I'm sure there's a joke about Mannie in there somewhere.

One of the scariest photos of Ayu in a while. Photoshopping out her smile lines? That's just... :no

the roots on her hair..what's the deal??

Woah what a scary picture! It's so photoshopped to hell!

Am I the only one bothered by Leslie's constant use of overexposure in his photos? I wouldn't mind if it works but it rarely does.

I smell new single's covers!

photoshop>> the natural botox XXXXD

yeah :eviltongu

the picture is horrible

Sorry, but this photo is just meh.

no you are not! i myself didnt like using flash when taking pictures and also in the pic it's clearly overexposed and why too much photoshoped again,these days all we get is those plastic and unnatural pic of Ayu :no

Who is Ryan?

oh god

she looks dead here :no the worst picture evah

There is just so much wrong with that photo.

I blame Leslie for how it looks, but Ayu, if that was me in that photo, I'd keep it off the internet.

that picture is not bad as people are saying it is.
I seen worse.

^^Unfortunately that's easier said then done especially if you don't own the rights to the photograph.

I'm not a huge fan of the photo myself but like Jackie said, it's not that bad.

There is no picture worse than the Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ covers. I judge all her "bad" photos based on that. This picture is fine.

^I always forget about those covers

it seems everyone is a critic.

^Well I do have a degree in photography so I can be a little picky/critical when it comes to photos especially when it comes to commercial/fashion work since that is what I got my degree for and it's my current line of work.

Are people not allowed to even have an opinion on the photo? I don't think that anyone is trying to state that the picture is terrible as a fact.

I agree with this 100%

Ayu looks lovely in so many of her candid non-pro photos, but for example here... why remove the smile lines? Every human, even young children, get smile lines when they smile.
They took a photo of a pretty woman and messed it up, that's what most (if not all) are complaining about.

Yeah, those covers also give me shivers..
That, AND MOON Jacket B, oh god... So, this picture of her is not bad at all.

^I was just thinking about that cover :roflmao
I prefer this photo than that cover.

She looks pretty and in my opinion the only thing that's bad about it is the contacts.
She should have worn a tad darker shade or none at all.

I don't see what's wrong with this photo... roots? she's a human and that's not a photosession. flash? correct brightness/contrast on your monitor. It's not WHAT bad

Am I not allowed to have opinion about your opinion than? %)

I don't think it's THAT bad.

It's certainly not good though. And personally, I'm kinda tired of the photoshop on her off-shots and twitter photos. I know that's kinda stupid, but whatever.

It's not that important anyway.

THIS ^

basically thats where 'plastic' image came from. you can google ayu pictures from now till the end of time you won't find untouched pic of her if its not from age when dinosaurs were walking and that doesnt count.

I really don't care that much about this photo.

Hopefully they are for something new, bored of having nothing new tbh.

:roflmao

In less than a minute I've found the following
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QM2-6hVKZb...el_Schwarz.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_69z2mbV3dz..._2729391_n.jpg

http://sgstb.msn.com/i/52/9B1E68E16F...776A51587F.jpg

http://www.bjunkyard.com/gallery/dat...d_portrait.jpg

u guys are such drama queens, i can't..

I really needed to add 'and no heavy make-up' ?

if thats natural ...

Well yeah, I got that, I obviously can live with that considering Im stanning for her nonetheless but that doesnt mean I cant speak the truth.

and truth is she doesnt need all that, at least not in every single picture

You can see her looking like a 40 years old woman without make up and awake for 2 months awake on any behind-the-camera material to the tours... :P

i don't even think she looks bad or old unretouched or without make-up/minimal make-up like a lot of people claim. she's lucky she still looks the way she does at her age with her schedule, and a lot of you will be lucky if you look half as good as her when you reach her age.

but anyway yeah, that photoshop is bad. :P

LOL for real.

It's like people are a broken record around here: "too much photoshop," "she looks plastic," "why can't her photoshoots look natural."

I mean if you haven't gotten use to it by now... :innocent

I never liked that picture with Ayu and Mannie. He looks like a complete weirdo...

