I am a Cameraby
xianartComment by littlegett: When I see this image it appears to be more of a self portrait of the photographer than a portrait of the camera. Though the noise and high-contrast b/w is fun, one thing to remember is that dark against dark is a tricky subject.
For me here the camera gets lost and the photographer takes center stage because the hands and face are pushed forward with all of the dark around, hat, hair, shirt, camera.
I am wondering what if you rotated the camera in landscape position, cropped in closer with the hands more encircling the camera just under the face/chin. Create this as a wider image cropping part of the head off as well, and really focusing on making the camera the star of the image. You should experiment with different crops and see what you like better. You can always crop off just under the eyes, nose, or wherever to create a whole another feel to better push the camera forward.
This style is easy to use to 'cheat' certain technical aspects as well, as for one being focus. With the extra noise the image automatically because softer and any focus that was soft looks part of the overall design. However, there does appear to be a bit of motion blur in the camera itself. This could be because of the awkward position of the trigger being clicked by thumb.
As an image in itself I enjoy it, though for the challenge it needed to be stronger to make the camera the main subject. Though one last thought, the white parts of the eyes I believe needed to be touched just a bit to be lighter than the colour on the cheeks. This will allow your eyes to pop out a bit more.
Andrew
Photographer found comment helpful.