Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
I love photos that feel spontaneous, as though caught in the moment on a whim. While they must be carefully staged, they feel as though none of that happened, but rather the photographer just click-click-clicked and caught a moment. Tamary9 is that kind of photographer, which is why I enjoy her work so much. This opening photo is exactly what I mean. It feels spontaneous and authentic. I love it!
Let’s get real, good spontaneous photos in Second Life are as rare as good photos of people dancing in real life. To take a photo, we generally choose a pose, create a setting or hunt for one, fiddle with the WindLight, move the sun around, adjust a prim here or there, calibrate the hover height, check for intersections, and by then, our slice of life is more like a still life. So how Tamary achieves that mood, that sense of immediacy, fascinates me and was a focus on my interview. (With some assistance of a Japanese-English language software translator.)
She describes her photos as "slice of life" which is how I describe them as well. In her words, “I love the moment of ordinary everyday life, so my photos should not be an elaborate design, moment and facial expressions.”
Much more of her work and world after the break!
What is your favorite of your photos? What's the story behind the photo.
I do like this photo the best of my recent creations. This image is, “The moment of someone with happy smiling behind no fear and competition.”
Your photos l very "slice of life" as though they are captured spontaneously, catching someone in the middle of just living life. How do you create that sense of spontaneity in photos that actually require time and work to set up?
Music is the one thing that inspires my taking every photo. The necessary thing is to listen to the music to [visualize] how I can express what the music says to me. Sometimes, it’s just hard to get ideas [for a] daily life scene for many days. And music always helps me to move out of a slump.
You could say “no music no photo” for my SL life. I know this motivation is abstract and makes it hard to understand how i create and capture my scenes, but that is how it happens.
What is your usual process of creating your photos?
I always first think about how I pick out an outfit and furniture, and try to get an exact image and scene while listening to music. Then I ask myself some questions. For example, is this a photo taken by someone, or just alone in the room? Is this outside or inside? I just don’t want to make them unnatural, so setting time, location and situation is very important to me prepare taking a photo.
That is hard to explain but I always think my avatar is not exactly me in real life, so I enjoy it and try to express HER feeling when I take her photo.
Who are some of your favorite artists in SL and in RL?
My favorite artist in SL are Iruki and Nekotto. I like their unique way of seeing things; their lighting effects and expressions are very impressive. I am not good at talking photo with fantasy taste but they really do perfectly.
I have many favorite artists in RL and they are musicians. I think I am a kind of a person who got influenced by my ears more than my eyes. Listening to music while talking photo is my style in SL.
Any advice for other photographers?
It is real honor to me to have this question as a photographer in SL. But I am too inexperienced to answer, because I don’t have any professional knowledge and techniques of taking photos.
If I can tell something to readers about taking photo in SL, it is to try and express the exact image of what you really want. Thinking about how you realize your concept to others is important. I try my best. It is hard for me to take images of other people, so I try to myself -- to reach the next level always.
What would you like people to know about you?
I am living as blogger in this world so if you like my photos, and have interest with items which I wear, that pleases me. I am grateful to all the people who posted “welcome back” comments when I was back from a long break.
Where can people see your work?
- tamary9.blogspot.jp/
- www.flickr.com/photos/90214369@N03/
- issuu.com/eclipsemagazinesl/docs/eclipse_magazine_february_2017/224
*Last article is from the magazine, ECLIPSE magazine February 2017.
Tamary joined Second Life back in 2013, drawn to it by the extraordinary freedom it offers. Our unstructured world where we can create anything we like, where our only limit is our imagination, had tremendous appeal, though it took her awhile to figure out what that might be. Sometimes so much choice is harder than no choice. In the end, she found her joy in taking photographs, something she enjoys in her first life as well. She finds real joy in taking snaps and sharing them on Flickr. This led her to blogging which she has been doing for the last four years, building up a following of people whose encouragement and support continue to inspire her. The only real life detail we know is that she likes taking pictures in both worlds. “I completely separate my SL from my RL. That makes my SL life more fun and bright.”
Cajsa Lilliehook joined Second Life in 2007 and has been enjoying the art of SL ever since. Disliking the common practice of critiquing poor photos, she decided to highlight good ones and explain why they work in hopes of inspiring with praise instead of criticism. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.
Great post, beautiful photos!
Posted by: Anya | Sunday, January 07, 2018 at 08:12 AM