Color Challenge: Week Twenty-nine - Electric Carrot

Electric Carrot has to be the goofiest color I've ever tried to match. The name practically demands some kind of rabbit theme, but it took me a while to remember katat0ik's Snow Bunny Set, which I had coincidentally gotten in orange.

See, I actually loathe orange - it's my least favorite color - so the reason I got something in orange from my favorite store was a reflection of my desire to own pretty clothes in every color, even the icky ones. And now... now I'm simply thrilled I happened to have this in orange instead of a million other colors, because it fit the theme perfectly.



A good chunk of the outfit - including the skin, the bunny ears, and the stockings - are part of the katat0nik outfit. There's also a shape included, but my shape is one of the few things I rarely change - and then usually only when there's a reason, like a corset being worn. I added Skinthesis' lipstick in Brash form her Liquid Heat collection, which I think added some drama to the skin and pulled everything together.

The hair is from DV8 and was part of a hunt prize I picked up. I'm so glad DV8 does moddable hair because I was able to tint the greyish parts of this white hair orange, which I think gave it the proper feel for this look while keeping the white theme going. My eyes are the Roomee Rainbow eyes from De La Soul, which I've been completely addicted to.

To balance out the black stockings, I added Eclectica's black "Swoon" gloves and tinted the trip and interior orange, and then supported it all by another hunt prize from G Field, her Anna boots in pumpkin. The final touch was a little "carrot" doll from Little Girl - also a hunt prize. The poses are all from Long Awkward Pose and collected over a long, long time.



I spent rather a while looking for a place for this weeks photo shoot, though. I first did a search for "carrot", imagining that someone, somewhere, must have done a giant carrot themed sim. If anyone ever did, though, it was supplanted by an alarming number of prim-baby and Second Life maternity themed stores. I ended up deciding to go with one of the major themes of bunnies (besides, apparently, birth) and look for a cave system to take pictures in - something brown and homey, where a bunny could really nest in.

I ended up on the mainland after several aborted tries at other sims, in a tiny little cave system that doesn't even seem to have a general name or purpose besides being explored. One thing I noticed while I was there, though, was the power of noise in Second Life to add ambiance that otherwise would be missing. There was the sound of wind through the caves, a drip drip, and other details which made the cave system come alive as a silent one would not. This also stood out to me at Cerridwen's Cauldron, where I did an earlier photoshoot, where there were rustling sounds when I went through the grass, and the sounds of water as I explored.


I've been recently spending a lot of time fighting my inventory size - which makes me think of hunts as well as today's exploration of Hunt Prizes from the Past. I was actually around early on in Hunt History, with the big, Christmas gridwide hunt, and remember when there were two or three big ones that year. Now hunts are so multitudinous that trying to do all of them would literally take up all of my time within Second Life, not even including time to open them and pick what I wanted to keep.

I've become very picky with hunts, therefore. I literally will hit only hunt places where, according to pictures I've seen, I will like the prizes. The sole exception is when I run across a hunt prize in a store I'm already at; then I'll pick it up even if I don't know what's inside. Otherwise, though, I'm dependent on the reviews of hunts put out on several blogs - and even then, these days - I barely keep up. Sometimes I don't keep up. This week I've been spending my time sorting my inventory in preparation for adding my poses to an in-world pose activator, in the hopes of both lowering my inventory by removing a bunch of items and making it easier for me to do photoshoots and pose other people (it allows me to pose one other person, which is awesome).



When I do hunts these days, I'm reminded of some of the complaining I've heard about them on the grid. About how they, and other freebie and cheapie organized things, devalue creation on the grid, serve to rob store owners of their money, and breed a population of greedy, grasping, complaining customers. Having once been part of the straw which broke a creator's back and stopped her from offering freebies (I sent a notecard asking about a free item I hadn't received and... well, never heard back; a couple days later, I read a post about how freebies did nothing but cause her problems - I can only assume my notecard contributed!), I don't ever want to say to any store owner that giving freebies is the way to go.

However, in the case of that store, it was a freebie which drew me to her store, and I did subsequently become a paying customer. Many of the other stores I loved, including G Field and katat0nik that I'm showing above, I found through their hunts and lucky chairs. Often, a good freebie will pull me back to a store to look at their wares, or to join their subscribo (I don't often join groups, since I'm at 41 already!) and get notices when they release things. I won't say the transition from horrible, grasping, freebiehound to customer is fast - sometimes it takes a few months for me to get to something in my inventory - but it has happened and will, no doubt, happen again.

( More pictures here! )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: katat0nik, Snow Bunny Set - orange
Skin: katat0nik, Snow Bunny Set - orange
Lipstick: Skinthesis, Liquid Heat - Brash
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Shoulder Toy: Little Girl, Doll - Carrot
Hair: DV8, Juju - Nuclear Winter (tinted orange)
Dress: katat0nik, Snow Bunny Set - orange
Key: LP, Carrot Key
Gloves: Eclectica, Swoon short gloves - ebony
Shoes: G Field, Short Ribbon Boots "Anna" - pumpkin

Poses: Long Awkward Pose

Location: Waterfall - Caverns and SCUBA Cave Trail
Light Settings: [TOR] HORROR - Bloody moon

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only