The next stop on the babymoon was at Winter Daydreams. There are a variety of areas to explore from romantic alcoves to little indoor spots to escape the cold for a bit or for a sweet little photo opportunity. The default WL has a neat look, especially with the Christmas lights dangling, but I also played with them a bit since they emphasize different aspects of the neat build.
There’s quite a nice gazebo for photo opportunities just after you TP in
There are some neat spots tucked away, so make sure to wander or cam about.
:LW: Poses – When you’re not strong
There are even spots for dancing
To end their babymoon they headed back home while Eva had Emma and Niall, to enjoy some quiet time at home before the baby arrived, in part 3.
With the coming birth of their first Zooby Animesh Newborn, Bre and Luke went on a little babymoon. As you probably have guessed by now, if you’ve read a few of the posts lately, I love Moochie’s holiday sim, so that was the first stop.
A few dances at the center “gathering” space
Snowy snuggles are the best
As always, a wander through the landscape to discover the beautiful little places tucked among the trees.
Tip: Shared environment WL is great, but you can catch some amazing moments with settings like Blizzard
There are several spots for avatars to snuggle, talk, take pictures, or enjoy the scheduled story stream that plays. Two seating spots had poses that looked adorable to me, which admittedly became difficult as the pregnancy was about to come to term, because most animations cause some distortion. I love these two shots. 🙂
Bre decided to take a break on a bench along the lake, where there is ice skating and other little spots to discover, while Luke explored. I’m so jealous of how well Moochie can decorate and create a whole scene.
With the snow gently falling, this is a beautiful spot to find some peace during a usually hectic time.
The happy couple continued their babymoon at a few other locations on the grid in the upcoming two posts…
I think SL is a spectacular environment to embrace and soak up Fall/Autumn and Winter landscapes, decor, and sims. A lot of games/systems try to simulate seasons, but I truly love all of the creativity and skillfully designed within SL the best. (I’m not knocking how adorable Sim’s Cottage Living can be with Autumn, but I’m being objective here. *grin*) Although Halloween is quite the celebrated event in SL, gothic details can be appreciated throughout the year when used well, so I decided that I’d also feature a few favorite items I discovered during my Fall Wandering that were featured for Halloween, but I think there are more opportunities that make them either a good buy or a great location, and want to share. 🙂
If you follow my blogs or even Flickr, you know I am working through grieving the loss of my RL mother, so I’ve been slowly getting back into the “swing of things” in SL, and I’ve been late to a lot of events and such. One was the much-loved (and sometimes hated) Shop And Hop. I also am not above taking screenshots in stores of animations if I like the set up and such, so don’t pay attention to the sale signs in a few pictures. *laugh* For the record, I was so impressed I actually bought the featured item, but the store stall was set up cute enough that I wasn’t going to try to compete. The CHEZ MOI Cute Tomb (PG) is definitely an adorable additional to any Fall or Halloween decor, but if you’re a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas like me, then it can arguably be pretty perfect for most of the year if you like to have little peaceful spots tucked away in your landscape with a bonus of cute poses included.
The CHEZ MOI Cute Tomb (PG) includes the pillows and rumpled blanket, plus a bunch of animations
This animation pulls at my heartstrings honestly and if you cammed differently, did a different background, etc., I can see this being an awesome prop for a memorial picture. There’s something so realistic and believable with this pose, in my opinion.
Add in a change of WL and using LumiPro to assist with lighting, and I think this is a really nice pic taken right there at Shop And Hop. I added a bit of contrast using my computer’s pic program, but no PS or such, and even with a less popular mesh body that carries the skeleton slightly differently due to being a pregnancy body, there aren’t clipped limbs even! (At 8 months PG in world, a lot of animations are now having some difficulty with the arms/hands disappearing into the baby bump *laugh*.)
And how cute is this one?! Ignore the wonky finger pose from the natural hand positions getting a bit, well, wonky, please. lol This would be perfect for taking pics with sitting Zooby toddlers or so neat in a little Fall foliage landscape.
One last picture that shows how there are subtle postional changes within the animations that makes me like this decor prop so much that I splurged for a Chez Moi item which is usually beyond my budget. I am honestly seriously impressed with this little prop and plan to have it as part of my landscape most of the year (and not being supported or even blogging for the company). I love a versatile landscape and decor prop, and a little Jack smile puts it in my fav decor file. *smile*
As mentioned previously, I ran across some striking portraits on Pinterest, under photography ideas, that I wanted to challenge myself to try with SL digital photography. I attached my trusty LUMIPro lighting HUD and began to experiment. Although it is expensive, if you’re into photography or blogging SL pictures, I think this awesome HUD is well worth the cost and can do some amazing things. Warning, this is going to have a lot of pictures because I wanted to showcase the different colors and how you can achieve incredibly different looks via angles. All were taken with the midnight windlight. Please also note that I used the stylist with my Truth hair to move the hair so that colors could be emphasized, etc. (How in the world did we make do with the old fashioned hair?! Truth spoiled me for other brands by being one of the first to offer the stylist options. lol)
First, I started with the original soft lighting it provides utilizing the butterfly lighting selection.
