Casja's Choices: My Five Favorite Second Life-Themed Flickr Groups of 2024 -- Consider Joining Them in 2025!

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Joanna Kitten’s “To the Lighthouse” is just one of thousands of pictures of Second Life birds in Second Life Avians, a Flickr group organized by Bella Blackheart.She took an interesting approach to the Rule of Odd Numbers. There are five birds, four in the background and one in the foreground, in the upper right. I confess, for a moment or two, I mistook the umbrella for a corvid which made me laugh and love this picture even more. I love birds but am allergic to their feathers, fortunately I am not allergic to Second Life birds. So the bird groups are dear to my heart, which puts this group on my list of favorite SL Flickr groups of 2024, and the first to be featured in today’s column. 

For more of my favorite Flickr groups, click here:

Eoleon Elcano reveals a sage insight into human behavior in “I’m Fine.” This was a picture in In the End: Grief and Loss in SL, one of the many groups organized by Siobhán Muintir whose work curating all sorts of Flickr groups was featured a couple months ago. I think this picture cleverly captures our very human impulse to put on a brave face, denying our grief and pain. Now, many species drive off the weak, hurt, and aged to be picked off by predators. Do you think that is why we pretend we’re okay when we are not? Are we afraid of being kicked out of the herd? 

Charlie Namiboo posted “close your eyes. hear the silent snow. listen to your soul speak …” and I wonder if they are driving back home after spending Christmas with family. It was uploaded on the 30th, so it’s hard to tell. They could just be going to the store for milk, but this is the time of year we often visit family. I love how warm this picture is. Yes, I know it’s snowing, but the yellow lights cast a warming light over everything. It’s inviting. This is a picture from Second Life Traveler, a huge group with more than 3,000 members and over 85,000 pictures - with SLurls. It is managed by Romuśka and ᙀຕα Ƒαᥱ Ƙմʂհ.

Melusina Parkin sends us all shivering in her “Winter 4/9” in the Randomly Spiffy in Walsh County group. Her unique approach of creating unified sets on a theme is always immediately recognizable. She has an unsparingly minimalist eye, conveying the most with the least. A truly sui generis SL artist. 

Walsh County’s group is managed by SmacemanSpiff Grau and Randonee Noel and in addition to the wheatfields and a very special haystack dear to my heart, there’s even a UFO beaming up cows and people. The National UFO Reporting Center does not list any sightings there, but the very first time I ever heard of a UFO was when a UFO reportedly set a deputy sheriff’s car on fire in Walsh County. On further investigation, it turned out he got stuck in the mud and spun his tires so much the friction set his car on fire. But it was thrilling for a time. 

I love this group in part because it feels close to home. I grew up forty miles away. I spent a summer on my sister and her husband’s farm in Walsh County and it does have a kind of haunting and, for me, alienating isolation. It’s also so close to the Grand Forks AFB that none of us had to do duck and cover drills since, as the principal explained, we would not survive. Coupled with blizzards in the winter, flooding in the spring, and tornadoes in the summer, it’s not for the faint of heart.

ｅｘｉｓｔｅｎｃｅ shared “Jarðarhljóð” which Google Translate tells me is Icelandic for Earth Sounds. It would be lovely if the Earth sounded like a bird chirping and not like bombs exploding, hospitals burning, and children crying. I hope it’s true. I found this picture to resonate with my emotions. There are so many reasons for existential dread going into this year and this picture tapped into that, even though it seems hopeful. We need hope. This is in the group Inspiration, emotion in Black & White SL with Jaromine Mendel and Betty Blue. Interestingly, this group prohibits diagonal photos, an idea whose time has more than come. 

I love the SL Flickr groups. It lets me see several pictures on a theme, like with like. Generally, they are safe to moderate, though not all. Good groups, like these, are moderated. They take some work, maybe a lot of work, but when done well, they are a gift to all of us who love Second Life. 

Here's links to all the groups featured here:

• Second Life Avians
• In the End: Grief and Loss in SL
• Second Life Traveler
• Randomly Spiffy in Walsh County
• Inspiration, emotion in Black & White SL

All images copyright the various artists

See all Cajsa's Choices here. Want to recommend an artist to feature? Tag Cajsa with your favorite pics on Flickr, on Primfeed, and Facebook.  (Self-promotion welcome!)

Comments

[Joanna Kitten]

Thanks for featuring my picture, Cajsa. The sim where I took it was made by Jade Koltai in memory of her great friend Serene Footman who sadly passed away a year and a bit ago, so is always one dear to my heart. I took the picture in his memory.