Wannabe

In real life, I consider myself to be something of an amateur photographer. My photographs have been used for online maps, theatre funding application forms and information packs, and foreign-language textbooks - and I got paid for those last ones. I'm hardly a photographic genius, and it isn't a hobby that is going to put bread on my table, but I enjoy it, and I'm not bad at it. 

When I came to Second Life, however, as I have lamented before, I found myself to be a pretty poor virtual photographer - and my below-par graphics card could only take so much of the blame. I didn't give up (don't be rude now), but kept trying, and I thought I would make a report on my progress.

Good SL photography is all around me. The first virtual photographer I was introduced to whose pictures have turned me green was Sian Pearl - but then I also stumbled upon the flickr streams of Croon Nandahar, Strawberry Singh, Harlow Heslop, Laverne Unit, Harp Purr, Veritable Magic and Petra Messioptra - to name but a few. They are enough to make you sick...in the best way possible, of course.

So, tonight, I really tried. I even got Kitti dressed up, and spent quite a long time (read: far too long!) searching for the right place to take the photos. This is something I never do in real life; I am very much an in-the-moment snapper. I went through the rather exhaustive list of lighting settings to choose the right one. The shots have been been post-edited, just a little, and now here they are.

SL photography, in my opinion, is much more difficult than real life photography. Controlling the camera, positioning your avatar, having too many lighting options, people walking into your shot, leaves falling right in the middle of your avatar's face...somehow, I never seem to have these difficulties in real life. Real life never suffers lag. The upside is, however, that Kitti can and will pose for as long as I make her without me needing to worry about whether she's going to faint from standing up too long, or if she needs a toilet break.

Well...I think I'm getting better!

Doppelgänger I

Doppelgänger II

Doppelgänger II

 [Click here to view the set on flickr][Alternatively, click on one of the images to enlarge, and use the left and right arrow keys to scroll between them]

Out-takes:

Doppelgänger Out-takes I

Doppelgänger Out-takes II