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this awesome old Japanese man stood in front of my camera while i was taking a picture of something else so he could get my attention, shook his camera, smiled, and pointed to it indicting "is it ok if I take your picture." I laughed, so he took it, then I pointed my camera at him while he made an embarrassed "oh my! you want to take myyyyyy picture too?" look. we thanked each other then i went home and charbroiled his face in photoshop and laughed about it for a while before it was suggested I call this picture chimney sweep even though it has nothing to do with that. i like it, though.

i was a bit nervous and taken by surprise when taking his picture so the focus is on his nose, not his eyes. his eyes were also incredibly dark from being shaded from his eyelids so I did a pretty poor job brightening them up. they are way softer than I would like but this is my first full face portrait of this kind so I don't expect a good score

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*POST*

wowowwwwwwwwwowowowowowowow
owowowo
owowoowwowwwowowow
wowowowwow

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't insanelyyyy surprised the day voting began and the first time I checked I had a 7.5. I'd also be lying if I said I hadn't been constantly checking this score ever since then.

i was going to dismiss this picture and submit a more creative shot of myself that I spent a while taking and editing but I wasn't happy with it at all when it was done. I was looking through my pictures and spotted this guy which I had initially dismissed and remembered jaded_youth's free study entry from last month that I was really impressed by the editing with.

//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=443683

I decided to give it a go with the dodging and burning, taking a long time and doing little small increments that I thought looked better and better each time. It could certainly be said that I overdid it, but that's okay. I like riding the line of "too much" and "just right" and someday I'll figure out how to stay on the "just right" side more often.

As always I'm reallllly impressed by the other entries and still completely surprised to be on the front page. Thanks a bunch for all the comments and votes and for shattering any and all expectations I had about this picture!