I just found out because of a suspiciously high number of comments on one of my winter stocks:

I am deeply moved by ^PirateLotus-Stock's decision to award me a DD. When I joined dA, I paid no attention to DDs; I didn't even know what they were. I do now. I know there are hundreds of new pieces every day that deserve praise and recognition and while the CVs are working hard to bring them to our attention, it's humanely impossible to showcase all the good art. Therefore, a gallery's worth cannot be judged by the number of DDs it has. The probability of getting a DD is very low, which makes it the more exciting for me, who never showed interest in getting featured and did nothing else besides maintaining and improving my gallery.

When I started offering stock in 2008, I din't realize the impact it would have on me and my way of seeing the world through a photo camera. The stock love has grown on me and I've quickly become addicted to the stock community on dA. I don't even use stock now that my computer can't handle editing software, but I keep enjoying it and hoarding it into every corner of my hard drive. There is no way I look at a photo now without thinking how it would work as stock. My ways of taking pictures have adjusted specifically to make better stock - when I see something nice, I take the scene apart in my head, trying to find an angle that allows each element to be removed and other objects to fit in there with the least effort. My parents can't count on me to take vacation photos any more because I don't shoot in harsh sunlight or landscapes with someone's mug plastered in front of them, and I never enable the blitz. I have learned a lot from looking at other stockers' work, tutorials and articles by our CVs and other big names in the stock community. Taking pictures for stock is my hobby; all my equipment is a compact camera and sometimes a tripod. What pushes me forward is the support I find and my desire to get the best from what I have, be that the camera, the setting I'm shooting, the light conditions or my own body, when I'm posing for human stock.

I always hope my next pictures will be better than the previous. I want my gallery to show progress. I try very hard to get the right stock on camera the way I feel it and I'm bummed when it doesn't come close to what I have in mind (thinking about the human stock again ;_. Thank you for believing in me and giving me a boost just as I was in a down mood. I will try to be more active as much as my painfully slow connection allows and share some new stocks and stock ideas with you. I read and cherish all of your comments, even if I rarely manage to answer. You guys are the best.
Peace



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