30 posts in 30 days

Putting Me In My Place

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1 Runestone_026J

Yesterday I ventured in to Second Life with three goals:

1. To clear out the Arcade items cluttering my platform from my shoot a few days prior.
2. To post my SL Movie poster at LEA11 in Berry’s Monday Meme Gallery.
3. Do a landscape shot for my blog.

I managed to clear out the Arcade items (although not organise them in my inventory 😦 ) and popped over to LEA11 to put up my poster. I even managed to knock poor Vaneeesa off the platform when I changed the width of my poster to 170.5 metres instead of adjusting the rotation to 170.5 (sorry again, Vaneeesa! *grimaces*) So far, two out of three down…I’m doing great!

Then I hit the wall. I opened the Destination Guide and TP’d to three different locations, trying to find a landscape to shoot. Despite rezzing issues, I attempted several shots in all three places. I adjusted my camera angle, Windlight settings (even going so far as to edit the water and sky settings), flew or ran from area to area trying to find just the right location to shoot and just generally wore myself out attempting to do what I normally don’t do.

After a couple of hours of this (intermittently, getting up frequently to rest my back and un-numb my bum) I started going through my shots for processing. Overall, I took over 100 photos and they were all…well, to be blunt…CRAP. Sighs. I tried to do something with a couple in post-processing to make them blog-worthy, but alas, you can’t make a silk purse out of…CRAP.

It’s for days like yesterday that I worked ahead for the Avatar Blogger Month. By the time I finished I was disheartened and exhausted. So, I took a day off.

Today, I went at it from a different angle. Yes, I wanted to find a pretty location to shoot, but I decided to add me into the frame. This time, I was happier with my results.

I headed to a sim I have frequented over the years, Runestone, and I wasn’t disappointed. If you haven’t been there, here is the description in the Destination Guide:

Runestone is a special place to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Dance, meditate, or cuddle with a loved-one, visit the quaint cottages, or explore the garden with its waterfalls, rope-swings, and hidden pirate’s cave.

I was much happier with these photos which include me, but still show off the lovely location. In fact, all I did was crop these pictures.

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I’m not saying I’m going to give up on landscape photography, but until I master it, I’ll just have to keep putting me in my place.

My SL Movie Poster Challenge: It’s Nice To Meet You

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1 Peepless In SLeattleFinal

Monday again, and time for another meme (no matter what anyone else says) from Strawberry Singh! I KNEW this one was going to be a challenge, and it took me most of the day to find the stuff to put it together. Especially because my male avatar only has one set of clothes and one hair style and neither of them would work for this shot! Tom Hanks he ain’t 😉

I panicked when I saw this meme, not because I feared having to try to use Photoshop, but because I had no idea what movie to pick. Because I’m in Australia, it’s actually my Tuesday and I saw Berry’s meme just before I went to bed Monday night. I decided I’d play Scarlett and “think about it tomorrow.” What actually happened was I woke up at 3:21 AM and nearly shouted, “Peepless in Seattle!” – which turned out to be SLeattle as I was trying to re-write the blurb on the poster. Oh…and I managed to do it in Picmonkey, so I was able to get this done in one day instead of the week or two it would have taken if I’d had to use PS \o/

In case you live under a rock, I based my poster on Sleepless In Seattle.

If you want to play along, here are Berry’s instructions:

Monday Meme Instructions: The challenge for this week is to create a movie poster for your SL Avatar or SLife. You can base it off an original movie poster or think of a completely new idea of your own! Get creative and have some fun with it! Remember to leave your link in this meme’s comments so others can come by and see your poster as well.

Got to run…I have to get to the top of the Empire State Building before it closes!

Camping Out Beside A Roofless Cabin

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1 Arcade June_035S

I told you I would be posting more from the Arcade, and this time it’s not a fashion post! Although I’m wearing my skin, hair, headband and top from The Arcade, this post is all about the fun stuff! I spent AGES setting up these shots, and I still didn’t manage to capture all of the goodies I put out. And I’m embarrassed about how much stuff was left in my inventory!

I’m not going to say a whole lot, except a thank you to all of the creators who participate in The Arcade. The quality, creativity and whimsy of these items are the reason I fight the lag and “Region Full” warnings every three months to try my luck at this capricious, fanciful event.

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Arcade items (creators only):

*Art Dummy!
floorplan.
Scarlet Creative
Tableau Vivant
Apple Fall
Silent Sparrow
Intrigue Co.
Elate
Pink Fuel
Wasabi Pills
Emery
Noodles
Sleepy Eddy
OhMai
Commoner
Olive.