When you reach her age? The woman turns 34 this year, I wouldn't consider this old at all... But anyway, when I showed last years CDL to friends they couldn't believe Ayu is 33 years old at all. They thought she would be 26 or 27 or so.

it constantly goes on with ayu being old lol and I always wonder how madonna fans feel then lol. 30s are new 20s

I'm so glad she got rid of that awful hair up there.

Leslie's shots just make me angrier and angrier every time I see them. :/

The close up is definitely photoshop magic (it's from that limited Asia Tour Book, if I recall it correctly) and the second one is a picture of an A BEST 2/Asia Tour 2007 promotion/conference meeting, so no-one really possesses any evidence on what they did with that photo before they made it public.

MTE

You are, but then you are no better than me.

Leslie is shimoko part 2 now
many people starts blaming him
LOL

I like both of them equally. I have no strong opinions on either. Sometimes I like the photos, sometimes I don't.

idk I think shimoko x ayu is just not great.

leslie seems to have both ups and downs with her though.

errmm seriously? It isn't that hard to find.
http://misachanjpop.wordpress.com/20...eets-35124512/
unless you're passing a day = 100 years... it's definitely not dinosaur age =P It's just less than 3 weeks ago.

too much of a good thing can be bad.

most everyone disliked Shinomura and wanted her to start using Leslie more often.
now Leslie is being used too much and everyone is starting to dislike him. XD

So true.

My exact thoughts!!!

Those pictures and the ones from Twitter are worthless. They always look as if Ayu would use a 15 years old webcam or something. Far from high resolution photos, so basically not much can be seen on such, let's call them, snapshots.

Only way to see real photos of Ayu in high resolution are the ones fans are uploading after meeting Ayu in person.

^ and her photos like that always have bad lighting so things are unclear, or the weird blur effects.

I think the only 100% natural one is that reallly tiny and grainy photo in one of the (m)u photobooks. It's too small though, and too LQ to tell anything though (which isn't a coincidence...)

I never really cared for Leslie to begin with... true he has some really FANTASTIC pictures, but over all I think he is HIGHLY overrated.

I don't care much for any photographers, I never have and I probably never will. Ayu's physical image doesn't seem to mean much to me, Photoshopped or not. I only know Leslie's work becasue he's been forced down our throats the past year or so (or more?). I just want her to have long dark hair, and I want it now. I wanted it last year. :headache

^
omg yes, dark hair :heart I'm used to see her blonde but Ayu dark long hair is much better :luv2.

btw I'm not getting bored easily, but yeah would be nice to see other photographers working with her.

If I'm not wrong, I'm only answering to this "basically thats where 'plastic' image came from. you can google ayu pictures from now till the end of time you won't find untouched pic of her if its not from age when dinosaurs were walking and that doesnt count."

I'm still fine with Leslie, to be honest...

He seems to have been experimenting with new photography techniques though compared to his style from 2001 to around 2008.

Ayu needs new people around her. Leslie is just one of many "photographer" that mess up their own work with photoshop. A good photo does not need to be retouched.

I respectfully disagree....I'm not against photoshop in any way...in fact...honestly, I've even used it to fix people's faces in pictures that I don't like.

One time I used it to make kuu's nose look smaller, or ayu's lips, or namie's wrinkles...but mostly to fix make up.


Sometimes I think with Ayu...they just don't know where to stop, or they go so far, that then they have the problem of making it look real and right, which requires more photoshop. Kinda like the photoshoppers for Victoria's Secret.

I don't need completely unretouched photos...just every now and then, I think I'd like her to actually look like a person. I don't think it's been THAT bad though...just still kinda annoying.

I agree with emi.
There is never going to be a professional shot of Ayu that hasn't had some kind of editing done to it...let me stress the word NEVER. Even her iPhone photos are instagram-ed. It doesn't bother me much, I just wish the editors/photographers would tone it down a bit. They make her look like she's not real sometimes. But Ayu obviously likes the editing that is done, otherwise she would complain or stop using them all together.

