Explode!

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There’s something I should get off my chest
I’m losing my mind and my life’s a mess.
Well everyone says do this and do that
Maybe they’re right
I feel like I’m gonna…….
EXPLODE.. I’M GONNA EXPLODE
It is so big yet I feel so small
It’s even in your shopping mall
Is my life wasting away
Don’t throw it away that’s what they say
I don’t wanna go out and fail
Yet I fail at home every day
I wonder someday if I’ll look back
With regrets on how I lived
Each way I turn I turn my back
Each time I turn I always look back
I’m trying to please everyone I don’t know how
I feel like I’m gonna…….
EXPLODE.. I’M GONNA EXPLODE

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What should I do I really don’t know
Should I stay home or should I go
Well I’m struggling with my sanity
Is my life crumbling in front of me.
Oh.
Do you know how it feels?
To feel like you’re gonna explode
Do you ever feel
Like you’re gonna explode.
EXPLODE.

[The Unseen]

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Details

Outfit: Sakide – “Impulse”

Shoes: :)(: Pixelfashion – “Vanina Boots”

Mask: PurpleMoon – “Lost Heart”

Nails & Handwraps: Formanails – “Scarabeus”

Hair: EMO-tions – “Tommy”

Scene: E.V.E Studio – “Broken Chains {The Bomb}”

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Bird of Prey – Pose & Picture Processing Studies with DARE Poses

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Collar” (#81)

I more and more find my own fun, in playing and fooling around with poses, experimenting with angles and learn new picture processing techniques…

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 63 – “You Can’t See Me” (#63)

When I started blogging, I always saw the need toa full body shot, a head shot and maybe even some close-ups of certain accessories. Nothing wrong with that, but the longer I was blogging, the more it was kinda boring to do always the same kind of pictures for each post.

What is a very common way of blog pictures – and yes I tried that as well *grins* – is to have one big picture and then include little close up circles or squares for more details. Nothing wrong with that either, but over the time I more and more had the desire of making more artistic looking pictures, which still showcase the designers work properly.

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Imma Burrito” (#82)

If you have a full body shot, often enough the shoes, the jewelry or even nails often enough are too tiny to really showcase them as the full avatar gets kinda tiny when you try to have all of your body on your picture. Mostly I had the feeling then, that I had more ambience and background on my pictures, than the actual items I wanted to showcase. I thought by myself, what would be wrong to have real closeups as a full picture… sometimes maybe my head or face was missing but is that so important, if I want to showcase an item that my face is on the picture as well? Yes and no… certainly you want to show that the pictures are of yourself and brand yourself for marketing purposes, but sometimes you can even show your face in one closeup and have other pictures with certain parts of your body or furniture. I realized, that if I do that, I need to find interesting angles for the pictures, as if I just crop them they can look boring very easy.

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

I already talked about how you can twist and turn poses to weird angles and in the end they turn out as amazing crops or closeups. Some pose stores help with that kind of pictures and ideas, as they make unusual, editorial poses, which sometimes look weird if you see them as a whole or just from the wrong angle. Exactly those poses can be the most interesting if you go for crops, closeups or even interesting angles.

During the last Ferosh Fashion Weekend, I discovered a pose store, which I basically know for a long time but kinda lost out of the view over the time – to be honest I do not really know why…

Chance Greatrex, owner and creator of DARE poses, has a very special vision for his poses. They are really out of the box and different to so many I found on the grid. Just the fact that all his poses have each a unique and story telling name, shows that there is way more behind his poses than just an animation πŸ˜‰

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 62 – “The Struggle Is Real” (#62)

Lately I got s pose set called “Face Hands”, which probably was made with the intention to feature a hand/face combination for example for makeup and nails, rings or hand jewelry. They re perfect for closeups and different angles and while snapping I even had a hard time to sort out the ones I love the most, since I cannot overload a post with over 20 pictures*snickers*

Β Since I wanted to do a pose study, I decided to go for something simple but still with ym personal twist for the outfit. I realized, that La Petite Morte has a sale going on where Voshie gives her skins away for 100 lindens! As I still do experiment with my new Catwa head and do not have much skins for it yet, I TPed over to the La Petite Morte and took a look. I was very surprised as I just expected older skins to be on sale, when I realized there are as well newer ones with appliers for several mesh heads and bodies!

