Love
So many people use your name in vain
Love
Those have faith in you sometimes go astray
Love
Through all the ups and downs the joy and hurt
Love
For better or worse I still will choose you first

Many days I’ve longed for you
Wanting you
Hoping for the chance to get to know you
Longing for your kiss
For your touch, your feel, your essence
Many nights I’ve cried from the things you do
Felt like I could die from the thought of losing you
I know that you’re real
With no doubts and no fears
And no questions

Love
So many people use your name in vain
Love
Those have faith in you sometimes go astray
Love
Through all the ups and downs the joy and hurt
Love
For better or worse I still will choose you first

At first you didn’t mean that much to me
But now I know that you’re all I need
The world looks so brand new to me
Now that I found love
Everyday I live for you
And everything that I do
I do it for you
What I say is how I feel so believe it’s true
You got to know I’m true

Pose Prop: Sway’s

Yesterday’s secret brings up a few issues that I fret about when working on my column. The first is the obvious fact that it’s impossible to see all the work produced by people in Second Life. There’s a minimum of three photo repositories with Flickr, KoinUp and Deviant Art. There are unknown hundreds of blogs and over a dozen feeds. Of course, I miss great photos. I bet there are a few dozen great pictures for every one I happen to highlight. The second issue is simply that taste is subjective. If someone else were writing this column, they would choose different pictures. I try to step back and recognize the skill that is evident in photos outside my personal comfort zone and I can find a reason to like the photo. However, there are types of photos I don’t like and no amount of objective recognition of technique will overcome that.

The more important issue is the fear that some people are discouraged by this blog, rather than motivated and inspired. I can understand feeling discouraged. Sometimes I see some piece of artwork and I know that no matter how much I try, I can never be that good. Sometimes the imagination and creativity of other people makes me envious, recognizing that my creativity runs in other directions and that my own work is so much more prosaic. However, if we were all Picasso, he wouldn’t be special, would he? I have to remind myself that I take pictures and blog because doing it gives me pleasure – not to seek external validation. Every week there are more good pictures than I can feature. Dozens of good and great pictures don’t get added for many reasons, please don’t let this column discourage you from enjoying your art and taking pride in your pictures.

I love the work of Paola Mills. Funnily enough, I have admired her work since long before I started to do this column so I somehow got it in my head that I had already featured her work. She does lovely chiaroscuro pictures such as this one with its velvety blackness casting her body into bold relief where the light shines brightly. This pose and the angle of the shot gives us strong diagonal lines that frame her face. It’s beautifully done. I like the half-open eyes that are so much more suggestive of another presence outside the frame than closed or fully open eyes might be.

Paola Mills has a creative way of looking at the world and has many photos that make you think and wonder what the story behind the photo may be. This one is called The Way of the Heart. It’s clearly THAT WAY! I love the pointing finger in the foreground, the layering over the sky and water. With the perspective and the close-in shot, she seems almost like a giant goddess pointing the way.

Introspection is another fabulous photo. While very different from the others I highlight, it still exemplifies common elements of all her work – the use of different angles to give a fresh and insightful perspective, exploring the human body as a way to see into the mind and heart. Curiosity and creativity are always a part of her work. So definitely click on through to her photostream and get swimming.

I love this picture from Evion Ember for Another Damn SL Blog. I remember reading a comment from someone criticizing a blog photo that said bloggers should never photograph clothes in front of a background that is the same color and thinking how misguided that advice was. I agree that you need to take care so that the colors work together and not against each other, but shooting red on red or black on black can be fabulous. Perhaps learning hardanger as a kid makes it easy for my to understand how color on color can be exciting and beautiful. It sure is in this photo. Of course, that come-hither-or-else look in her eyes doesn’t hurt either.

I like this photo from Sid Rufus for her self-titled blog. I love the wash of light coming in from the left and the natural blurring it creates on the subject’s left side. I like the pose and the tension it creates with her walking out of the frame but turning in as she does. It does seem to capture that moment when you are walking outside, the air fresh and cool except for the heat of the sun and so you stop, and close your eyes and turn your face toward the sun and let the heat soak into your bones. That’s what this photo captures, the magical healing power of turning into the sun and letting it embrace you with its heat.

In this photo from Aeon Perian for Modavia Fashion Marketing Blog, you can again see how even though the subject is moving out of the frame, that turn toward the frame with the upper body makes the picture work beautifully and gives a sense of movement arrested for a moment. This pose is so very red carpet that its perfect for the high fashion look. I love the background he choose that suggests a step and repeat. He also really captured my attention with the placement of the avatar to suggest casting two shadows, though looking closely you will see the second shadow is not him, but that suggestion is a bit of sly wit that made me smile and really enjoy this picture.

This photo from Nana Minuet is pure and simply beautiful. Who can resist such a unabashedly romantic picture as this complete with flowers in her hair and even a dove flying up into the sky? She titled her post Waiting for Spring. If she’s serenading spring into the world, I hope she’s playing a fast song.

I like this photo from Endija Sella for her Flickr microblog Weirdster. Shot from above, the subject appears so vulnerable, yet still defiant. Looking right into the lens, so to speak, her arms crossed in that mix of defensiveness and courage we are all familiar with. I love the emotional power of this photo.

This picture from Bronson Twine for McGreavy Place is a perfect example of photos outside my comfort zone that I still like because they are so well done they overcome my natural inclination to skip on past them. The subject is off-center and looking up toward us, since the angle is from slightly above. There are strong diagonal lines to get our neural receptors all excited and paying attention. It tell a story, a very gruesome story. The image is powerful and creates a strong visceral reaction – which is the point.

I like this photo from Amie Optera for her blog Amie’s Way. I assume the mast and riggings from a sailboat or ship is casting the shadows. It has such a tranquil, contemplative mood. I like the story it suggests of a quiet swim as the sun rises and wrapping a towel around for warmth as you walk out of the water. Having grown up on a lake and enjoyed many pre-dawn swims, I can promise you, it’s nippy in the morning. Refreshing and lovely, but the minute you get out of the water, that breeze feels so chilly, even the gentle breeze that lifts just a few strands of her hair. Even if this photo didn’t remind me of where i grew up, though, it would still create an emotional response with its quiet and gentle mood.

Pictures don’t always have to be pleasant to be powerful. This one from Elysium Elide on the Festival of Sin’s event blog is a disturbing capture of a moment of wrath – and murder. Her technique of layering a copy of the picture over itself intensifies the color and works so perfectly for capturing this intense moment. I love how the angle of the counter leads your eye right to the couple and the fateful blow with the knife.

This photo from Tyra Eiren for El diablo viste Second Life caught my eye because the angle and the crop makes it so dynamic. There is something wild and free about this photo – a bit of devil may care bravado. Her body’s angle gives us this strong diagonal across the frame that catches our attention. The rich saturated colors, probably from a similar technique to Ely’s and the kinetic movement of the hair she chose all come together in an exciting snap.

