A Photo Contest You Don't Want to Miss

House, cash, furniture and gift cards can all be yours in the Home and Garden Expo Photo Contest.  I honestly can't remember a challenge with such hefty prizes. And best of all -- in my mind anyway -- this is NOT a popularity contest but one judged by a panel.

Read all about it here:  https://slhomeandgardenexpo.wordpress.com/photo-contest-rules/

New Additions

With not a lot of land impact points on the tally sheet, "extras" don't fit in easily. But when huge piles of clutter are only one land impact -- well of course I could not resist. Find a variety of make-virtual-more-real items up in the sound stage.

And, for any non-seasoned machinimatographers or photographers -- when you DON'T want something in the scene, you can right click and "derender" in some viewers. If yours doesn't let you do that --- well, you might want to check out another -- at least for your artier adventures.

Clearer Skies

One plus about living on mainland NEAR the water is that you can find yourself with clearer skies due to protected land -- otherwise known as maintenance :D.

I visited MOSP this morning as my building pad was in restart status. The skies and waters were unusually clear. I thought I had turned my draw distance down for a photo, but no, it was at 382 (well thank goodness for hefty computers).

MOSP 2.0 is on Route 7 which is handy and gives road frontage and buffer. Now it has a better view due to the abandonment of an ocean sim. The land across the road -- now waterfront -- is rental, so I will keep watch over that and someday expansion may be possible. Meanwhile the neighborhood is pretty nice and sets other than ground level are safely ensconced in surrounds.

EDIT:  Well by mid afternoon SLT the "previous tenant" had returned. I did fly out  to the sim this morning to check the land tab and it did indeed say protected land. It wasn't just missing from a restart as I FLEW through the sim and READ that land tab info. So perhaps the owner just forgot to pay tier and got that straightened out. 

Alas, it was nice while it lasted. Have to say there seems to be quite a few unusual things happening lately. But we are used to that.

Let There Be Light

click for larger photo

Now a lot of you will probably know this, but for the non-builders here's a little trick that can help with your photos. And -- its easy. 

When you need light in a certain area and Windlight isn't helping you out, you can make your own illumination easily. Simple rez a sphere, go to the FEATURES tab in the building menu and put a check in the "light" box. You can play with the numbers if you are adventurous or just use as is. You can of course make two or three lights as needed. 

If they will be out of your shooting frame, they work as is. If not you can go to the textures tab, click on the texture box which probably looks like plywood, and choose transparent.  If you loose tack of your ball light, just hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and tap "T" and it will appear in red --- along with anything else that is transparent. Ugly, but it works.

You can of course build your light balls right a MOSP, but if you are in a spot where you can't rez, you can ATTACH a premade light to your body AND put yourself in a pose so you won't be shifting the light around. That works too. 

 

New in Sound Stage One

larger photo here

Need a technical area for your new spy film?   Find it in Sound Stage One.

Blogging from MOSP

 

Last week was spent remaking some items into mesh and retrieving prims from the dreaded "objects remaining" counter. With that accomplished I added some newness to the just rebuilt city  -- including a photo studio of sorts.

It is sparse and I plan on digging through my inventory or finding some new low prim chairs to add to the area, but even in its minimalist mode it useful. Check out the  fun curtain backdrop with poses (includes male and couples). The curtains are color change but I haven't tested to see it that works for everyone. They are currently gray against the walnut walls and that works well.  Other items were added in various spots, some with animations, some for added ambiance.

Folks are stopping by and that is good, but a surprising perk was finding how much "I" am using the resurrected MOSP. True, I hardly journeyed away from LEA MOSP those three years. There was always some place for a good photo right under my feet :D. It isn't really surprising this new version works well for me.

I would like to tell you that I am working on a film. I do have an idea but it needs time and energy from others and I am not sure if that will work out. Meanwhile, I am having fun taking photos and enjoying having locales that work for most posts.


Here are a couple of my favorite blogger shots from last week.

Apocalypse area. 

Sound Stage One Bedroom and Bath

So come on over and explore. Be sure and bring your camera. 

Machinima Open Studio Project - Now Open

2013 -  MOSPs second reincarnation

And MOSP continues.

No 50 prim cameras are in evidence. Sleek and to the point --  I hope it works well for ya.



Photos of all the locations along with SLURLs are in the top bar of the MOSP blog.

Landmarks to the locations are available from ground level here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Swanbridge/194/77/23

20 minute rez is in effect and tested.

Have fun. Play nice.

CREATE!