Tuesday 29 October 2013

The Fashion Fish : Zombie Couture...

So what should you be caught dead in this upcoming Zombie apocalypse?

Sirens

Close up : Spiked Eyepiece for Halloween by Finesmith Jewellery
Credits :
Finesmith Halloween Collection of Eye and Hair Pieces.
More info : http://finesmithjewelry.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/finesmith-haloween.html 
Taxi : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Azure%20Island/141/152/9

With Hair from Alice Project :

Thursday 24 October 2013

The Fish Eye Lens : How to make a good picture. (Introduction and so on dedicated to Amita)

Fish Eye Lens Icon

Haha ok so today I crashed and made this capture :
ArghsIII
ARGHS!!!!
Amita Yorcliffe suggested (in a comment) that I make a tutorial on how to take good pictures - she even said the magic word pleaseeee (with four e's!!!!) so how can I say no eh? Truth be told I had been thinking of sharing my processes anyway  to beef up my blog content ;-). This is actually kind of a difficult thing for me to do because I'm really quite a disorganised goldfish brain but I'll try my best !
I think it would be interesting to explore the idea and learn from it too!

I certainly don't claim to be an expert in the field of good picture taking given the wealth of talent in the ole flickr pool; I'm pretty average with the occasional lucky break! With that said - how I'll go about blogging about these techniques is, I'll write a tutorial covering some aspect of SL photo taking whenever a crash has occurred and I need to channel my frustration into something more positive than a major rant!

One thing I do believe in is that there are some basic rules about aesthetics that other more brainy people than me have often theorised and written about. These can be learned and applied in your own projects. What is good is always a matter of opinion and style and these change and develop as you become more experienced. So perhaps the bestest no.1 rule in good picture taking is to take a lot of pictures! The rest is as follows.

How to make a good picture (in second life) :

Part 1 - Mistress/Master your environment (Light)

The essential things you want to control in most picture set ups are
Lights, Camera and Action.
So for this blog tutorial I'll write a little about setting up light sources in second life.

Note : 
Phoenix Firestorm Viewer is my viewer of choice for my own Second Life. Therefore the user interface and settings may vary from your own SL experience.

Lighting in Second Life (The Basics)

This tutorial will cover the following points

  • 1) Planning the set up of your studio/location
  • 2) Making basic lights

1. Planning the set up of your studio/location
While there is no hard and fast rule to setting up your studio,
I find setting up in an East West direction just makes sun/wind light settings easier to understand.  
I will write a blog about my own explorations with windlight settings in a later tutorial.

Briefly, the biggest reason for setting up your studio direction in this illustration, is so that you can use sun position in a controlled manner to create dramatic lighting. If you'd like to get into this straight away - Strawberry Singh has written a wonderful tutorial on windlight settings here




2. Making basic lights
You will need some very basic SL building skills.










You now have a set of photography lights that you can easily modify to suit your needs!

Monday 14 October 2013

The Art Fish : Día de Muertos and Sugar Skulls.

So it all started with seeing this :
The Stringer Mausoleum - Death's Devotion Gacha
A Gacha Made by Helena Stringer
Though really really ... what I would LOVE is a doll head with an applier system for different faces and makeups! But I digress. The above muse resulted in :
The Arm Chair
The Arm Chair
Consisting of several objects that I've been longing to blog about. (Object credits will follow at the end!) as well as 
Sugar Coma
Sugar Coma
I really like this pic for being tongue firmly in cheek :-) Ofcourse as I write this , Doll Coco's are still a single vendor product and the sugar skull makeup used here is completely hand painted by me using my skillz. I made some brushes to do sugar skull patterns with and will share that in a later blog (promise!)

Meanwhile the credits roll :
(Is being updated and checked please check back later for info.)

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Le poisson du jour : OMG, my $L's have all magically disapparated!