I like this snap from Renee Parkes for Dream World. It has the look of one of those street fashion snapshots taken by fashion bloggers and magazine columnists that capture fashion in the wild, so to speak.

I like this photo from Veenya Venter for V for Veenya. As a picture to highlight shoes, it works having them be so boldly in the foreground and to use depth of field to take the rest of the picture out of focus. The strong diagonal works to lead us to the subject’s face which is still visible and while out of focus, clear enough to see her expression. I love the angle of the shot and the close crop on the boot.

Before posting this column, I just wanted to encourage all of you who enjoy taking pictures to remember that the real reward is the fun and the personal pleasure you get from doing something you enjoy. The reward of coming up with an idea for the photo, making it come together and having it work is what keeps me shooting and blogging. Don’t worry if your photoshop skills are not advanced. Most of these photos are not heavily photoshopped and you don’t need photoshop to take good photos. Just keep taking pictures and enjoy the act of doing something you like doing.

Monday, February 6th!

Welcome to the very last edition of Moody Mondays. It’s been a fun ride, and we will never be able to thank you enough for your support!

We know how important good sale events are to consumers, and we’d like to let you know about Secret Wednesday. Many of your favorite Moody Mondays designers are already participating, and others will be in the near future.

You can copy and paste the following line into local chat and click the link for more information.

secondlife:///app/group/746c24f4-39a8-690f-6b90-9866e8720a11/about

For the last time, the designers on this list have a new or exclusive edition item out for just L$55.

Addiction Jewelry

Stellar

Crackberry

Clutter

Park Place Home Decor

Dragon Magick Wares

Snowpaws

Tranquility Way Station

Zoe’s Garden

Piddler’s Perch

Mystic Canvass

RezIpsa Loc

LeBloom

beach street

Welcome to SLsecrets, week 179

1) 

2) 

3)  

4) 

5) 

6)  

Comments are open on this entry.

Comments will be moderated if they break SLsecret posting rules.

SLsecret is published every Sunday at Shopping Cart Disco.

Upload your own secrets for next week here.

Interested in advertising on the SCD Site Network and having your business, blog, or service broadcast to over 2,000 readers a day? Click here!

“We’re on a Boat”

Aura – Briar skin – Cupid and Valentine style – 600L per tone

Illusory – Amour Mini Skirt – All 3 colors : 200L

Truth –Lana Hair – 200 L each color pack – 1000 L for the fatpack

Kyoot – Little Ache Lingerie – 90L each and 325L for all colors

Froot i – I do poses and Protect the Love prop – 100L each

Insufferable Dastard – Lovestruck Eyes 6 colors 99L each / Fatpack 499L

Miao – Dawn Pink Dress – 100L

Cheeky pea –Nira Picnic – 350L

Haut Monde – Not out at this time

BOOM – Cotton Skirt – 75L each

I love Kess she’s my bestie in SL. In an environment where people form, dissolve and rearrange SL families at the drop of the hat, over the past 2 years we’ve formed enough of a bond that I’d be proud to name her sister. Which I did, not that long ago.  Ok I’m rambling now. We found a pose we liked at !Bang and decided to include Sal.

Pose: !Bang

I have been finding it very difficult to complete two columns each week lately – a combination of a minor illness and a bit of burnout. I’ve decided to cut the column to once a week for a while so that I can maintain my enthusiasm. It’s not that the art is less unique or interesting or that the blogs have all of a sudden turned into a litany of sameness, but that it is harder to keep my column feeling fresh.

Adonaira Aabye’s stream is filled with fabulous pictures of such variety that it’s hard to describe. There are charming pictures like this vendor detail of birds enjoying a water fountain. The bit of motion blur on the bird on the left give this picture such verisimilitude that it’s there’s a moment of wondering is it real or is it Second Life? The composition makes this a winner as well with the birds looking at each other, just as you would want human subjects to do in order to create a dynamic tension between them.

In this picture, Adonaira Aabye produces a photo that could not be more different from the first. Using the wireframe view of her subjects, she imagines them as the brilliant firing of connections. It’s an great expression of that human connection that makes Second Life so much more than a game.

B y far the most common, though, are Adonaira Aabye’s wonderful fantasy creations such as this Hero’s Return. From Beauty and the Beast, to Prince of Persia, to the Little Match Girl, she creates wonderfully detailed and beautifully worked illustrations. Now in this one, the subjects aren’t looking at each other since they are in a battle. A detail that I really like is the motion blur that captures the velocity of the mace as he spins it. The picture tells a story as do so many of her works. You really need to wander through her stream. It’s simply amazing.

I like this photo from Falbala Fairey for her blog. I love how the two subjects are posed relative to each other and the umbrella. The one on the right curves toward the one on the left and they nearly form a triangle as they come together. Their shadow emphasizes this and really makes the photo much more distinctive.

I like this photo from Chamoinix Boudreaux for her blog CHAM. I like the story-telling she accomplishes, choosing a pose that perfectly conveys the hesitant, but curious explorer while also showing off the details of the back of that dress. It’s clever and imaginative and though it would benefit from turning on anti-aliasing, I am not going to let one unchecked button invalidate the fresh imagination that is the foundation of this photo.

I like this photo from Yukachoco Magic for her Note*Book blog. I love how she created a horizon with her background. Although they don’t seem to be reacting or looking at each other in this composite, the background works to tie the three together. They are not completely disconnected even without the background, though, since they all seem to be making an effort to get a good luck at us.

I like this picture from Absinthe Montenegro (sinontherocks) for her blog. The angle of the shot adds interest and gives us a strong diagonal line which always makes our brain fire up twice as much since it activates both the vertical and horizontal visual receptors. From this angle, her arms also give us strong leading diagonals that draw our eyes to her face. Add to that the original and whimsical styling and this is a total win.

I love this picture from Abra Zelin on Free*Style. While it breaks the usual rule of having the subject look into the frame and have room to move in front of the subject, it still works. That’s the thing with rules, you can break them and still have a successful photo if you’re lucky or skilled. This works because it succeeds in telling a different story – one that’s sort of flirty. You can imagine a person off to the side with whom she is interacting. Her expression on her face gives us a reason for her to be looking that direction.

This photo from Stephy Maldor also has the subject with less room in front of her than behind her and looking out of the frame and again it works. Again, we can see a reason for it with her swirling skirt and her pose suggesting that she has already run across the frame – reinforced by the upsweeping birds she startled as she ran. The use of depth of field adds to the feeling of urgency. That the direction she is running is more clearly focused also makes it seem a refuge.

Moody Mondays brings you a list of interesting designers offering some of the very best merchandise in SL. All merchants on this list have a new or exclusive edition item out for just L$55 – Monday, Jan. 29th!

NOTE: Mystic Canvass has a new location, be sure to make a landmark!

Stellar

Crackberry

Clutter

Park Place Home Decor

Magnifique

Snowpaws

Tranquility Way Station

Zoe’s Garden

Piddler’s Perch

Mystic Canvass

RezIpsa Loc

Home By JLZ

Vox

Dreamscapes

Welcome to SLsecret, week 178

1) 

2) 

3)  

4) 

5) 

6)  Removed by request

7) 

8 ) 

9)

10)

11)

12)

13) 

Comments are open on this entry.

