Hi Bram

I noticed that you gave my image a 10 and I want to thank you for that which means a lot to me. It's been a while since an image of mine was up on the hri and it feels nice since coming back to rating again for me. Thank you. If you have some thought about it I would love to hear from you. Hope all is well with you and that we will see some of your images here again at MFT. Cheers.

KREEEGAH BUNDOLO... this is really something...and now my wife standing by me said..."look,he is on the roofs too"....Eugene, i have no words...I am interested in Frank commnet but have to weight for that...235 layers...ha,pitty you didnt work in 16 bits files...i think that even this extra ram will not help your PC to collapse...But ,this is really...if agent Smith is personised by you that be really bad...he will drink all the beer in our little planet...even Neo cant help us...

Denis, Many thanks for your comment and rating and also thanks to your wife Karmen for noticing the Smiths on the roofs :-) As a matter of interest what does KREEEGAH BUNDOLO mean! :-) Perhaps something like what we say here 'holy mackeral' :-) I am writing my Christmas cards by my computer and having a glass of wine - decided to give the beer a rest :-)

What time and attention you gave to each detail of this photograph!

Eugene - it is really good and exciting to see this up here now and even HRI :). I can imagine what it feels like after all this layering and waiting and maybe even some blues during the work and you know what ;). Apart from all the work I think it is a terrific idea and you managed to materialize it clonefaces, humanfaces and specialedtionhumour all at the same time. Luckily I got one of the last Herforder Pils....*ggg :D

Not to quibble, but Agent Smith's desire was to be free of humans and in particular, Morpheus, not to be a self actuated personality. Which is interesting, because, if anything, "The Matrix" was a visual representation of Nietzsche's terrible question "Man is a something to be transcended. What have you done to transcend him?" which, of course, was what The Matrix represented through the personages of the Agents as represented by Smith.

But I digress. Of course Agent Smith could get the blues. :>)

Brilliant image Eugene - wonderful in concept and I know you put one heck of a lot of work in it.

Congratulations - most excellent - well done.

PS: We need to get together and jam sometime. :>)

Thanks for your comments and also especially for the feedback along the way. What a journey between worlds this has been!

Pamela, many thanks for your comments which I appreciate a lot.

Tom, you are of course quite correct about what you say and I dont see it at all as a quibble but rather as a good comment. I didn't want to take up too much space in my intro comment so I was trying to be concise but yes of course Smith wanted to be free of humans (the scene where is revulsed by the human sweat and odour of Morpheus is so well done) and there's the transcendental catch!, he wanted to be free and at once in control, but he himself is as I remember it a sentient program playing out his own part but wanting to be free of this part. I thought that struggle was very well played out and that Hugo Weaving was really so brilliant in it. Yeah, I'd love to jam with you sometime!! Maybe the Toronto meet? Maybe kick off with a John Lee Hooker number......One Scotch, One Whiskey and One Beer........ :-)

I am simply astounded. I appreciate so much the amount of time and effort that went into this production. I'd say that this is the bee's knees, cool, groovy and phat all rolled into one!

Could you break the caption into a few paragraphs? 8-| LOL

Very cool Eugene, but you forgot to make it square for the CD cover. Back to the drawing board, ha ha. Would still like to see it in blue.

This is definitely a ten. I am very impressed by the photo, the image and your dedication to the art. It is technically brilliant and conceptually creative. I like your story very much. While I agree first and foremost an image must stand on its own merit, I think the world of arts would be much poorer without stories. The National Geographic image of the Afghan girl with the penetrating eyes is enriched by the story told by the photographer, yours too. So please continue to accompany your photos with notes or stories.

Edwin many thanks for your responce to my image. After a hard day's work there's nothing like a bit of appreciation for the effort put in..... Cheers. I typed up the intro on a word doc with paragraphs and appropriate line spacing, copied and pasted it into the dialogue box and then uploaded it and it came out thus! If you can tell me how to rectify I will! Thanks again.

Charles: Many thanks for your comment and appreciation. Yeah, it owuld have been good for a comp entry alright but I was still at school......and it's gotta be green I'm afraid.....

H.K. : Thanks also. That was a very nice comment that you put. I will take your advice.

Pascal: Thank you too for your words which are appreciated by me. You have observed well between article and image :-)

Many thanks for your very generous ratings.....

I truly appreciate the work and effort that went into this and the result is most admiring.

Eugene,

An amazing and masterful creation!!!!

Margriet, Michael and Eleanor

Many thanks for your encouraging comments which I appreciate very much.

Michael, I never really got into Frank Zappa but I'll check this one out! Thanks for the tip.