I then customized the color of the lighting balls (think of poseballs but emit light instead) and moved their positions a bit, to cast the light across the body slightly differently than it usually does with the butterfly lighting option. Instead of utilizing the RGB default that creates the natural soft hue, I changed one to blue, one to pink, and another to purple. I also adjusted the intensity and falloff of the lighting (seriously, this thing is so customizable it’s insane). At first I made pink the dominant right color and a softer blue to the left side, with a hint of purple from lower behind (it actually just pumped up the color of the other two instead of changing the effect).
I wanted to provide a closeup of the first pose to show the difference between the color falloff I had set. If you notice in the first picture, her legs are closer to the normal soft RGB hue, whereas the emphasis of color is focused on her face. Not only did I customize that setting, but I also positioned the blue and pink attached lighting balls on the sides of her face (I always leave them attached and just hide them when taking pictures or not in use, since they don’t have much complexity impact at all). I think the second pose shows how a slightly different angle made the hands and left cheek really pretty.
I then moved the purple lighting ball higher, so it cast a slightly different hue to the pictures and I thought they turned out really gorgeous, so I had to include them. 🙂 Plus, that crouched position shows off the lighting SO well in my opinion. Note how the pink is more of a kiss of color instead of being so dominant, since I brought the darker tones to the forefront.
For the next set I tried one with the pink still at the left side, but then I made the blue and purple lighting balls more dominant, which I think gives a whole different feel to the pictures, despite being repeats of the same poses as previous ones. I also moved the balls around between shots, so some pictures are darker and more striking to me.
I then couldn’t resist a more active shot that shows off how the three colors light different areas of the body and I think color gives it even more impact, but that could just be me and my being proud of my experiment while I had a lot of fun. *grin*
Hubba hubba does that hint of skin pop with the color! And a tattoo with lace never worked so well together. 😉
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little lighting color experiment and maybe sparked a little creativity in you. Also, I really hope that if you’re into SL photography that you consider the investment into LUMIPro (not sponsored, just really impressed by it), after seeing some of the options it offers. It offers so many options without using harsh WLs or face lights/projectors, and I seriously love that I can share it with others, so when Luke and I take pictures together, like in the apocalyptic Ohm shoot, I can gently light both of us with just a couple clicks.
Have a great day and enjoy your SL travels! 🙂
Pose Credits:
All but the last were from West End Poses Spring Daisy Pose Collection, although I didn’t use the flower and let my AO shift my hands and head for some pictures. (Note: they moved recently, and I’m having trouble logging in, so I may have the old SLurl. I’m sorry if I do!)
The last pose is the Luanes World pose named Be Fearless.
Ohm is a partial sim that is open to the public (please note that it is an adult sim though) and is incredibly landscaped to be an apocalyptic scene with a variety of broken down or destroyed vignettes within the concept. We bought the SH RP Prop Gun – 870 Shotgun with HUD at Man-Pocalypse and couldn’t resist having a little fun with the guns in a little photoshoot at Ohm.
Note: I’m leaving the pictures a bit larger than usual, since they have more detail, are darker, and are scenes instead of closeups.
Helicopter Down!
Enemies Spotted
I’ll Cover You
They Blew Up the Car!