Comments will be moderated if they break SLsecret posting rules.

SLsecret is published every Sunday at Shopping Cart Disco.

Upload your own secrets for next week here.

Interested in advertising on the SCD Site Network and having your business, blog, or service broadcast to over 2,000 readers a day? Click here!

Do you run an original business in Second Life that opened AFTER November 1,2011?

If so you might want to consider applying for the Fresh Unknown Hunt.

Important bits:

1. Applications close Feb 5, 2012.

2. Male, Female, and Unisex items are needed for the hunt.

3. The theme is BRIGHT COLORS.

4. Item must be original creations. No BIAB items.

5. If you apply and your store moves please contact Evelyn Hartshon.
The hunt will run March 1 – 31, 2012.

Creator Application Form
Blogger Application Form

“An Unexpected Fairytale”

Credits available here: http://www.divinepatterns.net/2012/01/unexpected-fairytale.html

On another note Picnik will be shutting down on April 19, 2012. This is very sad news. Picnik is a tool used by many of the bloggers in the community for photo editing with out needing extensive knowledge in Photoshop techniques. I’ve used it several times in the past when I had to do a quick edit from work where I don’t have access to PS. It has many wonderful features and it will be missed. So for the next few months I am going to try to use Picnik to edit most of my blog pics. For this pic I used collage for the first time. Picnik will truly be missed.

Credits:
Skin: Al Vulo
Hair: Wasabi Pills (mesh)
Dress: Jane (mesh)
Top: Fri.day
Jewelry: U&R Dogs
Tights: Jane
Shoes & Legwarmers: G*field

Poses: Diesel Works

So much of the art I feature each week comes from the many wonderful bloggers of Second Life. I love browsing the different blogs and seeing the new clothes, the adventures and the experiments that people are doing while living their second lives. There are several feeds that aggregate the work of many bloggers into an easy to browse collection, but this column requires that I browse a broader network, so I often browse people’s blogrolls and their Flickr and KoinUp favorites. I like to find new people every week, cognizant that it is easy to get into habits and feature those who are reliably excellent every time. So I encourage you all to click those fave buttons and add to your blogrolls, building that web of connections that bring even the most far flung blogs and artists into sight.

Following favorites is how I came across the work of Thea Maiman on KoinUp and Flickr.  She combines fantasy with surrealism in a unique blend that’s exciting and fresh. Some of her pieces have a pre-Raphaelite romanticism with loving attention lavished on the lights and shadows of beautiful nudes. She uses layers to give texture, context and dimensionality to her work. For example, the dust and scratches added to this work place it in the past, in an earlier, less cynical time. I love the rich, saturated blues. It’s wonderful that she used yellow, the opposite of blue, for the bird, giving the picture an additional spark of energy. The angle is intriguing and yet still positions the subject so she looks into the frame.  The contrast between the light and dark is intense and makes her skin seem to glow as though dusted by moonlight.

And then Thea Maiman produces System Error, something completely different, an amazing surreal duotone whose details and subtleties have been erased by filters, leaving the outlines and suggestions of the sea, the fields and sky, turning them into a wildly imaginative and fantastical landscape. I love this and would love to know how she produced it. I can guess that she used the find edges filter, perhaps, one or two of the art filters – adding the pointillist effect. Perhaps a layer to give the moon those retro dots. But it’s all guesswork.  In terms of composition, you can see the horizon is at two thirds of the way up and the dark rock in the front tops out at one-third. The two avatars are near the right vertical third and their bodies for a triangle. Notice, too, how they and the rock in the foreground are so much darker than the colors in the distance – giving us a sense of depth and distance that could have been lost with the elimination of many of the details we are used to. I like how the umbrella is the same size and angle of the moon – a clever echo of its shape. Truly, there is so much to fascinate me in this picture  - as though by limiting the color and the detail, she exposed more ideas and revealed a deeper truth.

And for something completely different, there is this irresistibly adorable picture from Caelan Hancroft. It’s a good composition, the subject off-center and looking into the frame. The use of depth-of-field to blur the details in the foreground and background give a dash of realism to the fantasy bunny. The tree beautifully frames the photo. The horizon follows the rule of thirds and look at the flowers – three of them, following the rule of odds.

I love the rich colors in Evion Ember’s picture for Another Damn SL Blog. Usually this is achieved by making a copy of the original layer and then changing the blending option to Soft Light. Sometimes that makes the darks too dark, losing details, but you can adjust curves to address that. Elysium Elide has a great tutorial on how to do that. I love that she used complementary colors blue and yellow, orange and green. It’s a bold photo and really captures my attention.

I love this composite from Whimsy Winx for her blog, Virtually Dressed. I like how the two central pics cross each other and are almost, but not quite mirror poses. The arms crossing each other is so clever that it more than compensates for them turning away from each other. The two outer pictures are great crops that give us the details of the dress, showing off the skill of the creators, but also engaging us in completing elements of the picture, drawing us into and making us interact with the photos.

I like this photo from Justyna Magne of Just Magnetized. Again, here is someone using complementary colors to make our neurons happy. In fact, in almost seems as though there is a shade of yellow for every shade of blue. As with most good compositions, the subject and horizon are placed according to the rule of thirds. In addition, the subject looks into the frame and has a place to move forward. Why she is carrying those hug and heavy bullets while wearing high heels and looking so fresh, I don’t know. Perhaps she was on a train derailed by revolutionaries and has joined the revolution despite her bourgeois upbringing – inspired by love for the handsome leader of the cadre or perhaps not. It’s always fun to imagine stories when pictures have little details that ask for explanations.

I love this photo from LouLou Teichmann for La Mia Bauhaus. I love the rich contrasts of light and dark and how it seems framed by black on three sides even though she only added black lines at the top and bottom. While at first glance it seems a duotone, you can see tiny bits of color, the red feather, her lip color and the faintest hint of blush in her cheeks. It has an old almost vaudevillian feeling that I like.

I like this photo from Angels Milena for her self-titled blog. The framing has nice details with its three colors, the inner frame only semi-opaque so the photo shows through. I like how she cropped the picture so we are completing the shoe, the top of her head and her knee. This is a technique that makes our brain work a little harder and that always makes pictures more memorable. The pose gives us great lines and adds to the pictures dynamic energy.

Moody Mondays brings you a list of interesting designers offering some of the very best merchandise in SL. All merchants on this list have a new or exclusive edition item out for just L$55 – Monday, Jan. 22nd!

NOTE: Fucifino has a new location, be sure to make a landmark!

Stellar

Crackberry

fucifino

Clutter

JLZ Designs

STaTUS

Park Place Home Decor

Magnifique

Snowpaws

Tranquility Way Station

Zoe’s Garden

Piddler’s Perch

STaTuS Poses

Welcome to SLsecret, week 177

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)7) 8 ) 9) 

10)  Removed by request.

