Pose Appreciation Week: Making Credits

It's pose appreciation week, in which we focus on the poses which make us all look good. My pose store of choice these days is Glitterati, at least in part because I have over four hundred poses from her which means I can fit a wide variety of moods and types of clothing. I have an advantage over some loggers because I take discrete pictures and don't combine them (unless I'm doing hunt prizes) so it's relatively easy to keep track, but I figured I'd share some of my process so that people who are struggling with how do do things behind the scenes might get some ideas. For a long time I kept the notecard in world, but now I use notepad (so that there isn't any extra code when I cut and paste it to different places) and edit it to match each new photoshoot. I actually have a separate one for petites, since the defaults I use are very different, but I'm using today's photoshoot as an example. I start with the note open so that I can easily put in the store name and item name of everything I'm wearing (even if it isn't visible, like the katat0nik shoes under my enormous Dressed By Lexi dress).

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyeshadow: Glow, Crazy Eyes
Eyeliner: Adam n Eve, Hepsut
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss
Hair: Discord Designs, Calvin (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Jewelry: Primalot, Joy
Dress: Dressed By Lexi, Dangerous Beauty
Boots: katat0nik, Bowie Peep Toe Heels

Pose: Glitterati,
1) 227
2) 239
3) 298
4) Long Hair 4
5) 170
6) 210

Location: Enchanted Frost Hunt
Light Settings: Places Annamaria
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL, Second Life, De La Soul, Illusions, SLink, Glow, Adam n Eve, Illusions, Mock, Discord Designs, Fancy Fairy, Primalot, Dressed By Lexi, katat0nik, Glitterati, MadPea, Enchanted Frost

When I take pictures, I name them for the date (and sometimes a phrase for specific shoots) and they're numbered automatically, so for today I ended up with pictures 2012-11-19_001 to 2012-11-19_006. Since they automatically number, it's easy to track which pose I'm using for each on a list underneath the name of the posemaker. Flickr has a new uploading program where I can create sets while labeling each picture individually. I actually edit and cut and paste the set description into this post even before uploading the pictures.Then, once I've put into the descriptions of each picture in bulk, I can edit down for each individual number, and then rename the pictures. At this point, the process is so ingrained I could probably do it in my sleep.

White I'm doing the brainless labeling, I'm also thinking of what i want to say, which includes whether this needs to be a "namedrop the creators" shoot, like mentioning my awesome hair with the teeniest tiniest cornrows is from Discord Designs and available at the Around the World Event, or if I can wax philosophical or even just self-indulgently off on various topics on my mind. I try to do all of this while still wearing the clothes because I usually grab the urls for stores from the creators' Picks (creators, I love it when it's the top one!) while stacking their profiles for ease of notecard distribution with the published blogposts url in it. I do my Plurk post, with a picture I think will suit that medium well, and finally, I put the url for the blogpost in each picture and add them to the appropriate groups on Flickr. Depending on my level of focus and how much I have to say, the whole process can take anywhere from a couple of hours to half a day, but a lot of my attention is on minimizing the boring stuff so that I can focus on what I really enjoy - taking pictures and exploring.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyeshadow: Glow, Crazy Eyes
Eyeliner: Adam n Eve, Hepsut
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss
Hair: Discord Designs, Calvin (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Jewelry: Primalot, Joy
Dress: Dressed By Lexi, Dangerous Beauty
Boots: katat0nik, Bowie Peep Toe Heels

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Enchanted Frost Hunt
Light Settings: Places Annamaria
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

2012 Color Challenge: Week 37 - Royal Blue

Royal Blue is a gorgeously rich color, and I fell into it quite by accident as a group gift from Dressed by Lexi; I suppose you could say I'm Lexidressed! The usual alpha issues of dresses with semi-transparent fabric show up here and there, but Lexi did something very clever when she built the skirts and made them multilayered and highly textured - which means often the alpha occlusion disappears in the layers covering layers. Combine that with the bias-hanging skirt, and you have a dress that is beautiful to watch move. This is a dress to dance in; Photographs of it in a static state really don't do it justice. The jewelry was made to match - I took the easy way out - and both are nearly free; the dress is a group gift and the jewelry and shoes are on sale. I paired it with this adorable hairstyle from Wasabi Pills, with it's cute over the ear style. No real closeups, though! It's often hard to pair hairs with ears and make it look good, so photography angles and shadows become very important. The little tattoo on my throat is from Belleza; all of the zodiac symbols were made for 50$L Friday but don't seem to still be available (sorry!). It comes in dark and faded (I'm showing dark) along with heart and star tattoos. I accidentally bought Capricorn, so I know the heart and star aren't just for the most important sign, Pisces.

I got really into Cristina Rad this week, who's a vlogger through Free Thought Blogs. I am not an atheist and I'm only halfway a skeptic (with the other half being mystic) but I really like her perspective even when I disagree with what she sees. The same goes for a lot of the bloggers on Free Thought Blogs; Pharyngula was my gateway drug, but I'm also a huge fan of Butterflies and Wheels and Greta Christina's Blog. I spend a lot of time reading blogs and very little time responding, but often what I read is carried through by me into larger, broader thoughts to try to encompass more of the world in a more accurate way. Now and then, there are dismissive comments made about how 90% of the population is a consumer instead of a producer; a similar perspective shows up in Second Life, where several bloggers have expressed horror at the people who come into Second Life, wear clothing, go to clubs, talk to other people, and never create anything. I personally think that the consumers are the other half of the equation; part of talking is having people listen, and with no one to listen, talking becomes more of an internal process rather than something which may have any meaning outside of the individual. Likewise, created clothing without buyers just sits on shelves unworn. Rather than the consumer being parasitic on the creator, I believe it's much more of a symbiotic relationship which has echos across human culture.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Rainbow
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: De La Soul, Inked
Lipstick: Mock, Micare Lipglimmer Hypoxia
Tattoo: Belleza, Picses Zodiac Dark
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Gloria Mesh
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Dress: Dressed By Lexi, Dangerous Beauty - Midnight (group gift)
Jewelry: Dressed By Lexi, Dangerous beauty Jewelry
Shoes: G Field, Lady Rose Shoes, Blue

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only