Payback
At Least It’s Not a Shotgun Wedding 🙂
If you’re into a cool photoshoot or want to enjoy the awesome landscaping of a destroyed town, I definitely recommend checking out Ohm. I joined the group (I don’t know if it’s necessary for rezzing, but did just in case), and was able to even rez poseballs as needed. Most of the posing was done via the HUD that comes with the Shotgun, which is currently 400L at the event. A bit expensive for our usually frugal budget, but it has some handy animations for photoshoots (even walking and running aimed animations [!], although those didn’t photograph so well, so I didn’t include those lol), and they look so good that we’ll definitely be having some fun photoshoots with them again. Plus, it comes with a drawn version and the slung behind the back version, as well! We had a lot of fun and took way too many pictures while playing with windlights and angles. 🙂 Before I go, one little tip if you’re interested in doing one of these style photoshoots. Invest in the LUMIPro HUD, available on the MP. It’s expensive, but can be used with other avatars as well and super modifiable to fit your needs, and has way better lighting than face lights. I almost always use it when using alternate windlights than CalWL or another bright WL. Just add the HUD, attach the light balls (adjust if desired), pick a setting, and then click hide. There are different styles of light angles built right in or you can move the light balls around to get the look you’re going for, plus you can even change the colors they emit (which I’ll be showing in my next post, where I did a little color experiment that I saw on Pinterest that photographers have done in RL!). Anyway, I hope the tidbits are handy and you have some fun exploring while wandering SL during lockdown. Stay safe and healthy! 🙂
Credits for this photoshoot (please note that both avatars have had makeovers with LeLutka Evolution heads and went BOM, so the credits for what their staple items are on the contact page, just to make things easier, and I’ll update it as appropriate):
I’m a little delayed with getting this written, since I’ve been sick, but during the Skin Fair I decided that Bre and Luke both needed LeLutka Evolution makeovers. Partially because, you know, the newest technology so I have to get it lol, but also because it would make me fully learn BoM, to then help Luke and my friends switch over. I’ve done a lot of tweaking since the first pic, right after I got the main parts set up aaaaand I got used to the animations HUD (I swear I need to buy a magnifying glass for the static facial poses!). So, first round, not my favorite and a particularly unhappy looking one:
Luke got updated from Guy to the Evolution Skyler while Bre updated from Simone to Evolutions Erin, with updated Maitreya and Signature Gianni put on and Bakes on Mesh (BoM) turned on. His beard is one of the added features with the head and out of a selection that LeLutka generously provided, he liked this one (and the sideburns almost meet the hairbase completely, so he was really happy with that). I was stoked that I could still use my applier tattoo despite having BoM active, because it’s my favorite and the designer hasn’t switched to BoM yet. Poor Luke has no tattoos yet, since no BoM ones are hitting his Celtic open-my-wallet bone. (**Update: with a few missed clicks, Luke got to add his tattoo back on despite the designer not having it as a tattoo layer!) *grin* I had to change to a brighter red haircolor to match my wild RL dye job, of course (too bad it wasn’t that easy to change colors IRL! lol). He also got new glasses since the old ones don’t work well with the new “skeleton” of the Evo head.
After a bit of work on their shapes and a super handy guide on MP we looked a bit more like “ourselves”. (Naria Panthar also has some great tutorials regarding BoM over on YouTube if you are a visual learner.)
And what do you do once you’ve had makeovers? Go to Luane’s World and take sexy pictures, of course! *grin* She changed the regular sim over to Spring and there are so many hidden treasures in her landscaping that it is a must see destination, in my opinion!
“We are simply meant to be…” – The Nightmare Before Christmas
Wranglers – a country girl’s kryptonite
Since I refused to take off my new overalls from Addams (and an old Sn@tch lucky board system layer top now that we’re BoM!), he went country with the Rebellion cowboy hat. It took some head movements and perfect timing to get a good picture with both wearing cowboy hats, so over to short hair (I’m a Truth addict, so it was probably harder to decide on which hair to change to than taking the picture lol). I used LumiPro on both avatars for the lighting (seriously look into it if you want to take pictures; it’s totally worth the cost and if the other person accepts the light balls that you can position and hide, you can light up both of you with the perfect light without face lights making the nose so prominent *grin*). For the barn pose we used: Ardent Poses – Entrapment, with Ardent Poses – Always for the standing one, tweaked a bit with the [HD]multi bento pose HUD beta v.1.41 giving a little help for our head tilts.
Once he logged off and I couldn’t sleep, I headed back over to Luane’s and took a bunch of different pictures. I had been looking on Pinterest at photoshoot ideas while on bedrest and went a bit wild trying all the different country ones I found that I had poses to accomodate. And if you don’t have an overwhelming amount of poses to try in your inventory, Luane has a ton of items with built in poses scattered about!
Diversion – Book Lover Poses “If you find a girl who reads, keep her close…date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable…If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.” – Robert Pattinson
:LW: Poses – Heart of Gold, female pose with prop 1 “Charm is more valuable than beauty. You can resist beauty, but you can’t resist charm.” – Audrey Tatou
Built in pose in the barn “I don’t need to flirt. I will seduce you with my awkwardness.”
*~*HopScotch*~* Brooklyn 5 “The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one else has ever been before.” – Albert Einstein
It was so hard to pick favorites to share, since I had so much fun. *grin* My top favorites are definitely the tractor and tree pictures, for sure. If you like any items I didn’t provide SLurls for, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments and I’ll share them ASAP. I just don’t want to overwhelm and look like a sponsored post, because this is all me (except for Luke obviously). Luane has lots of poses at the mainstore landing spot and tons on MP, like the Heart of Gold I used, so her poses are in my top recommendations.
Between being sick, makeovers, BoM, and working on improving my photography, I’ve avoided sorting my inventory really well. *grin* Oh, and one awesome tip, if you’re interested in some freebies during this crazy time of self isolation and quarantines, check out The Stay at Home Club SL. It’ll help bloat that inventory further and designers have been super generous!! Stay safe and healthy!