11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18 ) 19)  20) 21) 

 Comments are open on this entry.

Comments will be moderated if they break SLsecret posting rules.

SLsecret is published every Sunday at Shopping Cart Disco.

Upload your own secrets for next week here.

Interested in advertising on the SCD Site Network and having your business, blog, or service broadcast to over 2,000 readers a day? Click here!

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Albert Einstein

Einstein’s words seem so perfect for Second Life – a world where the limits of our imagination are more critical than the limits of our knowledge. Second Life is rich in imagination and creativity that constantly expands beyond what we think is possible. How lucky we are to have discovered this world – and how lucky that we can share it with others through photography.

I love the art of Megan Prumier, a second life photographer who uses texture layers to create painterly works reminiscent of great landscape artistis such as John Constable or Thomas Cole. This one is particularly fascinating, with its brown and sepia tones looking almost as though it were painted and etched into leather. For all that the color palette is restricted to shades of brown, there is still a richness of contrast with the light tan and the deep chocolate browns.

This landscape of Venezia has beautifully lighting and rich detail. The horizon is placed according to the rule of thirds and we are given a focal point by her placement of the tallest tower on a vertical third. It’s a beautiful, inviting photo of a lovely sim. I like how she framed it with the horizontal black bars above and below – giving it a slight more conventional aspect ratio while maintaing the tight crop that makes it such a great composition.

This photo from Mavi Beck for Get Dirty with Mavi is a new take on the DollCoco Ball-Joint Doll. The many storage cubes filled with dolls heads are wonderful in their variety. The subject has so much intensity in her pose with her chin jutting forward a bit. I love that her complexion is the same as the doll, adding another element of surprise and surreality.

I love this quadtych from Nadja Baxter for Nadja’s Style. It would have been easier to make a two-panel composite and not splitting the photos. Doing it this way, though, makes it more interesting and emphasizes the volume of the skirt, one of its key elements. The panels relate to each other and the subject is turned toward her counterpart in the other set, tying it all together.

I like this photo from Tomomi H for her blog Dressup Doll. She did a great job of styling her outfit to the setting or, conversely, finding a setting that sets off her outfit by echoing its colors. Her subject is placed with room to move across the frame and is looking into the frame. She did a nice job of finding a good pose that not only gives a sense of movement, but also that quiet contemplation that the setting suggests.

I love this snapshot from Jenica Penucca for Zombie Popcorn. It’s fun and quirky, particularly in how completely the three subjects ignore each other. It has the feeling of a “herding cats” kind of photo which suits the conceit of it being a snapshot taken on the fly, one that gets tapedinto an album and looked at again and again through the decades. You can tell that this photo is looked at a lot because it’s been taped and retaped. Their uncooperative poses that are sort of anti-posed give them a personality. I can imagine someone looking back at their youthful service and thinking, “That’s so like her, wanting to make sure we got her good side,” and laughing nostalgically at the memory of old friends.

I love this very editorial shot from Kyrie Source for her self-titled blog. Kyrie always has such interesting styling and well-conceived photos that I could choose pictures from her every time she posts. This one, though, seems especially striking with that fabulous pose and that knowing look cast our way by her eyes. The general rule is that you leave space in front of the subject for them to move, but if you know what you are doing, you can break that rule, as Kyrie does in this photo. Why does it work? Part of the reason is that the real action and movement is her raised back leg. The other reason is that although she faces out of the frame, her head is turned just enough that her eyes are looking toward us, not out of the frame. This illustrates how the rules of composition are really just guidelines – and that if you employ other elements of good composition, you can break those rules and make an even more exciting picture.

I like this photo from Cady Fretwerk for her blog Divine Patterns. It’s a simple story-telling photo of a woman relaxing by candlelight because the lights are out. It was a brilliant metaphor for the internet blackout on Wednesday and an effective way to show her opposition to SOPA when her blog host did not make it as easy as other blog hosting sites did. I like the lighting and her faith that we will look a little closer because it’s so dark.

Nestag Itano is shooting movie homages for his blog Untouchable Life. I am really impressed with how effectively he captures the look and feel of Watchmen and the character Rorschach. While the background is simple, it’s steely greenish grey is evocative of the noir dystopia of the film. The subject is centered with his shadow grounding him. Meanwhile, the smiley behind him bring your eye a bit to the right so the photo does not feel completely centered and gives it a more dynamic feeling.

I also want to remind you that the Leonard Cohen Exhibit starts on January 21st and will continue for the next month, so be sure to go and see the magnificent work, some of which was highlighted in What I Like #55.

“Lights Out”

Picture taken in a shoot to show support for the SOPA Strike 1/18/12.

My websites are a drop in the bucket when it comes to traffic/notoriety but I’ve never approved of censorship on the Internet. The RIAA and MPAA have always implemented measures that have done more harm than good in stopping piracy.

http://sopastrike.com/

If you are an American you need to write your representatives ASAP!

If you are not an American and your country is thinking about passing a law similar to this (or laws) PLEASE do what you can to make sure it does not become a law.

Sorry about the inconvenience,

Kesseret

I am no expert, I still put myself in the newb category when it comes to PS.  The biggest hurdle in PS is taking the time to sit down and learn the basics. There are tons of video tutorials out there from some really talented people in the SL community that show advanced techniques. But what good is that to you if you have no idea what they are talking about. What is a brush, a mask, an adjustment layer.  The place I went to learn the basics and more is Photoshop Essentials. I started with the PS Basics tab and started on the last page with the very first tutorial, and I’m still working forward.

Sometimes you see people add a nice aged photo look or add a frame. You can do that in the Picnik tool available in flickr under the action menu or with plugins for PS. Casja shared the link to a nice plugin tool called Filter Forge it has a some pretty cool effects you can add to photos.

So basically with a little knowledge I went from a photo that looked like this:

To an image that looks like this.

I think, I’d probably turn down the saturation a bit. But overall the picture looks a bit better and the items I’m wearing pretty much look as they would in SL, except for the skin. But everyone demos skins before they buy them right?

I’ll have another blog post on what I’m wearing and the awesome pose prop from Adorkable, that I’m using for this pic. Also this cute pen necklace from MIAO, Kess has it in her main store and its still at the discounted stumblebum price, for now.

Credits:
Skin: Al Vulo
Hair: Wasabi Pills
Top: Jane
Necklace: MIAO

Pose Prop: Adorkable

Over the last few weeks, I have been catching sneak peeks  on Flickr of an upcoming exhibition that has me very excited because it combines the best of Second Life photo artistry with the music of Leonard Cohen, one of my favorite musicians. The Leonard Cohen Exhibit is presented by Morgana Nagorski at Palais Orleans on January 21st and 22nd. It will feature 20 artists and 20 pieces all representing a title or line from a Leonard Cohen song. The artists who are participating are: Acacia Merlin, Ariel Brearly, Burk Bode (b.bode), Cat Boccaccio, Corinne Helendale (Corinne J Helendale), Danteliicia Ethaniel, Del May, Harbor Galaxy (harborgalaxy), Johnfrancis Laville, Kato Salyut, Kira Westland, Lily Laufer (✿LILY✿), Maloe Vansant, Meilo Minotaur, Morgana Nagorski,Patricie Sapphire (Patricie), sanam Sewell, Skip Staheli, Tamzin Xigalia, and Zebra Thursday. If you have been following this column, quite a few will be familiar to you already. I have no idea which works will end up in the exhibit, but I want to whet your appetite with some of the amazing pieces that have caught my eye.

