Pics by Peep – Page 244

There’s No Place Like Ctrl+Shift+H

Image June 16, 2013PeepSideshow Darkward6 Comments

If you aren’t a resident of Second Life, you’re probably scratching your head thinking, “Huh?” For those who do inhabit SL, you know it’s a reference to the keyboard shortcut for “Home”. It’s also the name of the sim I visited yesterday, and it is truly lovely.

Originally, I went to Empyreal Dreams with the intent to photograph some of the artwork there. It is an interesting concept, as described on the Destination Guide:

Empyreal Dreams is a collaborative project between two creators based in England and The United States. It aims to visualize famous poems and literature using Second Life as a canvas. A teleportation machine greets the visitor with destinations available to: The Raven, Emily Brontë’s The Bluebell, The Ancient Mariner and Les Misérables.

However, once I arrived, I could only find the teleporter to “Les Misérables”, and while it was an amazing display, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. It was rather crowded, and while I don’t mind sharing my space with others, I didn’t want to have to derender their avatars to keep them from appearing in my photos 😉 Instead, I simply wandered outside…

Empyreal Dreams is housed on the Ctrl+Shift+H sim. The main theme of the sim has an old-world feel, and I was captivated by the gentle music and the lovely build. You can rent space in some of the cottages, if you would like to set up shop there. There was quite a bit of activity on the sim with the explorers of Empyreal Dreams spilling out to ramble about, as I did. I found a spot rather removed from the main area, though, and while I had the occasional friendly passerby speak to me, I was able to grab a few shots. I have to wonder what they thought of this woman flipping through pose after pose, imagining her to be some sort of puppet on a string. Ah, the joys of location photography! Perhaps that’s why they steered clear of the area where I was shooting 😉

I wandered off after a while and found another beautiful, but different, place on this sim and happily snapped away. But I’ll leave that until another post. For now, just enjoy the beauty of Ctrl+Shift+H.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves – The Nature Of A Woman

Image June 15, 2013June 15, 2013PeepSideshow Darkward21 Comments

In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

When I look at photos of stick-thin women, I have to wonder, what is the appeal? What is more boring than a straight line? The gentle curve of the hips, the breasts, the shoulder and upper arm, soft and gently sloping, defines the feminine form. That women – and especially young girls – are conditioned to eschew this natural phenomenon causes more harm than can ever be expressed in a simple blog.

The Weekly Photo Challenge prompt this week is Curves. This photo not only shows a modern version of a curvaceous woman, but the framed print harkens back to a time when this shape was considered ideal.

There are other examples of curves in this picture, but the nature of a woman cannot be overshadowed.

Please click on the link above to see other examples of “Curves.”

Putting Me In My Place

Image June 13, 2013PeepSideshow Darkward5 Comments

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.