Second Life

Goin’ To The Chapel…

Image January 24, 2013February 11, 2013PeepSideshow DarkwardLeave a comment

Weddings. They happen in Second Life, just as in real life. And trust me, a virtual wedding can be just as much work to plan as a real life wedding!

My best friend and one of my Second Life sisters, Abbie, got married in December. As her maid of honour, I was involved from the beginning in helping to pick out dresses, flowers, the cake, tuxes, final decision on the venue and generally keeping the bride from totally freaking out and setting fire to the dresses, flowers, cake, tuxes and venue! (Yes, there’s a story there, perhaps to be told another day 😉 ) The wedding took place on December 22, 2012, but that was actually the third date, due to real life issues. Yes, those play a major part in any virtual wedding, from time zones to health or personal issues to internet and hardware failure (and I don’t mean the wedding night!)

Abbie asked me to be her photographer for the wedding, but I declined as the “official” photographer. Mainly because I was part of the wedding party and would be busy doing what a maid of honour does, but also because I was afraid that I might miss some magic moments. If there are technical issues with a standard photo shoot, it can be rebooked. But a wedding…well, you’ve got one shot at getting it right and god help the photographer who screws up a bride’s wedding day!

As it turned out, I took over 270 photos, anyway, from us getting ready to the ceremony to the reception and after party. I put together an album for Abbie that consisted of about 40 photos that I deemed acceptable. Part of the reason for the lower strike rate was that it’s tough taking photos on the fly. But the main reason was because while I wanted to create a theme for the photos, after a while they just seemed repetitive. I see no point in padding a portfolio just for the sake of numbers. Besides, wedding pictures can be like Aunt Georgia’s vacation pictures; after you’ve seen 15 or 20 shots of her and Uncle Ralph drunk at the luau, you’ve seen them all 😉

Because this was a Christmas themed wedding, I wanted to give the photos a wintery feel without being cold. I could have used cool processing, but instead I used a frosted halo to give the photos a consistent feel. I also softened the images frequently to give them a more romantic impression.

The Ceremony

The Wedding Party

The Reception

And of course, no wedding would be complete without its share of boo-boos, glitches and a random penguin!

I admit to trepidation over doing wedding photos, but when it was over, although I wasn’t completely happy with the photos I took, the important thing was that the bride and groom were. Their special day has been captured for eternity, allowing them to happily walk into the future together, hand in hand ♥

My Cherished

Image January 23, 2013February 1, 2013PeepSideshow Darkward1 Comment

People who don’t inhabit virtual worlds like Second Life often don’t understand how two folks can meet and almost instantly find a connection when they only have avatars and text as their means of communication. Just because you can’t see or touch someone, though, doesn’t mean that relationship isn’t as real. I work as a host and shift manager at a rock club in Second Life (Breaking The Rules). My job there is to greet people, help them out and just be social, making sure they enjoy their time at the club. As such, I meet a LOT of people on a daily basis.

But sometimes, you just ‘click’ with a person and know that you share a bond that will always exist. A ‘sister of the heart’ or a BFF, to be cliche. Tylar Hemmit-Revestel is one of those amazing women whom I will always hold dear. The nickname “My Cherished” came from a Facebook app that listed your friends and how much they love you. Silly nonsense, but in her case, so true.

In our club, the tip jars project the Second LIfe profile picture of the host and DJ. And Tylar’s was, well…average 😉 It was a snapshot that wasn’t sized properly and you could barely make out her features. You certainly couldn’t recognise her beauty from that photo. One night, she mentioned she was saving to have new profile pictures done, and I immediately volunteered to do them for her. It took us a few weeks to actually get the time together for the shoot, but finally, one Friday night, I got her to my home and I flipped her through pose after pose, dragged her around my property to different locations and made her go through wardrobe changes until the poor girl was probably ready to shoot me 😀 I took over 70 shots and in the end, I presented her with 21 photos that I found acceptable. Not a bad strike rate, actually, but I believe that is because I know her so well and I was able to capture her moods and personality more easily.

I wanted to show the different sides of Tylar. And I’m proud to show the world how I captured those aspects of My Cherished.

Thoughtful

Carefree

Sensual

Provocative

And as My Cherished puts it:

Hello, World, Here’s Tylar!

Oh, and that friend I mentioned in my first post who told me she loved how I had captured so many sides of her in her portraits? Who encouraged me to offer my services to others? Who gave me the confidence to do just that and as a result, begin this blog?

Yep. You guessed it. That was Tylar…My Cherished ♥

A Unicorn Followed Me Home…

January 22, 2013February 1, 2013PeepSideshow DarkwardLeave a comment

…and I fell in love ♥

Actually, I found him at a sales event called Introducing Genre, the .la petite mort. unicorn prop. And I knew I had to photograph him.

One of my favourite things to do is to take the same image and apply different effects. Each photograph based on the same original shot can show a different mood or side of the person I’m photographing. That’s what I did with this shot of myself and my new friend, Percival (yeah, I named my unicorn 😉 )