The Leonard Cohen Exhibit
Palais Orleans

Saturday 21 January, 6:00-8:00pm SLT
Sunday 22 january, 22nd 12:00 – 2:00 pm SLT

When I saw this photo by Kato Salyut as a thumbnail in my contacts page on Flickr I was captured by the lighting. When I saw it full size, it took my breath away. Here he shows  ”my brother, my killer” with Jane at their tryst immortalized in Famous Blue Raincoat. With their backs to us, the picture captures the story of love and betrayal as presented in the song, oblique and through a glass, darkly.

Not content with a single effort, Kato Salyut produced several different explorations of Famous Blue Raincoat including this striking version that marries influences from Mondrian and graphic novels. The focus remains on the love triangle and the man in the blue raincoat, the friend who betrayed him with his Jane. It’s so perfect that we see Jane and the man the letter is written to, but the writer who was betrayed is hidden from us, out of the picture.

And then there is this beautifully painterly work that captures the despair of the song, the apathetic hopelessness that causes a man to write his wife’s lover and tell him thanks “thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes.I thought it was there for good so I never tried.”

This is Ariel Brearly’s amazing portrayal of Joan of Arc. She does an amazing job of capturing Joan’s theophanic ecstasy, fanatical belief mingled with terror and determination. It not only gives us Joan as she must have been, but also the song’s aching lyric, “I saw her wince, I saw her cry, I saw the glory in her eye. Myself I long for love and light, but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?”

Dance Me to the End of Love is a song of passion, life and beauty. This photo from ✿LILY✿ captures that idea of lovers losing themselves in each other, falling into each other as the world disappears. “Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long”

Cat Boccaccio also produced her own interpretation of Dance Me to the End of Love. She went in a completely different direction, perhaps inspired by the song’s genesis in the story of those musicians in the death camps who were forced to play music while their fellow prisoners were murdered. This picture makes me think of the opening lines. “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin. Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in. Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove. Dance me to the end of love.” This is the passion, the striving for life even at the moment it is lost.

This stark and powerful photo from Maloe VanSant is his illustration of Lover, Lover, Lover. The picture captures the despair and anger in Cohen’s dialogue with God, the lover of the song. This photo evokes the solitude, shame and loss that people may feel in a crisis of faith. “I asked my father, I said, “Father change my name. The one I’m using now it’s covered up with fear and filth and cowardice and shame.”

Meilo Minotaur certainly captures the spirit of First We Take Manhattan, a song that could be an anthem of revolution or of a musical career. The layering and repetition of the avatar again and again, somewhat anonymous without hair and clothing, but with fierce determination in the eyes, this is definitely interpreting the song through the concept of revolution. Leonard Cohen’s music is the music of the outsider, the underdog, the 99% and with this picture, Meilo Minotaur connects the song to current events and the Occupy Movement, giving it immediacy and urgency.

Sanam Sewell takes on In My Secret Life, a song that breaks my heart with his raw, husky voice singing of what might have been, what could be, what should be, but what isn’t. “But I’m always alone. And my heart is like ice. And it’s crowded and cold In My Secret Life.”

At first I thought this photo from Tamzin Xigalia was too beautiful for the desperate pain and vulnerability of By the Rivers Dark so I went to the lightbox view on Flickr and put the song on repeat while looking at the picture and it brought tears to my eyes and helped me hear a different story in the song, one with redemption and hardwon peace. “Though I take my song From a withered limb, Both song and tree, They sing for him.”

Zebra Thursday bravely tackles one of Leonard Cohen’s signature songs, Bird on the Wire from his second album.  Avoiding anything too obvious, the only reference to birds is the cage that she is escaping, giving life to the words, “I have tried in my way to be free.”

I thought I would end with this Leonard Cohen portrait shot in Second Life by Morgana Nagorski, who has organized this exciting exhibit. This is just a taste, showing only half the artists and not necessarily the works they will feature in the exhibition. There are many others, including works from some of my favorite artists whom I have featured in my column several times in the past. All I can say is that nothing better go wrong with my ISP or Second Life, because I am determined to see the exhibit. I hope all of you are too. As much as I value Flickr, these pictures come alive in person in Second Life. They are placed on prims and the illumination of a full bright prim under the texture adds so much to the detail, the color variation and reveals subtleties that are invisible on the relatively flat plane of Flickr. The exhibit will continue for a full month, so you have time to see it.

BOOM – Ambitious Angles – 165L

Paperdoll - Maddy (3 colors available) – 150L each

ploom – Torti – 200L per colorpack (except “A little of everything” at 250L) / Fatpack for 1200L

Whippet & Buck – The Talk Dress (4 colors available) – 105L each / Fatpack 350L

Bang ! – Hairbrush microphone + Sing your heart out – 125L each

Cheap Makeup – Peace Eyes Makeup – 75L

Mood – Ambition – Necklace only 200L / Earrings only 175L / Ensemble 300L

Honey I’m Home – Sweet Pea Skybox – 350L

Intrigue Co – Octopuss Glasses – 100L

DCNY – Perfect Scarf (2 colors available) – 75L each

Guest this week : The Sea Hole – Latour Blouse (6 colors available) – 85L each

Moody Mondays brings you a list of interesting designers offering some of the very best merchandise in SL. All merchants on this list have a new or exclusive edition item out for just L$55 – Monday, Jan. 15th!

Adorkable

Clutter

Stellar

Tranquility Way Station

Sweet Antidote

Crackberry

Magnifique

W.Winx

RezIpsa Loc

beach street

Rue

Zoe’s Garden

Piddler’s Perch

Snowpaws

Park Place Home Decor

Dreamscapes

Dragon Magick Wares

Welcome to SLsecret, week 175

1) 

2) 

3) 

4) 

5) 

6) 

7) 

8) 

 Comments are open on this entry.

Comments will be moderated if they break SLsecret posting rules.

SLsecret is published every Sunday at Shopping Cart Disco.

Upload your own secrets for next week here.

Interested in advertising on the SCD Site Network and having your business, blog, or service broadcast to over 2,000 readers a day? Click here!

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

I love this picture from L. B., an SL artist over at KoinUp, whose gallery of work is filled with light and the interesting blend of shadow and illumination that it brings to everything. Take this picture. It’s well composed with the horizon at about a third, the leading lines going to the lighthouse and the subject looking at the lighthouse which was centered while the subject was off center. She has her back to us, but that tells us where she is going. It gives us a story. So it’s a good composition, but then you add the light and then it becomes special, that bit of light on her inner arm, flashing on her earring, her hat. It’s a fabulous photo that makes me want more.