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Bedtime” (#78)

I have to admit, I have a weakness for fantasy skins even if I am not able to use them too often, but for pictures they always add something special to the whole look. When I was looking around – after I found the TP to the sales room… typical me… – I immediately fell in love with the “Belle” skin in diamond. It comes with a Catwa applier and when I tried the demo, it looked so stunning that I could not resist to get me one πŸ˜‰

The face has a wonderful ornament around the eyes and the lips are one of the most stunning lips I ever saw on the Catwa head. With the light purple/grey touch and a shimmering finish, the skin screamed for something mystical or fantasy looking.

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

To not disturb the view on the body too much I went with the “Siren Set No. 1” by Pixicat. The tight fit on the Slink Physique and the minimal covering of the body was just perfect for a poses and skin showcase. The cool “Bird of Prey” head-piece, we made a little while ago for a themed event, and it just went perfectly with the rest of the look, even if it is a pity that it covers the amazing eye makeup of the skin… that requires another post with this incredible, amazing skin soon I guess :p

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 55 – “Now You See Me” (#55)

The cool finger rings I found at the last round of On9 made by [Since 1975] and I am pretty sure they will be at their main store now.

For the hair I wanted something pulled back, what did not interfere with the head-piece too much and so my choice fell on a ponytail from [taketomi].

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Damn Hot Coffee” (#80)

What as well took me a lot of time lately was polishing my picture procession. I played less with windlights and tried more to work with a graphic program to post process my pictures by painting and drawing certain things like shadows and lights and as well I tired to find new techniques to create certain effects. Fog was something I really wanted to learn for a long time, something that looks realistic and not just painted on and edgy looking. As well, how I can create shadows without using the SL shadows, or my shaky hands to draw fuzzy lines πŸ˜‰ YouTube has a lot of offers for learning new things and from time to time it is really exciting to test something new, like green screen against white screen shots and the possibilities you have with those kind of photography.

So for this post I mixed clean pose studies with interesting angles and new techniques of picture processing and even if it took me a while it was a very intensive learning time, which I really enjoyed πŸ™‚

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..::DARE::.. – Runway pose 18 – “Edgy Leaned Feet Apart” (#18)

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Set No. 1” (Gacha Item at their main store)

Headpiece: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Bird of Prey Mask”

Hair: [taketomi] – “MamiPlared_Bento”

Nails Rings: [Since 1975] – “FangRings”

Shoes: :)(: (Pixelfashion) – “Slavia Shoes” (for Slink high feet)

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Bella”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Poses: ..::DARE::..

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 49 – “Floppy Wings” (#49)

Gemstones – THEMA Magazine – How to be an Obsidian?

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I again had the great pleasure to be one of the contributors for the THEMA Magazine. Taylor Wassep, owner and founder of that amazing magazine, always looks for different artists to make pictures for specific themes.

This time her idea was, to have gemstones as the basic inspiration. We could choose from a list of gemstones and certainly I wanted to have something with black. After i talked to Taylor we came across the Obsidian gem stone. That was exactly what I like and so I started to style something according to my gemstone.

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I already had an idea in mind for my set. According to that I needed to find something, that would let me sit and do some crazy poses without breaking the whole outfit.

So I started with the “Couture Leggings” from Maitreya. For the top I found an old corset from E-Clipse called “LaDominante”. That made a great base for some editorial pictures and poses.

To underline the Obsidian character, I wanted to bring in some lighter spots, since the gemstone itself as well has some lighter reflections.

So I took out the helm from the “Bellatrix” outfitΒ  and as well the chest piece of the “Plaisance Deux” outfit, both from Zibska, and completed my look.

