Tuesday, May 13, 2014

What I Have Learned About Second Life Photography Part II or....Finding Inspiration

Once again, I am sharing what I have learned about Second Life Photography.  I will keep prefacing this by explaining that I am hardly one of the top photographers.   I have worked with some amazing photographers and I follow others I still want to work with.  While I am not one of the experts, I am an experienced beginner and have come a long way from where I started.

When I first started dabbling in SL photography, I simply found a pretty location or used a white screen...struck a pretty pose and started clicking away.  I did create some very pretty pictures, but I just wasn't creating anything with that little something extra.  One of the problems was that  a lot of my photos were way too much alike.   There were some differences, but the overall effect was becoming repetitive and boring.  I was getting to where I was bored of my own pictures and I was sure others were too.

I looked through my flicker for pictures that looked alike to demonstrate what I meant.  I had no trouble finding examples of repetition.  I changed up hair, clothes, and settings, but seriously....couldn't I do something different?

Check out the 3 examples below!  All pretty....but you can see I was struggling with being original.





I started paying closer attention to the work of SL photographers I admired and saw that they were able to create a variety of work and new and original photo sets that had different personalities.   One of the things that I noticed was that some of the best sets or photos had some sort of idea or vision that each set of pictures was created around. 

That was it!  I needed vision.  I started wracking my brain to come up with themes or ideas that I could use as a starting point;...but it just seemed forced.  I would see a cool idea and think I could do something with that, but it wasn't mine...and I didn't want to just copy what other people were doing.  So I tried to create some thematic photos....but struggled with it.

Below are a couple of early examples of me trying to "find a theme".  They are nice...but hardly inspired or unique. 




Lightning Strikes!
But then one day it came to me.  I LOVE music.  I specifically love hard rock from the 70's and 80's.   I soon realized that as I was listening to songs on the radio (I listen to SiriusXM Hair Nation) I was starting to visualize how they might look as a photo set.  Was I on to something?  Maybe...

My first set of musically inspired pictures are from the set "Fairies Wear Boots" and are loosely based on the Black Sabbath song.  I love this song and just thought it would be a great photo set.  This set was featured in my last post about Windlight settings...but you can see them here, too:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/vixeee/sets/72157644165260797/

I was so pleased with how they came out that I tried it again....with a more well-known song that is not from my favorite genre. You can see those results below with a couple of my these pictures.  They are part of a set called "She Blinded Me With Science". Can you guess which song inspired me?  I am really proud of them and think that they represent the direction that I want to go with my photography.  You can view the full set here, but my 2 favorites are below:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/vixeee/sets/72157644645501962/






So how can you use this?  I am not suggesting that every go forth and do photos based on songs.  Music might not be the inspiration for everyone.  But there is a world of inspiration in the things that you enjoy and that matter to you.  It could be Movies, TV, Books, Second Life Role Play, or something you encounter in RL  The important thing is to find your inspiration...something that will fill you with mental images you can translate to your SL pictures.  Once you find it and let your imagination go...the photos will create themselves. 

I hope this was helpful or least entertaining....because I really enjoyed writing it.

Happy erotic adventures to all of you!


1 comment:

  1. Great post, Vixeee! *smiles* I'd say the most important is to keep your mind alert and opened, to grab the ideas wherever they are. And also to question your erotic fantasies: what turns you on? How would you like to see yourself in a photo? These can be great sources of inspiration.
    And don't be afraid of challenges: trying to do something you've imagined or seen in RL in SL can be quite difficult, but you might end up with something great anyway and finally quite original. And you can learn a lot along the way!

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