Here’s a very different photo from L.D., as soft and dream as the other is naturalistic and sharp. AI love how this is framed with the rocks in the foreground and the back almost forming concentric quarter circles festooned with flowers. The owls are placed on a horizontal third and are turned toward or looking at each other, romantically reminding us that owls mate for life. This is a tender and romantic photo. L.B.’s portfolio is filled with wonderful work that deserves your attention, so jump on over there and take a look. Just don’t forget to come back.

I like this photo from LuaFlor Moo for her blog, Flor da Lua. I like how the striking, sharp haircut is such a good fit with her face and expression. I like how the size of the earrings balance the big sweep of her hair in front on the other side. The styling is fabulous. I also like the deep contrast, the rich black, the brilliant white. It’s a great shot.

I like this photo from Jax Aster for MAD Image blog. This angle is much more interesting than the more usual straight ahead shot. It emphasizes the shadows and lines from the window, the chair and the ceiling, all of which work to create more interest. Remember horizontal lines will activate one set of neural receptors and vertical lines another, but diagonals will activate them all – and that enhances our enjoyment and interest in photos. Although he is sitting still in the photo, his turned head and his looking into the frame give us the idea that he’s active, responding to and looking at someone or something else – adding another dynamic element to the photo.

I like this photo from Trevor Turner for Young Urban. The use of lighting casts a few interesting shadows without obscuring his outfit and styling. He’s well-positioned in the photo and looks across the frame. His expression is a bit wary – as though he perhaps heard a twig crack underfoot. The grass coming up through the walkway suggest the sort of neglected and forgotten public space that justifies that wary look. It tells a story, or gives us enough narrative to let us invent our own.

I like this picture from Zero Remex for Lovely DangerZone. The background has fabulous geometry and visual interest and place the subject in the middle of something happening. Why are the squares flying backwards? It helps the picture that his pose seems a bit startled, arrested in mid-motion. It’s a good photo and I found it engaging. I would like it better if the light source that cast his shadow was more evident since the visible light source is from the wrong direction. However, it’s cropped close enough on that side that I can imagine the light source being just outside the frame.

I like this photo from Applonia Criss for Chantkare. I like the long, lean crop she used and the bit of depth added by the corner of the wall. It emphasizes the whole “long, tall, drink of water” idea she is suggesting. She adds to that by cropping a bit off the top of the subject’s head and cropping a bit low for the usual body shot. The pose also emphasizes that leanness. However, she keeps it from going too far by using prints that break it up wit their own lines and energy.

It’s worth noting that even in this vertical crop, she keeps her subject off-center and looking across the frame just as though she were using a typical landscape or square crop. That’s because you still want your subject to have room in front of her, even if it is just a tiny bit of room.

This photo from Lila Quander for Demented Divas is so delightfully romantic and lovely, I have spent far too long looking at it. But don’t we all linger on things that make us happy? I don’t even want to think about how much fun they had adjusting and shifting and adjusting some more to get the pose and those long flowing skirts and hair and everything to fit together without a big huge mess. The result is worth it. The picture is simply beautiful.

I like this snap from Alexiaa Allen for her self-titled blog. I like how the subject fills the frame. I like how her arm and the strap on her handbag run parallel. I like that she places her face at the focal point of the photo. What I like best, though, is how the town of the background echoes the tone of her outfit. It’s a lovely shot, with good composition, but the care taken to chose a background that complements the tone and energy of her outfit is what elevates it.

I will be the first to admit that this photo by Leelu Lemondrop is unsettling. The shudder of unease it creates, though, is a testament to its power as a photo. Browsing Flickr and Second Life blogs, there plenty of similar photos that are just part of a genre and don’t stop me in my tracks with pure unadulterated creepiness. There’s real power in this photo precisely because it makes me uneasy. So what makes it so much more powerful and effective than many similarly styled headshots? I think it’s the intensity of the eyes looking straight ahead, the tension on the line of the neck jutting forward toward the viewer, and the always dramatic chiaroscuro. The inky blackness casts her face into high relief. It’s as though she is just about to move right out of the picture.

I love this photo by Thalia Heckroth that she took of a friend. The use of projectors to cast the shadow of blinds adds so much drama to the photo as does the use of a second layer with motion blur. It all makes for a stunning and excitingly dramatic photo.

Isn’t this picture from Petra Messioptra for the Vitabela blog simply delicious? The pose is stunning with that circle window. I love her closed eyes with that dramatic makeup. The styling works together beautifully with the pose and the pose prop. It’s nice to see, too, that all the lighting is working together, casting light on her face, her hands, her arm and the window all from the same direction.

I like this picture from Dita Actor for OPO: One Part Ourfish. Quite honestly, if you don’t click through to see the entire series of pictures in this blog post, you are missing out on a fabulous set of photos that tell a rather sad story. I would have preferred a happier ending, but I am still overwhelmed by the creativity and effort that went into this. I also love her post titles. I discovered the blog a couple weeks ago and every time I see a post title, it makes me laugh.

I love this photo called Mist Weaver from Ariel Brearly. Using several layers and blur she created the suggestion of ecstatic motion – almost like the charismatic state achieved in Sufi dancing – the ecstasy of spinning dreams.

I love this photo from Lucia Genesis rich in the sort of Gothic romanticism that ripped thousands of bodices over the years. I love how instead of simply framing her photo, she used a layer blend to meld it seamlessly into the picture. It creates so much more interest and elevates a good photo a fascinating photo.

p.s. I am sorry the column is a day late. I was half done yesterday when I scalded my hand while making tea and simply found it impossible to type with a bag of frozen edamame beans on my hand.

“Sweet Darlin’”

I have a confession to make. I forgot about the picture tonight, first time in a year and a half. So, here’s a pic that I took this weekend with Mike, he styled the pic, I took the shot.

]]> http://shoppingcartdisco.com/uncategorized/sweet-darlin/feed/ 0 http://shoppingcartdisco.com/uncategorized/sweet-darlin/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scdinsl/~3/UO4GONFGK7U/ http://shoppingcartdisco.com/fashion/sold-the-most-un-interesting-couple-on-the-grid/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:58:48 +0000 Lourdes http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=23455 Meet The Otoros, Salvatore and Lourdes, the most un-interesting couple on the grid.

• They aren’t considered one of the IT couples of SL, because no one is really sure what an IT couple is. Or is it I.T. couple?
• There are no orgies on the magnificent Otoro estate, because Salvatore is a prudent man and values his life.
• The paparazzi don’t even bother, because they would be bored to death. Besides who really gives a shit what we do?

We aren’t always luxuriating taking couples pics, but when we do. We sometimes like to use poses from Magnifique Poses.

Stay Thirsty My Friends.

I like so many different types of photos from the artfully composed compositions complete with set dressing to the more traditional simple pose and shoot to the casual quick snap – or what look like casual quick snaps. It’s likely a fair amount of thought and planning go into them  as well. After all, true casual quick snaps often have artifacts like buildings growing out of people’s heads and tree branches looking as though they come out the ear and other oddities in the background. Even the casual snap requires the photographer to check the background, derender objects that might disrupt the shot and frame the shot artfully.

