helping, take a look at my images in my web site CharlesTDana.com (much easier and faster to view than this site) and let me know what ones you think would have the biggest imspact on the judges - 1 to a half dozen choices.

The pay is poor (none) but you would earn my eternal gratitude. It seems that most people do not agree with me on which ones are the best.

Thank you very much.
March 1 at 10:18AM
    Lucien van Oosten: Any particular theme for any of the shows? or a specific one you want assessed, or just look at them and pick the one that are the best, and how do you want to be notified of our suggestions?
    March 1 at 1:19PM
    Cephus: Posted a reply but it did not work.

    I am reposting this in the general tab as it will not vanish in a day. Post the replies in the tab.

    My website CharlesTDana.com only has images that I sell so all are fair game. Only Floral ans Fauna should be represented.

    Looking for what people think are the top few images.
    March 1 at 1:54PM
 
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Photographer of The Month!
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May 3 at 12:10AM
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