Bre and Emma had a little snow fun when they predicted a storm warning IRL (that thankfully didn’t happen here). It’s a lot more fun to play in world and not worry about injuries or sniffles anyway. 🙂
First we played with HopScotch’s Totally Tubular pose set (not all shown).
Then it was time for Mom to try a winter sport that I’ve always wanted to try IRL, but know it’s never going to happen, via Fashiowl Poses’ Snowboard set of poses (not all shown). I couldn’t resist a pretty snowboarding shot to finish up before Luke arrived.
Luke and I went a little romantic with SamPoses SnowMobiel 3.
We finished up the fun with Ardent Poses You Sleigh Me III, which went a little wild, but that’s what snow fun is for, right?
After all this fun it’s time to settle in and learn how to match my head and body via BoM. I feel like a total noob all over again, so thank goodness for the favorites tab to throw on my usual body parts and take a break! As much as I love my Maitreya body, I admit that I’m consider using one that is fully BoM compatible. Maybe I’m just tired. lol 😉
Aunt Eva took Emma for the weekend, so Luke and Bre took off to explore Luanes World’s non-fantasy side. It was so beautiful; full of Fall landscape and romance. It was easy to take way too many pictures. If I don’t list a specific pose, which I’ll attach the MP link to, then it’s one built into the furniture set out on the property. Not all of these made it onto Flickr, but please check those out again via my Flickr this time, because I added a pretty quote for each uploaded picture. If you have not been to Luanes World, I highly recommend exploring. If you join the group, you even have rez rights and a group gift periodically. There’s even a path to the left from the store with all sorts of whimsical fantasy landscaping.
Early on in the movie Gidget becomes fascinated by the surfers and has to convince them to sell her a board (which is massively huge for such a petite little gal LOL) and to teach her how to surf, so I decided to have a little fun with that, since I had the “working on a surfboard” photo prop in my inventory (although it wasn’t Moondoggie in the movie that she got the board from, but hey).
Buying the surfboard
Trying to get help
Sim designer’s prop that I loved
Of course there are evening bonfire get togethers, so I decided to play with the idea and use some of the sim’s props for that stage where the love and fascination is starting. *sigh* How can a girl leave out that stage, even when doing a RP photo shoot? *grin*
BTW James Darren played Moondoggie, so of course he sung
Ah, those sweet moments of youth when you stay up talking all night until the sun comes out. *smile* With that happy thought I decided to end the inspired shoot. Again, I definitely recommend checking out Backdrop Cove (just click the beach TP sign at the landing point) and have some fun with the scenes they have generously created for users and photographers to enjoy. This Gidget and her Moondoggie hope you have as much fun! 😉
I was goofing off and ended up with two scenes that I wanted to share. First, if you haven’t tried the Vista Animations Roller Skating you must go and try the demo! I am usually pretty frugal and super picky about any purchases above 250L, and anything above 1000L is really rare, but once I tried these after seeing Strawberry Singh show them off on her YouTube channel, I bought the AO immediately and the additional shoe pack, since I want the ability to change up the colors (yeah, I know, totally a girls and their shoes thing, but I don’t care *laugh*). I can literally sit and watch my avi skate around with the different animations on the HUD for a good half hour and probably have the goofiest smile on my face while watching. Try to skate today and I’d be in the hospital, so it makes skating in world even more fun for me. I then remembered that when I roller skated as a kid I was always blowing chewing gum bubbles, so I had to add that, and then hit Backdrop City to take a skating picture.
See?! I seldom ever do typing exclamations, but DOESN’T THAT LOOK FUN?! Plus, Truth outdid himself with the Zahlee hair, in my opinion. I am almost as obsessed with it, especially for a fun, youthful look. A ponytail up top with a color changing band and all that hair! *sigh* Those were the days. *laugh*
Anyway, after the Cool Rider shoot at Gale Retreat I couldn’t resist going back and getting some beach shots. Although there’s still some snow on the other side of the sim, the beach has a few awesome areas clear, and it really helped shake off the last of the winter blahs. Most of the pictures are just for my slideshow, but couldn’t resist sharing a couple of cute ones. They’re the exact same pictures with just different windlights, but they’re a great example of how much a windlight can totally change the feel of a picture.
Other than playing with the WLs (windlights) in world, the only other thing I did was increase the clarity in my computer’s built in software, so this just goes to show how a WL can totally change the feeling to a picture. I figure there must be others that are learning SL photography as well; when I learn something I plan to share it.
In the meantime, I had a lot of fun wandering and hope you enjoyed my non-themed post. As usual, credits will follow. I hope you have a happy and healthy day!
Bre's Adventures 