Its not that she uses a 15 year old webcam, its the fact that she is taking photos at night or in a dim lit room which explains the quality of the photos, and its not like she carries a fully HD compatible camera with her for her snaps, its just her phone. But for a phone photo, they seem to do a decent job at taking photos at night

totally agree

Photos has been retouched since ever :shrug and a bit of photoshop isn't so bad, if you can use it properly of course. The big deal is: they don't know that Ayu doesn't need to look like a soulless-alien-doll to be gorgeous lol.
Even if I still like the pic with her and Ryan. It's photoshopped a bit well imo.

WHOSE THIS?
IS THAT.....???? !!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...45932999_n.jpg

^ Her girlfriend, they are getting married in Hawaii next month

Is that Gackt? I'd recognize his hideous frozen plastic barbie doll face anywhere, lol.

That's not Gackt. Did she post the picture on her Twitter? It's cute.

I thought it was a girl..
LOL, YAY for gay AyumI!! lol

Oh, really?

I thought it was Ayu's mom. (I saw that on facebook and that's what everyone there was sayin...)

Well they are wearing a bikini top, so let's assume it's a woman at least, lol.

Yeah I saw that bikini top after I posted my comment but with Gackt you never know, he is a very strange man. Lol.

Whoever that woman is, she does bear a striking resemblance to Gackt. How bizarre. I think it's the nose and lips. Same surgeon? :p

I don't think that looks like Gackt at all.

But if it wasn't for the bikini strap, it'd be hard to tell if it was a man or a woman...

Not even here?
http://images.wikia.com/vocaloid/ima...ider_Gackt.jpg

Ayu ready for GAY AYU? :-D

:roflmao

but becareful of what you wish! we never knew Ayu! :innocent



that pic, looked like that woman is really in love with Ayu lool maybe because of her posing like that :D:D

lol that woman doesn't have gackt's facial structure.

but I was seriously hoping it was him :laugh


oh well.

I died, lol. :roflmao

I am seriously dying over all your responses to who that person in the photo is LOL. Some of the funniest comments I've ever seen on AHS in the ~9 years I've been around hahahaha

I thought the person was a woman, then man, then got so confused and then read a post where someone mentioned the bikini top.

I love how it's debated that it could be Ayu's mom or Gackt *dying*

omg ayu stop exposing your private life :(

Lesbo Ayu ftw

gackt is always hot.

did she say anything on the picture on who she was?

ayu looks like an elf...

Her name is Saori! She's also mentioned another time, mentioning her doraemon nails (translated by misa-chan: http://misachanjpop.wordpress.com/20...ts-2051223512/)

its nice to have a name with a face!

Gay Ayu? You guys are so funny. :D

OT but i want to quote this somehow:
wonder what made her tweeted this but thats why i adore her , ganbare Ayu :heart

her fighting spirit !!! T.T
ROCK ON AYU!!!!!!!!

heheh wrinkly feet so cute.

So strong!! Is this referring to the tart of the problems in 2001 or the actual final deafness around 2007-2008

^ I think to the final issue... but is she saying that she can get her hearing back or she just saying that she is going to work her hardest without it?

^Hardest without it probably.

The latter one. She was taken to the hospital in 2001 even though she did perform that night.

^ I thought in 2001 it was when she fell off the stage and hurt her leg? or did that never happen and it was her ear???

^Both happened in 2001... She both fell and started having hearing problems

yes that was, and the reason she fell because she lost the balance because it had something to do with her ear (you know in science, our ears had something to do with the balance in our head :P) that is what i know when i watched her documentary in 2004

She should of taken some time off, lol.

mega L:DL!!!

At first i tought she was MikaJohn..but it's probably her mom..
is she on vacation?? The panorama looks quite tropical

I think hearing problems started in 2000. Wasn't some concerts cancelled because of it?

^Now that you said, I remember reading something on these lines... But they really got serious during 2001, don't they?

^yeah... And seems, as AyuWorld said, that's why she felt from stage