This is a great test of the resolution of the new Apple 20 inch Cinema Display I got yesterday! I am not familiar with The Matrix and Digital Art is not my forte, but I love this picture on its own merits.

I find this a very powerful image. The row upon row of the same person is frightening in the sense of loss it creates. The loss of other people and other personalities. The feeling that you have to live with yourself warmed over again and again is terrifying. The guitar adds a hint of hope. There is always music, but here it is always as played by the same musician. It is frightening because of the sense of regimentation and the single tone which fits this world of one. Finally, it is most frightening, as it is a warning not to become so self-absorbed as to block out other people.

I also like this aesthetically and graphically.

By the way this is not the type of picture with added elements that bothers me. There is no sense of the falsification of an original scene here. This is simply a new creation using the camera and digital processes. A tremendous amount of work, but well worth it.

Cool image! I especially like the detail with the little ones standing on the roofs :-)

kreegah bundolo is the warcry of Tarzan. In gorilla-language it means something like "im the strongest!"... i think.

well done.

Eugene,

I most definitely admire the hard work, most definitely envy the artistry and most definitely recognize and respect the talent that you have put into this creation. I do not know much about this art, so there is not much I can say …. with my best regards,

-Vaggelis

Dare I say it... I find this picture hilarious. For if Agent Smith plays the blues - which he is about to... - doubt has already crept in. His three stooges "I can't stop him", "mmm what's going on" and "him over there" are powerless. The male voice choir behind will raise their voices in rhythmic harmony as the first notes are struck. Us the audience (all Agent Smith look-a-likes) will sing and join in and the spell will be broken. Or have I missed the point? A marvelous piece of work. You must have learnt so much in the manipulation of all these elements and your hard-ware. 10 for the concept 10 for persistence and 10 for technique are all rolled up in my comment. Respect!

Frank many thanks for your comments which I appreciate very much. I was curious to know what you would make of it and you have some interesting observations which are helpful. What I most appreciate though is your clarification around digital images and your refinement of the issues there and taking the image on its own merits. A fine position and one where I can see your own journey in working through these issues with your ownsense of openness and honest approach. Its interesting that you picked up on the theme of loss which is of course one that is present in the movie and that you see some hope here as well - represented symbolically for you in the guitar. Your comments make me think and see the image in some different ways. Thank you.

Jakob. Thanks for your positive comments and the clarification re Tarzan! Interesting comment when you think about the subject matter of this image and someone swinging from the trees! I'm sure you are right. I have very vague and distant memories of watching Johnny Weismueller (spelling?) in action, well all so many years ago. Thanks again for your comment.

Nuts.

and that's the main reason why I like this :)

Uf, i was have a LP "Zappa in New York" (live) and that is really excellent one...but ,"kreeegah bundolo" is in some comic books of Tarzan which i read when i was little...and this is the scream he got out when he see that Jane is rearrange his house on the tree or he see that some mumbo-jumbo is happen in his jungle...and yes in my case it could pass for "holy mackeral" (but i am not sure what that means but i guess)

Vaggelis thank you for your comments and appreciation which I value.

Martin, thanks for your comment. I am glad that you find the humour in it and that you find it hilarious, cos it is on one level! For sure I learnt a lot doing this. It was very hard work and at one point it felt so huge I thought about packing it in but was encouraged by my critics, who are kind and challenging task masters!

Steen, thanks for your endorsement which is appreciated also.

Juha, Many thanks for your comment. Yes it is completely nuts on one level! Good to see you around here again Hope you will post some more images?

Denis: Right on! Thanks for the clarification about Tarzan! Will check out some Zappa when I'm next in town in the music shops.

you ARE the DADDY!!!

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the Peter Gabriel (I think it was Peter Gabriel) video with all the female band members looking exactly the same. This reminds me of that, except that they were women, I think in red, and this is you!

Nigel: Many thanks for your comment and of course for your critiques along the way. I think I owe you a few beers:-)

Frank: Many thanks also for your comments. You make some good suggestion there about the electric guitar. I never even considered it but yes it would have been suitable now that you mention it. Thanks. I'm mostly playing acoustic these days so habit probably kicked in. The foreground comes from the ISFC. I got chased away from there once before but went back anyway:-) The buildings in the BG are from the other side of the Liffey - The Ulster Bank. Thanks again.

John L thanks for your comments which I truly appreciate - you are too kind! I did want to acknowledge Matt as the first time I saw one of his images it just blew my mind. On this one I learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, stopped and started and glad of the support I had along the way. I will probably get a print of this. I think I set myself up with probably the most difficult image I could think of in this new departure for me. I would love it if I could produce an image a month like this but we'll see.

