New World Notes

Casja's Choices: Astonishing SL Imagery by an Artist Called Starlight

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

Starlight is a Second Life artist whose pictures in Second Life are astonishing in their beauty. This headshot is stunning. She projects such strength and power. Authentic don’t mess with me power, like she probably kicks ass and takes names over breakfast. I mean, if someone gave me that look, I would listen. 

You can see more of her work at an exhibit in-world at the Ganadara Gallery on the Elmira Sim. Here is the teleport [Click to teleport]

For more of her astonishing work, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Hilarious Retirement Home Group Photos By French SLers

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

Mathilde De Cyriac shared this great group shot “les beaufs à la maison de retraite” (The Rednecks at the Retirement Home). I love these collaborations because it is so much fun to see how people looking at what is essentially the same thing come away with such different versions. It’s a useful reminder that we don’t all see the world in the same way and may often describe what we see very differently. 

For more versions of this group, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: This Great Flickr Group Dedicated to Photographing Buddha Garden, an Amazing Second Life Sim

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

Tiger Studio Landscapes is the official Flickr group for Buddha Garden, a sim I visited yesterday after seeing Stina McGillivary’s pictures. There are so many fantastic pictures in this group, I was spoiled for choice. “Through Your Soul” from Emo Biedermann is special, though.

It made me think of the ending of “Planet of the Apes” even though I don’t think she will be screaming, “You maniacs, you finally did it.” Sea levels are rising and it need not be the kind of epic disaster in the movie, but I do wonder why the Buddha has been toppled and deep in the water. There’s a story I want to know. 

For more great pictures of and teleport link to Buddha Garden, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Delightful SL Travel Photos from Stina McGillivary

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

Stina McGillivary has a knack for spotting the unique and unusual on her Second Life journeys. I mean do all visitors to Buddha Garden notice this little mouse when the totality of the sim is so overwhelming? A lot of people who go sightseeing, here in SL or in RL, walk through the sites, making sure to look at everything. A few people, however, are less concerned with looking at everything and are interested in a more intense kind of seeing. She sees both the macro and the micro. She beholds the sim. 

This is a fantastic capture. It’s adorably cute, but it’s also really quite beautiful. I love how she gets the spokes of the umbrella to perfectly align with the tree behind it along the right side where the moon shines down. The way the tree and umbrella come together is sort of magical. I just love everything about this picture. p.s even looking for the mouse, I could not see or behold it. 

For more of Stina’s fabulous travel shots, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Story-Rich SL Visual Feasts by Varosh SantanaMiguel

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

Varosh SantanaMiguel’s photostream is like a shot of adrenaline for your eyes. They are full of this wild energy that demands our attention. Take “The Last Rays,” his most recent work, I have to look closer to absorb what I am seeing. In his own words, from the description:

In the shimmering waters, where the last rays of the sun meet the darkness, Lysmaro reigns. His skin is adorned with perfect shades, and his back is crowned with crystalline fins — sharp as blades, yet as beautiful as the stars in the sky.

 His staff, topped with a living pearl that pulses like a fragment of a long-lost star, he wields like no other. Surrounded by fish that swirl around him like liquid silver, and songs so hauntingly beautiful they could steal one’s sanity. Accompanied by magical currents, his voice echoes through the seas, both warning and promising in equal measure.

For more of Varosh's exciting work, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Sophie's Spectacular Screenshots of Second Life Trees

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

Sophie D takes pics of herself and her travels around Second Life. She’s new-to-me, someone I discovered today while searching for pictures of trees. Portland’s Friends of Trees celebrated planting its millionth tree this Sunday which led me to wonder about tree planting in Second Life. Of course, it’s much easier to plant a tree in SL, no messy digging, watering, pruning, and hoping it survives. Plop, and there it is! All grown up. 

While searching for trees I found a lot of pics by Sophie, in fact if anyone deserves to be the SL Virtual Forest Ranger, it is Sophie. This is her most recent picture and it just happens to be a tree. In general, framing the main element toward the center is a mistake, particularly if it’s asymmetrical,  but she accounts for that with the leading lines that draw our eyes, making this a successful picture. 

For more of Sophie’s trees, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: The Emotionally Resonant Avatar Portraits of Jawhara

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

Jawhara caught my attention for a few reasons. She’s a Flickr micro-blogger who wears clothes more often than not. She has a consistent look with her delicate and refined features, her strong cheekbones and brows, and the tenderness in her eyes. I don’t know if it’s the eye-maker or her use of pose expressions, but even her simplest pictures have emotional heft. In “LaRosa,” the picture is turned on its side which normally would irritate me, but she is positioned so her head is not perceived as sideways, making it a far more dynamic picture. 

For more from Jawhara, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Sparkle Skye Photographed & Also Created These Amazing SL Landsscpes

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

Sparkle Skye takes landscape photos in addition to vendor pics for her hats, headbands, and accessories. She doesn’t shoot a lot of landscapes because she’s shooting the landscapes she builds. This one caught my eye with its spare beauty. I love a landscape that isn’t overdressed. Landscape design should follow the advice of fashion stylists, accessorize, then “remove one thing.” Skye isn’t beset with the common problem of too much everywhere all at once. What really makes me fall in love with this picture, though, is the small detail of the rain falling on the left side of the scene. Look in the foreground where the rain is falling by the desiccated remains of a fallen tree and how it’s pooling a bit as it does when the soil is dry and hard. It runs off and pools rather than soak in because the soil is too hard. There is such verisimilitude in this tiny detail. 

For more of Skye’s landscapes, click here:

Cajsa's Choice: Great SL Landscape Photos by Mark Mirror -- With Teleport Links to Visit Yourself!

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

Mark Mirror is a landscape photographer and captures some of the most beautiful scenes in Second Life such as this glorious picture of “Midnight in Paris.” Where else can midnight be so beautiful? As with all his pics, click through for the SLurl to this spot!

For more landscape beauty from Mr. Mirror, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Easter Season SL Screenshots -- Silly, Sacred, and Sweet

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

While browsing all the Happy Easter pictures of friends and relatives with their kids hunting for eggs and the laden tables of Easter dinners, I thought it was a good idea to see what Second Life residents had to offer. Second Life Easter was much more interesting, if I do say so myself. Leonorah Beverly’s “Happy Easter” is not quite in sync with the usual pastel sweetness you usually see, but that makes it interesting. I love that she takes such a departure from the expected. It is a fun picture. 

For more of Second Life Easter, click here: