VISIONAIRE HOMEWORK, CLASS 1

For this class, we were asked to watch several videos, including how to set Preferences for photography purposes. We then were asked to take a simple RAW snapshot, post it on Flickr, and in the description, to write down what preference setting we used while taking that photograph. Well, I admit it again, I am lazy, and I truly do believe a picture is worth a thousand words, so I decided simply to capture the preferences I used and create a link to them here. I hope that everyone appreciates seeing my preferences settings in this way.

So, here they are!

These next settings are, of course, in the general tab. I did deviate in a few cases from what Wren and Nariko had suggested, and you can see those differences circled in red below. I put my graphics on ultra, and the sky, I experimented with and found that 16.000 worked well to achieve a mood I liked. Don't ask me why I chose to keep avatar cloth, since there were no avatars in the photo I finally chose; however, there was some cloth hanging about in various places, soooo....  lol

Next, my settings for the Hardware Settings tab. I adhered very closely to Wren and Nariko's suggestions, with the exception of putting Antialiasing on 16 instead of 8, just to make the photo as smooth as possible.

And, for any that are stumbling onto this by accident or by other means, well, here is the RAW photo I chose to present for class 2. I call it BEHIND THE STAIRS.

Here is the landmark for the Outer Garden sim where this photograph was taken:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Outer%20Garden/23/57/2505

And, that is the end of this short blog! Thank you for reading!

VISIONAIRE INSTITUTE APPLICATION PHOTOGRAPHS

I blog. It's what I do. Laugh out loud. As a blogger, I am sharing the great creations of Second Life designers with the whole shopping world. Well, I also am a shopper, and when I go shopping, if the ads are too artful, to the point of not correctly representing the colors and shapes of the designs on display, I most often will not buy those items, and certainly never if there is no demo available so I can accurately look at the items as I would be using them.

Therefore, when I am representing designs to potential buyers in my blogs, I keep my photos straight-forward and simple, with very little in-world manipulation or post-photo editing, so the buyers can accurately see what they will be buying.

That does not mean that I don't have a fledgling creative side tucked away down in there, however! I have been wanting to take the Visionaire Institute photography course for some time. I recently attended a Photography for Models workshop conducted by Visionaire, and that really opened up my eyes to what I didn't know and was missing out on in my use of Second Life and Firestorm photography tools! Now, more than ever, I want to take the full Visionaire photography course so I can fully learn and take advantage of the photography tools at my disposal.

To apply, applicants must submit from three to five photographs taken by them. At least one of these photos must be RAW, meaning there is no post-photo processing work done on it. Well, that made my decision easy! I would submit some RAW photos and save myself some work!

Now, for the photo submissions for the Visionaire Institute application, I took the liberty of actually going out to take some "creative" photos using the tools I had learned about in the Visionaire workshop, since there certainly is not an abundance of creative photos lying around in my inventory! I chose three of those I took specifically for the Visionaire application to go along with one other photo I actually had in my inventory that I had done some creative work on previously.

Now, for the photos!

This first one is the one I had done some creative work on previously. I used it for the Models Magazine October Horror Challenge. I was one of the winners and was featured in the magazine.  I call it "Crow Queen." This photo was taken at the DarkDharma Haunted Manor and Haunted Forest sim.

The second Visionaire submission was taken on a sim I discovered while looking for a place to take blog photos. I call this one Mirrors. This, I did do a bit of post-photo work on. You can go to the Oniro sim here.

Next, I present Violin. This is one of the RAW pictures I chose for application. This is another sim I discovered while looking for locations for blogs, the Digital Art sim. This is one of my favorite sims in Second Life.

And, finally, my personal favorite, Scarecrow Dreams, also RAW. Here, you can catch a ride to the Ocho Tango sim where this was taken. It adjoins the Digital Art sim and you can wander from one to the other as you explore the amazing beauty on display.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and look at my photos!

Have a great day!