It's me again - but betterer

I mentioned in my last post that some recent time spent in the studios of a couple of photographer friends had inspired me to show you all that it's not as easy as it looks, this photography business. I think I achieved that.

Today I have the output of one of those sessions to show you. To demonstrate to you how it should be done.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the work of Ms ShannonCharlize Gossipgirl:




Thankyou, Shan :D

It's me

In the past couple of days, a couple of friends of mine have been generously taking photos of me. I love to see the output of those photographers who really know their way around Photoshop. This time in the studio with the experts has inspired me to play around with Photoshop a little myself. Just so I can see what I can do. And once again realise the gulf that exists between the amateurs and the professionals.

Below is the result of a few hours messing about a bit. Please forgive my self-indulgence.

A day early

I got a surprise last night. Quite a big one.

I'd been setting up the new gallery when Chry IMed me to see if I would TP over to Idle Rogue for a dance with some friends as she was DJing. I wasn't quite finished so told her I'd be there in, like, 10. I finished up, took some photos without crashing for a change, and then picked Quaintly up in the taxi on the way over.


There were a few people I knew over at Idle Rogue, and a few I didn't. But that's not the surprise. After I got there last night, Chry announced to me that today is my rezday! And I didn't even know! How remiss, huh?

I can't believe I've been here a year already. Cue long navel-gazing blogpost about times gone by etc etc. A year is long time of mistakes, misjudgements misbehaviour in Marnixworld. It's also a dumpster full of new friends and experiences I would not have missed for anything.

Only, have I been here a year yet? You see, it's the 12th Feb for me. But not for SL. So in actual fact I reckon my rezday is actually tomorrow. Probably.

I have time to prepare for the self-deprecating navel-gazing.

Branching out

The other day I noticed a plurk from Al about a new commercial sim opening up. For some reason I cannot explain I felt compelled to find out more.

The sim, it turns out, is a newly renovated spot associated with Second Style magazine and somehow the idea of having a little spot to hang my art on a sparkly new sim seemed an attractive proposition. It was formerly Le Zoo if that means anything to anyone more worldly than me.

I contacted the girl-in-charge and after eventually our virtual paths crossed. She gave me a little tour of the sim, I liked what I saw, and a deal was struck. Cue spitting on palms and firm handshakes all round. Well, either that or simply payment to a rental vendor.

Unfortunately at the moment you can't go have a look, at either my new gallery or the sim, as it is not open yet. The grand re-opening happens on Friday evening (SLT) with a DJ set and free gifts to shoppers. I would tell you the exact time, but I don't know it. It's just the evening. 7pm or 8pm or something probably. *shrugs shoulders gallicly*

There's a rather cute map of the sim here and Swirly Disco Flames mk III is in shop 19, even though at the time of writing, it's not stated there.

OK, so now I had a shop. An empty shop. To fill. Bugger. What now?

Well, the shop is effectively two stories high so I figured a mezzanine type thingy with some stairs would not go amiss. Otherwise it would just be a big empty box with art randomly (but artistically) scattered on the walls. I had a tiled floor plinth that I'd previously 'built' for a bathroom a few houses back. I thought I could re-use that. Except it wasn't big enough. I figured I'd need to rez two and join them. Half an hour later I had the textures matching perfectly. Hmmmph

Next up I needed stairs. I plurked to ask friends about stairs, given I was a staircase noob, and almost started a fight between the pro-spirals and the anti-spirals. I was directed to a awesome spiral staircase. And it would have been perfect too. If only I could have figured out quite how to place it. But somehow it wasn't quite right, so I went back to the conventional staircase solution. Again, rigorous XStreet searching followed, followed quickly by success. I had a staircase. I had a mezzanine. And I even had a smoked-glass effect barrier to stop people falling off said mezzanine.

Art was rezzed and placed. A hop, skip and a jump over to my fave furniture store resulted in a sofa set which was duly rezzed. A few plants were liberally scattered. And a banner template for the sign outside the door was created and placed. And wow, three or so hours after I started the rental the place was set, ready for the grand opening tomorrow.

But, just in case you can't make it tomorrow (and because I am proud of my amateurish handiwork and want to let you see it), here's a little sneak preview. Just for you...


It is true to say that after I finished, I was pretty excited about the whole thing.


"Welcome, welcome. Come on in. Please."


"If you build it, they will come!"


Aaaaaaaaaand relax....

Shocked and appalled

You know, I guess I have been a little surprised by the strength of the reaction to my last post. In particular, eyes have been mainly raised at the second pic, of course.

Some people have commented privately to me that the picture was "inappropriate". Others have said it is bordering on pr0n and isn't the sort of thing they expect to see on a "respectable blog". For me this has just brought to a head how double-standard-ed (if that's a word) SL can be sometimes. Well, not just SL, I guess.

Earlier in the week a good friend of mine plurked a picture of her and a friend in a very nekkidly evocative pose. The comments rolled on in and were enthusiastically positive. One after another. But, you see, the picture was of two women. I actually commented at the time to another friend that I doubted whether the reception would have been quite so demonstratively welcoming if instead of two women, the picture was of a man and a woman.

And it seems now that perhaps my point has been made. I post one clothed (mostly-clothed, ok) photo of me with Jordy in a hot-tub in a spanking pose and suddenly I receive numerous comments vilifying me.

Are two women together less threatening to us as a community or something? Or would it have been different if I'd been the one get spanked instead of doing the spanking? Because at least then I'd not be perpetuating misogynistic stereotypes, right?

I mean, shit, come on, the pic could have been a whole lot further over the line than it was.

Steam and bubbles

Some evenings there really is nothing better than sitting round enjoying the lovely warm water of the hot-tub while contemplating the stars.

It's also an excuse for pretty pictures too, eh?


I also rediscovered some fun poses that lay buried deep within my hot-tub. Not a pic you'd categorise as 'pretty' maybe, but still definitely worth sharing. RAWR!

Aroha

I yesterday launched a new collection in my gallery, Swirly Disco Flames.

At first I figured I would just jump on the bandwagon and design something appropriate to grab a share of the lovey-dovey dollar that people will be spending this month. But as I created more and more of the collection and tried to decide on a name I realised it became more.

The collection is called 'aroha'. Aroha is a Maori word meaning love. But the English word love does not demonstrate the true depth of aroha. Other ways to translate aroha might include compassion, affection, respect, sympathy and mercy. It encompasses so much more than merely love.

As such, in the end, these paintings were designed with this in mind. I released them in time for Valentine's Day as I think they will be perfect gifts for your lover. But they should not be restricted to that. They will be perfect gifts for friends too. Aroha covers the love, respect and affection between friends as well as between lovers.


Come down and have a look at them, why don't you.