Eye Spy
Eye Spy
Wearing:
Zibska Sorren Necklace
Yasum Babe's Romper is rigged for Dollies! (Very very exciting and fits perfect!)
Curio Obscura Abomination Peeper Boots (Witchy)
Remarkable Oblivion - Scissor Hands (Love!) + Magicians Hat (from OMG)
Fairy Hair from Boudoir
Beetlebones Wizarding Puertorican Toad 

Accio Goldfishy!
Accio Goldfishy!
Props are mostly gacha prizes from all over the grid namely The Arcade, Chapter Four, Fantasy Gacha Carnival etc :
Lark Imaginarium "Sea" Bookcase with Assorted Gacha Books.
Ziganna Branch Light (@ Chapter Four) + Ziganna Packaging (used as book and paper prop)
Antique Book Stacks (Part from FIMA by Flair @ My Attic http://www.flickr.com/photos/whimsywinx/9849571765/)
Elate Wine and Glasses (@ The Arcade June)
orro
("Horror" from Cheeky Pea Bookends Gacha @ 24)

Frogbit : "She hasn't got a really good track record for turning frogs to Princes..."
(from Beetlebones @ Wizarding Faire )

Trickster Pixie : "Take cover people!"
(from Balaclava @ The Arcade June)

Lady Shine : "Think I'll just hide under here"
(from Bryn Oh @ Fantasy Gacha Carnival)

Cauldron (Retextured in this photo but a fantastic freebie on marketplace https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Free-Mesh-Cauldron/4129386)

Sugar to Monkey Tiki Mug : "Relight my fire!"
Monkey Tiki Mug *saucy saucer nibbling* (Both from Nylon Outfitters @ The Arcade Sept 12/13)

Fortune Telling Ball to Fawn Owl : "You will be going on a long journey..."

Sunday 6 October 2013

The Fashion Fish : AW Fashion Week and Zibska

Strange Bird
Strange Bird - Featuring Zibska Gervas Mantle

Go towards the light...
Go towards the light - Featuring Zibska Bodil Necklace Set (For 60L WE)
and the amazing Alix Hair 

The sentience of being
The sentience of being - featuring Zibska Lova in Berries

Limited
Limited - featuring Zibska Sybella (Limited to 100 copies made)

Frost - Smoke
Sybella - Details include smoke makeup

Thanks for all the fish...
Thanks for all the fish - featuring Zibska 's Hella Dress.

The above images were all inspired by the latest collection of couture from Zibska and are available at

See also :

Wednesday 2 October 2013

The Sad Fish : Beauty is ephemeral...

The Eternal Carousel
Lucia made the following announcement earlier today in the WEG blogging group :

Dear bloggers
Today, I have a sad announcement to you.
I will end the production activities in SL.
I will not release new products in the future probably.
Therefore, I will be dissolved this blogger group.
I am also considering the closure of the SIM, but it is not decided yet.
I'm so sorry.
thank you for your all supports.

Lucia Genesis

I feel completely bereft and will miss her creations and unique style dearly. As the future of WEG is as yet uncertain , I really felt compelled to take my virtual hasselblad over there and snap some images of this beautiful SIM.

A place beloved (World's End Garden)
Lucia has a keen eye for detail - such as this gem of a painting echoing the build
A place beloved (World's End Garden)
A garden for all seasons - World's End Garden features wonderfully photographic views
It has often been used as a destination for photo shoots (including my own)
A place beloved (World's End Garden)
I have taken a shot of this particular space many times and yet everytime I go back ,
there always seems something more - a different way of seeing ...
Distant Figure Drawing...
An example of the above scene  same space in a different windlight on a different day
A place beloved (World's End Garden)
Funny how a change in windlight can bring about things you missed in other settings.
I had never noticed that the sky was filled with shooting stars before *
*captured in a different shot from this one

The SLURL for visiting this sim is :

World's End Garden


Update (4th Oct) : The end of this beautiful place will be 18/10/2013 

the end of the "World's End"