acshurte

The short version is I'm a disabled fine arts photographer out of the Richmond VA metro area who's pushing forty. Oddly enough I'm working towards a visual arts associate's degree with a focus in photography at this age...and I do non-photographic visual art stuff too, detailed below if you've got way too much time on your hands...

(By the way: Being disabled means I can't do commercial transactions or sales of any kind. Neither NFT's, which I wouldn't do if I legally could, nor anything else. Please do not ask. I really can't help you, regardless of what it is or how lucrative it's supposed to be. I'll ignore you if you ask.)

Thanks in advance for the views, favorites, watches, badges, etc...I don't usually respond to them unless you comment but thank you regardless, it keeps me going.

Old Portfolios (badly in need of an overhaul): https://adamshurte.com

Mostly I work in traditional photography that's true to life in both color and monochrome, and additionally I do photomanipulation work using my photographs as base images that I then experiment with. I like to explore different styles and aesthetics in my photomanipulations. Typically the software I'm working with for photomanipulationhas been the Nik Collection of filters (external plugin you can purchase for Photoshop from DxO)- usually Color Efex, Analog Efex, Silver Efex, and Viveza, but I'm trying to branch out from exclusively relying on those lately. Especially since I'm in school in part to properly learn Adobe programs of late, rather than being a self-taught lunatic.

Outside of photography, I do several other forms of visual art- I'm trying and slowly learning to do traditional drawing and painting techniques (graphite pencil, pen and ink, ink painting, watercolor painting), which is proceeding at a snail's pace and has been for about 15 years now though I've started making progress in the last few weeks or so after a really rough plateau of about that many years (Patience is either a virtue, or masochism, or both, it turns out). In other words I'm not too great at it but I'm starting to make progress in my studies finally and showing slow improvements.

Abstract work, on the other hand, I do some decent enough stuff with. I primarily work with automatic drawing techniques using symmetry tools in Photoshop (then usually fall back on the dreaded Nik Collection to texture them, using it like a crutch inappropriately again); that stuff is kinda honestly in the animisty/witchy department of things for what it's worth if you're wondering. I do some stuff with the mandala software Inspirit (another symmetry tool that I believe anyone can learn to use and make trippy art with), then usually post-process it in...yeah, PS and/or Nik Collection. Another abstract outlet of mine is the fractal software Chaotica 2, which I don't know how to properly use, but I do get some random seed images generated that I then tinker with extensively til the composition looks decent and render them (and post-process them with...anyway). A final abstract method I've dabbled in is alcohol ink art; I'll do more of that later this year after I buy some respirator cartridges again, my last set is spent and it's a fume hazard type of deal when you work with the chemicals. Alcohol ink art is basically making a chemical spill on a flat non-porous surface like plastic or metal and then pushing it around til you're happy with it or it dries and you're stuck with it. You wear the respirator so the fumes don't knock you out in the process.

Anyway, all of that is in the galleries here, so go take a look if you're bored.

I usually don't thank people for favorites unless they comment but I really appreciate them, they keep me going. I'm more likely to respond to a comment than anything else. But thanks even if you're just looking and enjoying any of my work. And if you see me clicking favorite on your stuff, don't feel obligated to stop by and thank me or return favorites either, though that's certainly more than welcome, I'm certainly not great about thanking people when they do it for me. Anyway, enjoy my stuff if you're actually reading this and got this far. Wall of text, I know. Alas. I have devoured minutes of your life. But now you know what to expect in this gallery of uhhh 1500+ images here.