Matti Binker is a photographer who clearly puts thought and planning into photos that look like casual snap shots – even like shots that were snapped on the fly and thus are out of focus. Of course, we know Second Life photos are only out of focus when we want them to be, just as this apparent double exposure is an effect he created by putting three shots together. But doesn’t it just make the subject come alive to you? She’s lively and energetic. She cannot be contained in one picture. There’s so much life in this shot. It tells us something about the subject that a standard photo could not.

Except for water, we don’t have reflections in Second Life, so this took real artistry while still looking as though it was just snapped on the fly. I love the change in the reflection between the two surfaces – a great detail. Again, this picture by Matti Binker gives the impression of a quick, impulsive snap, but such is his artistrty – making something complex and subtle seem simple and direct. Check out his photo stream. It’s magic.

This photo from Hikaru Enimo for Costa Rica sims is stunning. As you can see, the focal point of the picture is the couple, who are placed right at the intersection of vertical and horizontal thirds. Their dominance in the picture is reinforced by the feathered desaturation of the rest of the photo. Note, too, that while they are poised to leave the frame, his body and her face are turned toward the frame, drawing our eyes into the picture.

This photo from Nana Minuet for Where is Nana? is lovely and suggests a story. I love how she has used the bench and the rail post to segment the photo. I can imagine her sitting there watching the neighbor kids playing in the snow and enjoying the hustle and bustle of village life. It’s a sweet picture and has a nice bit of humor to it.

This picture from Absinthe Montenegro (sinontherocks) for her blog really drew me in. This is a new blog to me and I am very much intrigued by her inventive styling (This is a mash up of more than one dress.) and her editorial vision. Her photos are highly editorial. I liked this one in particular because it reminds me of of those lovely designer water color sketches.

If you were sleeping, this photo from Mavi Beck for Modavia Fashion Marketing blog would wake you up.This is bold styling with electric colors to excite us. I love how her pose makes her body a diagonal and her use of the Rule of Odds to balance her colors with orange tights, gloves and hair and yellow jacket, purse and skirt. It’s an exciting shot.

It’s always so hard to choose just one picture from Dantelicia Ethaniel’s blog. I finally chose this one because the pose is so expressive and yearning, particularly with the subtle tension in her hand in the lower third. Her photos are always so alive with a feeling of emotional exuberance and abandon that they always feel as though she’s snapping herself in the midst of a wild dance, catching shots when she can.

This composite from Vanity Halpin for her Lookbook works well. I like her pull outs of the accessory details. Their poses almost mirror each other, the woman on the left has her right foot forward and the woman on the right has her left foot forward. Details like that reinforce how thee two subjects go together.

I love this photo from Shortcake Sugarplum for her new blog SLinternational Affairs. Only two weeks old, this blog is already full of fascinating and intriguing photos such as this one above. Her styling is unique and exciting.  She creates a lot of depth in the picture with the dining room in the background, shot behind glass walls. I love the quiet, limited color story that gives it  a contemplative mood.

I love this photo by ♠Sonja♠ on Flickr. With her leg outstretched, her body curved inward and that extended wing/arm, the subject frames the photo with her body. I love how she looks into her pose. The swirls of black fabric or smoke from a brush add more interest and a sense of movement and the raven landing on her wing is sheer brilliance.

Shyla Diggs headshot on her Flicks is amazing. I love the luminous quality of her skin and the bold contrast of her hair and eyelashes. I love the bold use of negative space to balance her striking picture. It would not be nearly half so exciting if she had left the entire head in the shot. By cropping so close and forcing us to complete the image in our minds, she involves us directly. This makes the photo stand out in the moment and linger in memory.

Direct quote from the e-mail:

A mesh seller on the SL marketplace is making a killing selling ripped off content from various video games that are released only in Korea/Japan at this time and are going to be released in the Western market soon. Namely these models are ripped from Tera Online, and they are gaining popularity. This is a HUGE issue because stealing from such a large corporation like this could lead to a big lawsuit rather than a simple DMCA.

If you don’t feel like reading the thread on the game forum I’ll sum it up.

1. Someone posted the info regarding these copies

2. They debate over copies or rips but definitely texture rips.

3. Senior Community Manager Scapes chimes in ‘thanks for the heads up’ (I assume he can contact the people needed)

4. The thread goes into what else is ripped on that marketplace store.

5. Someone contacts the creator who says Bluehole/EME stole the characters from them. lolz ensue.

6. At this point I assume someone sent me the anonymous email.

While I applaud the community over there at TERA forums I am afraid they have no idea what they are up against when it comes to Linden Lab and the DMCA process. Depending on the company and person filed against Linden Lab can take a long time to process the notice.  Then, as we all know how DMCA works, this creator can just file a rebuttal and have their content back up.  Bluehole/EME has to be prepared to go beyond a take-down notice. They should also know that Linden Lab makes a commission on items sold on marketplace. If these items are ripped directly from the game and Bluehole/EME can prove it they need to keep that in mind because of this:

++OCILLA was passed as a part of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and is sometimes referred to as the “Safe Harbor” provision or as “DMCA 512″ because it added Section 512 to Title 17 of the United States Code. By exempting Internet intermediaries from copyright infringement liability provided they follow certain rules, OCILLA attempts to strike a balance between the competing interests of copyright owners and digital users.

Section 512(c) applies to OSPs that store infringing material. In addition to the two general requirements that OSPs comply with standard technical measures and remove repeat infringers, § 512(c) also requires that the OSP: 1) not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity, 2) not be aware of the presence of infringing material or know any facts or circumstances that would make infringing material apparent, and 3) upon receiving notice from copyright owners or their agents, act expeditiously to remove the purported infringing material.

Could Linden Lab violate Section 512(c)  if they knowingly keep up the content after a DMCA take-down notice has been filed because they do make a commission on sales of the items on marketplace? Just some food for thought for Bluehole/EME if they enter into the fuzzy works of DMCA as interpreted by Linden Lab. As always this is my interpretation of the law and I do not play a lawyer on TV or on the Internet.

++ Direct copy/pasta from Wikipedia

Moody Mondays brings you a list of interesting designers offering some of the very best merchandise in SL. All merchants on this list have a new or exclusive edition item out for just L$55 – Monday, Jan. 9th! Get previews of this week’s items on our blog: http://moodymondaysl.com

**** A very warm welcome to the newest addition to our Moody Mondays line-up: Joining us is Ashia Tomsen with her fabulous skin and beauty store Idiosyncrasy! We know you will be excited as we are! ****

Idiosyncrasy

Clutter

Addiction Jewelry

elymode

STaTUS

Stellar

Tranquility Way Station

Sweet Antidote

Snowpaws

Home by JLZ

LeBloom

Park Place Home Decor

Piddler’s Perch

Zoe’s Garden

Welcome to SLsecret, week 175

1) 

2) 

 Comments are open on this entry.