For the set… I wanted to have a jewelry box and the first idea was to make myself the gemstone of a ring in that box… it did not work out that way, so I tried to place myself beside the ring in the ringbox which I liked a lot more πŸ˜‰

To see all the amazing pictures of the last THEMA issue please see the full magazine @ http://issuu.com/themapublications/docs/thema_gemstones

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Details

Pants: Maitreya – “Couture Leggings”

Top: E-Clipse – “LaDominante”(part of the outfit)

Gloves: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Avicularia Gloves”(part of the outfit)

Belt: Armidi Gisaci – “Au Di Leather Belt” (store not anymore existing)

Accessories: Zibska – “Plaisance Deux” (part of the outfit)

Helmet: Zibska – “Bellatrix Helm” (part of the outfit)

Makeup: Nuuna’s – “Zion 2 Black” & Corvus – “Fighter Eyeshadow”

Lipstick: L.Fauna – “Lipstick Black”

Poses: Del May

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Circus! – Faster Pussycat meets Machoire

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I have no clue how this idea was born…

That was one of the moments when you go over your wardrobe and try to find some inspiration πŸ˜‰

I wanted to do something special for the new “Ganta Heels” from Machoire.

The heels are not only shoes, they are an art piece, so they needed something extraordinary. What could be for such an idea the something from Faster Pussycat!

I saw the “Hydra” outfit during the popstars show at the 24 event last weekend and fell immediately in love with it, A corset paired with a two-part harness and those exciting, wild horn parts covering the waits and chest. There is as well a headpiece matching to them, which I did not use for today’s pictures.

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The beautiful and strong-looking tattoo is one of the newest releases from White Widow.Β  Julie Hastings made this one as her contribution to the ‘anyBODY – for applier lovers‘ event.

The while look had kinda a burlesque or even vintage circus feeling and so I was trying to make some pictures in that direction. The poses certainly had to be different for that too as I wanted to highlight the whole look. It is not always easy to drag the focus on shoes if you want to showcase the outfit as well πŸ˜‰

The amazing, cool hair was made by Mirja Mills, owner and designer of EMO-tions.

I have a weakness for circus themes anyways especially the more vintage ones, so this pictures really were a lot of fun πŸ™‚

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Details

Outfit: Faster Pussycat – “Hydra”

Shoes: Machoire – “Ganta Heels” – NEW

Tattoo: [White~Widow] – “Focus” – NEW (@ anyBODY)

Hair: EMO-tions – “Alicia”

Nail Polish: Nailed It! – “Diva Set”

Mesh Body, Hands & Feet: Slink

Poses: .Infiniti. – “Contort”

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Forrest Fantasies

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Today I again have a special series of pictures again.

In the past I was not really thinking a lot when I made my pictures for my blog, I just had a certain feeling and tried to follow that. I go with my buts and kinda try to put them on a visual level.

Lately, I felt more and more requirements to my self when it comes to my pictures. It is like I would see it from a different point of view now. When John told me, my pictures would be art… I totally was surprised as I never saw it that way.

When the current round of the Windlight Gallery opened, I again was allowed to meet Bryn Oh, kinda THE idol of my Second Life when it comes to art. She was so nice and kind and had a few very nice words about my pics and as well gave me some advice. That so made my day, I cannot even tell. Do you know that feeling if you admire someone and then exactly those person tells you your work is not bad and as well gives you some advice and tricks? – Priceless!!!

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I always loved the ides to kinda blend the model into the background. If the subject of a picture is more part of the whole picture, than standing alone in the front. Certainly, there is purposes for that as well like for pure fashion blogging.

When I put on the “Dryad” outfit from !gO!, I immediately saw a forrest/wood fantasy picture in my mind. This dress is nature and art by itself and so I just tried to go on with some pieces to enhance the look.

The hair is the wonderful “Genesis” hair from EMO-tions and the “Laerlorn” headpiece was made by Wicca’s Wardrobe.

When I styled the look I all of a sudden remembered, that way in the past a designer made a wooden skin overly for an outfit of the Claim the Fame contest. The tattoo was made by Vengeful Threads.

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Details

Outfit: !gO! – Dryad”

Hair: EMO-tions – “Genesis”

Skin Overlay: Vengeful Threads – “Wood Skin Overlay” (part of an outfit)

Makeup: Zibska – “Joss 06” & [K] – “Black Magic Eyeliner”

Shoes: Azoury – “Sauvage Heels” (Gacha)

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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