Edwin: Thanks for the Peter Gabriel link. A video full of women? Gotta check this one out again:-)

It was Robert Palmer's video "Addicted to Love". I can't seem to find a link to the video... :-/

I'm glad you said Rober Palmer becasue I was about to take Edwin to task for that.

Peter Gabriel indeed.

If I had to make a suggestion to make it even more "Matrix" like, it would be a cascade of musical notes instead of the sky.

I keep looking at this and am amazed at the amount of work you've put into it. This just ain't takin' pictures.

Edwin: Thanks for the clarification there.

Tom: That's a really good idea about the musical notes. I may, when I have sufficient time from it, go back and investigate that idea and see how it fits in. I did consider doing somethng like the matrix code as a transparency on the whole image but decided against it as I thought it might make the image too busy but your idea is a really good one. Thanks for sharing with me. A very useful suggestion. Thanks.

One must congratulate you for all the hard work you put into this. In terms of detail, attention, skill, talent and patience you deserve a 10 ++++. As a photo, however, allow me to be the only one to say that, the composition does not tell me anything special and the green all over is not particularly attractive.

Michael

Many thakns for you honest comment which is appreciated by me.

What an absolutely demented picture to undertake! I mean....speechless. How many hours?

You should feel rightly proud of this Eugene. I mean, if you can do this, have learned how to do this....boy, I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Very well done Eugene.

Best wishes- Andy

Cool sunglasses... Eugene my man. everything has been said. I came late on the commenting, but after such a long thread all I can do is congratulate you for taking MFT to the next level of creativity.

Here's my 10.

Eugene, I can appreciate this for the obvious care and love of process that went into it and congratulate you on challenging yourself to gain new technical skill. It's made your educational task easier to begin by approprating someone else's vision (in this case the Wachowski Brothers), but I look forward with anticipation to seeing how you apply what you've learned to a vision that's all yours.

Andy Oscar and Ferd

Many thanks for your comments and endorsements which I appreciate very much. Yes I think if I was doing this again that it would take a lot less time than this one which was a bit of a ground breaker for me but I'm glad that I persisted with it.

Ferd, your comment means a lot to me and thanks for that. I was thinking of doing my own interpretations of albums but your comment has challenged me to take a slightly different road to my own vision. Thanks for that. Means a lot that you observed and said it.

On another note (!) my acoustic guitar (the one in the image) fell over today and the headstock split in a way that is probably not repairable, rendering the guitar pretty useless :-( I've had it for 25 years and it has been with me through many good and momentous times :-( Oh well. It served me well through the years.

So many comments here. Too much to read, so please apologize if I just write something someone else already has written. It never impresses me to hear how many pictures someone has taken or how many layers or hours of work have gone into a picture if the result isn’t good. This is good. I particularly like how Eugene in the middle (can’t write “the man” – it’s so obviously you) is the only normal looking Eugene in the picture. Hope you will use this technique to make something which is not Matrix or anything else – something which is a unique Donohue. :-)

Thanks Caroline. Yeah I guess thats the challenge - to have a unique vision. Hopefully a step in the right direction here! Now, where is that thinking cap?..........

You could always put your head on a cow's body and add some freaky grass!

;-)

You posted this just before I went on holiday and I've only just got around to commenting. Not that it needs anything additional to what's been said. Great work, Eugene. Your bio says you hope to increase your skills with PS. I think that goal is accomplished. If I had a quibble it would be with the green cast being continued through all of the Eugene front and centre. There is warmth in your skin tones and I thik it would be nice to bring out some of the warmth in the guitar's woodwork as well. But it's only a quibble. Not enough to take off a whole point. Cheers.

...Thank you very very much for taking the time to go back to the image and for your generous comment. Much appreciated.

Have not been on the site regularly and missed this one. An image not to be missed. Fabulous !

with HOF, Eugene, it´s well deserved! Apologize for not commenting and rating earlier, must have been away that time. But you get it anyway!

Kind regards,

...why i never commented on this image, eugene. and now there's really nothing interesting left to say, its all been overed so well. i wish i would have the perseverance to complete something of this magnitud, but to be honest i don't think i have the skills. cangrats on the HOF acceptance and the kick ass shot! hope to see more in the future.

best, john

Deserved for sheer tenacity.....and vision. Good on you Eugene.

Best wishes- Andy

Horst John and Andy

Thank you very very much. That was very good of you to come back to it. Cheers!

If we read every thread we will not have time to make images like these. I agree w/ some, now give us the real you and explore a unique Subject matter. I too Love playing wit PS as you are experiencing here. I like the color choices and composition and the story your image relays.

Keep having fun, it shows.

Maybe revisit the same image in the Nude...

Cheers, Jeff Eichen