Comments will be moderated if they break SLsecret posting rules.

SLsecret is published every Sunday at Shopping Cart Disco.

Upload your own secrets for next week here.

Interested in advertising on the SCD Site Network and having your business, blog, or service broadcast to over 2,000 readers a day? Click here!

Usually Iris does the top 10 post. This is the post where she tallies up the top 10 posts for the years and top views and visits. It’s delayed because I am doing it. Sorry about that!

However, it’s pretty interesting who was our favorite author in the year 2011! I also noticed a little bit of fashion and positive tossed into the drama!

1. SLSecret   (Just like last year SL Secret posts were all over the top posts for this year.)

2.  On Lynch Mobs

3. The Truth

4. Pookie Discusses SL Secrets

5. Saturday Style: Walk of Shame

6. What I Like #12

7. Lourde’s Slife of Luxury – Diesel Works Chairs

8. Bred Out

9. Please

10. The Witch Hunt

Top 10 Search terms for SCD for 2011:

1. Shopping Cart Disco 6,009
2. Magicka 3,481
3. Pro Ana 1,492
4. lingerie 916
5. rest in peace 908
6. sexy child  870 (sickos)
7. mord sith  859
8. post secret 665
9. sl secrets 648
10. shoppingcartdisco 635

(I wonder if Frank sees search terms for SL Secrets on Postsecrets?)

All time views:

2,009,464

Thank you for being a reader of SCD and for supporting us during the good times and the bad.
May 2012 be a wonderful year for SCD, it’s staff, and readers!

Love,

Kesseret

“Never Enough Time”

Stores Featured: Glam Affair, Celoe, Vive 9, Slink, MIEL, Long Awkward Pose

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Daytime%20Dreams/40/88/21

~Cady Fretwerk

I want to highlight the work of Karro Lean this week. She has a stunning collection of work on both Flickr and KoinUp as well as on her travel blog filled with the richness of Second Life. Karro Lean has an eye for finding magic and beauty everywhere. She makes me excited to explore places that I have already seen, because she saw them in new ways that made me eager to look again.

I have stopped and admired the installation outside Doll*Coco a few times and seen some fabulous photos, but this one is so arresting. The interplay of light and shadow is wonderful. The angle shot from below and using the frame to frame the installation is do perfect. I love the light coming through under the upper inside of the frame.

Isn’t this magical? We all know that windlight can do wonderful things in Second Life, but this example is pure magic. I love that she used complementary yellow and blue with the white break in between. I love the simple pattern she makes, the trees a horizontal line paralleling each stand of trees just as the pieces of the triptych parallel each other. I know I have highlighted her work before, but her portfolio is so varied, it is impossible to give you an true idea of her body of work with just a few pictures.

I tried to choose a few pictures that would offer an exemplar of her work, but her photos are so unique that there really is no way to say this or that single one is an example of what she does. What I can say is that she goes places in Second Life and looks above, below and behind to see what is intriguing and beautiful. What I can say is that she chooses different ways of shooting each place – showing them at their best, in their best light, from their best angle What I can say is that she makes Second Life exciting.

I like this photo from Bouncer Criss for Pixel Phasion 4 Men. It’s a natural looking photo, a guy loitering in an alley watching a truck driving by. However, there are some great touches such as the blue of the truck echoing the blue in the shirt. The subject looks into the picture, across the frame. It’s a good composition. And of course, the truck defies gravity, something trucks in Second Life so often do.

This photo from Buffy Holfe is striking and bold. I love that she cropped so close, leaving us to complete his face from the portion she shows. I love the contrast between bright and dark and the texture details that outline portions of the mask. His face is angled, making a strong diagonal edge and giving us many strong lines and a large  triangle of negative space to counter the image.

I love how Harbor Galaxy made this photo look like a sketch with such a light touch. By adding a texture layer and noise, she gives us a sketch instead of a photo and true to the form she presents, she reduces the level of detail. The collar, the background the feathers lose their definition, giving it that impressionistic sketch quality. It’s lovely.

This client photo from Kaelyn Alecto is stunning. It’s cropped nice and tight and all the details are fully rezzed and expressed. The whites are bright and blacks are deep and inky, so that it has not of that soft, faded feeling of many black and whites. This is sharp, fresh and modern. I love how the subject’s personality comes through. She looks alert, curious and lively. She has the face of someone lively and active and fun, but who has a take no prisoners approach to life. She looks like she has done many of the things on her bucket list already.

I love this picture from Geraldina Broona for El Vestidor de Julieta. The pose is elegant and shows of the dress beautifully. The desaturated colors creates a gentle, contemplative mood. Although the subject looks out of the frame, she is turned toward it and would move forward into the frame if and when she moves.

I love this shot by Miyoko Magic for Helamiyo. The black and white background is a great contrast to the bold scarlet of her body suit and shoes. This photo emphasizes the exaggerated style of the shoes effectively by having her walk up the stairs, one foot raised. The expression of motion makes us think about the shoes and how one can walk in them. I assume much more easily in Second Life, don’t you? The red hair gives us another red element that balances the body suit and the shoes. The stairs give us diagonals to wake up both sets of visual receptors (horizontal and vertical)  and get us all excited and the position of the subject relative to the stairs gives us a triangle, making our pattern recognition brain cells happy. The subject is at a vertical third, looking into the frame with a clear direction to move into the picture. There are so many elements of good composition at work that it’s no wonder this photo grabbed my attention when it was an itty-bitty thumbnail.

I love the raw energy in this picture by Madeline Zenfold for I Will Fear No Evil. The exaggerated pose seems perfect in conjunction with the tall buildings. Buildings made by giants require giant steps. There are lots of diagonal lines to get us intrigued and grab our attention. I like that she crops portions of the subject away. It’s not a problem, we can complete the picture in our heads and that makes u part of it. She trusts us to make it our own.

Recall the apology note in the original post. For reference here it is:

(you should be able to click on this to read it better…)

I specifically want to point out the part in the 2nd paragraph where she mentions she sold her car a while back and donated the money. Then says she used the money for a sim for the headquarters but couldn’t maintain the rent.

Why does this matter?

It was pointed out to me a blog post on the Superhero Epilepsy Combat Brigade blog where Epileptic Dreddmor posted she sold her car to buy a digital SLR and to put into savings.

There has been much more peace in my life, allowing me to simplify things. I sold my car that I bought new four years ago and have been using the proceeds to put away in savings but also to purchase and SLR camera to boost up the quality of my art. I wandered away from photography for awhile and art in general because I felt stuck and distracted by my Epilepsy and all the crap that goes with it. Now I have more clarity, I feel the windows have been opened and it’s a fresh day.

(from http://superheroepilepsycombatbrigade.blogspot.com/2011/06/pendulum-finally-swings-back.html)

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot:

Maybe this person owns more than 1 car. Maybe there’s a perfectly legit explanation for the discrepancy. Or maybe even the ‘coming clean’ notecard includes lies in it. Just some food for thought.