Pure

Pure, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

For M
~16.08.69-25.09.12~

You're my star in heaven now...
Hope they have Sancerre up there....save me some

Listen

S

ticktock

ticktock, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

These last days SL and the photography have been a real escape for me....
A bit too much drama in RL

Makes me wonder, if I could turn back time, would I have done it different?

No....I wouldn't...because that would mean I would also loose the magical moments.

Natural-II

Natural-II, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Sometimes it is just so wonderful to sit naked in the sea and just stare at the horizon.
Peaceful and serenity.

Had some busy weeks, so i guess this was my escape to some more relaxing moments.

Last-summer-days

Last-summer-days, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Summer went by so fast that i'm not ready yet to say goodbye to it. Of course the choice is not mine, and I will have to because fall is already waiting to come in.

We had some rainy days already here in the Netherlands, but today the sun is shining bright, so i'm still hoping summer is staying just a bit longer. Have been working the whole weekend again, so i guess i'm lucky that my day off is a sunny one!

Now that most people return from their holidays, it is my time to take one. Still not sure wether I want to go somewhere or stay at home and just relax a bit. I guess thats depending on how long summer is willing to stay here in our small country.

Summer-morning

Summer-morning, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

This is a bit how I felt this morning....lazy! Have been working most of the weekend, so I figured I deserved a lazy morning.

The lamp and the picture frame in this pic are made by a couple I met on Flickr. They just started their business and they make gorgeous things. And the prices are truly unbelievable! Of course as the business woman that I am, I couldn't stop yelling that they should raise their prices, because they were almost giving it away.

leaving

leaving, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

A very warm Saturday evening here in the Netherlands. Today it was around 30 degrees or more, and for us Dutch people that is HOT!

Still as happy as a child with the PS and so still playing with it. I saw the dog in this picture in a pic from somebody else and i so fell in love with this dog, i just had to have it!

Had a dog like this when i was a child and she was so adorable. So when i saw this boxer i knew it had to be mine. And of course like all boxers this one is very lazy and doesn't do anything more than breath.

darkness

darkness, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

This week i've worked my way through the Vintage Fair, don't think i've seen everything but got some pretty pretty things.
I guess august is the time for fairs in SL, because there are lots.....my poor poor inventory!

This week RL was not so demanding for me so i had plenty of time to explore new places (and yes new shops lol), meet up with some friends and take pictures.

Rainy

Rainy, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

RL has been very busy, but thank god this weekend I had the whole weekend to myself...oh I needed that!
This morning I went to the Vintage Fair in SL, got some really nice things, and I'm not even half way through the fair! Inventory is growing and growing lol.

Still exploring Photoshop and today i wanted to add some rain to a photo. Of course I have seen better rains but for a first try I am satisfied.

And while saying that Mother Nature thought she should show me what real rain looks like, because it is raining cats and dogs here right now, real Sunday afternoon weather!

Bandana-day

Bandana-day, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Today it is Bandana Day in SL. 'Remove your hair, to show you care', at the Hair Fair you can buy al sorts of bandana's for 50L$ and today is the day to wear them to show your support for Wigs for kids.

All the proceeds of the bandana's go to Wigs for kids. Same for the hairs that have been bought at the Hair Fair, a percentage or the whole amount, that depends on the vendor, goes to that same cause.

Presage

Presage, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

I wanted an unicorn in my pictures so bad....here is the result.

Lorn

Lorn, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

And another try with the water reflection.

A sunny sunday

Today we had a sunny day here.....finally! Because it has been like autumn this past week, and the week before that, and before that...So a little bit of sunshine is very welcome.
I (of course) stayed inside to go on experimenting with PS, what else?! But with the doors and windows open it feels like summer has finally arrived in The Netherlands.
One thing is getting on my nerves though: a bunch of young seagulls on my roof is peeping all day long. Apparently I have a nest on my roof and the young ones seem to be hungry the whole day.
But nothing is ruining my day, me and my PS had a super sunny sunday!
Today i played with water reflections, it didn't work out the way I had in mind, but it's a starter.

Weekend!!

Finally weekend!!
I was so looking forward to the weekend this last week. It has been a busy week, but a friend of mine gave me such a big surprise: He gave me a present that made my day...my week...even my month, Photoshop CS6!
He came by with a beautifully wrapped gift and I really had no idea what could be in it. Imagine my surprise when I opened it.......Of course I had to jump up and down a few times lol.
Since I was working with Lightroom and Elements, I have to watch a whole lot of new tutorials now, but I don't care, because it is awesome.
First trick i learned is the easy way to get rid of the horrible lines you get when you take pictures in SL. Please give the person who came up with the "content aware" thing the Nobel price! In 1 sec those lines vanish....wow!
I, of course, always look forward to the weekend, but this time even more so I could play with my new gadget....content aware....content aware...
I've been a real bitch to my friends in SL today: no dancing, no shopping, no kissing, no chatting, the only thing I did is taking pictures.

First days in SL

My first days in SL......I can't remember a whole lot, but there are a few things I remember very well:

I looked at all those avatars and thought: "How can it be that they all look so good and i am walking around in very ugly skirt?!" And of course there was the moving, everybody I saw was walking very sexy or beautiful and I was walking as....well I don't know as what, but it sure didn't look pretty or sexy.

Although being a newbee seems to be a great turn on for a lot of guys, in the beginning I thought I had stepped into some kind of great virtual world of sex! Most IM's I received were more or less something like this: "Hey, where you from? Wanna dance? Oh, you're so pretty, wanna fuck?" And believe me, I wasn't pretty! But somehow I guess they like a virtual virgin or something, I don't know.

After a few days I discovered Marketplace, but had no idea where or how to get money to spend there. But a bit of reading and searching did the trick. So i got myself a bikini and dress on Marketplace, but the rest of me was still what I began with.

Thank god there was a very nice guy who told me all about skin, shape and hair. He even went shopping with me a whole afternoon. Suddenly I looked a whole lot better, but I still had that ugly walk. And again I was lucky to ran into a very nice girl who showed me around in the world of animations and AO's. The fact that she was a vampire, but I didn't let her teeth come near my just bought new skin, didn't stop her from being nice.

I guess those first days with those two people started my shopping addiction in SL, SL has no secrets for me in this area! When I come to think of it.....my RL self isn't any better, lol.

Dream

Dream, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Yes, yes......still fighting with my Photoshop tools and brushes......lol

Life

Life, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Today i was finally able to get in the OneVoice sim. I tried the last two days to get there, but it always said "sim is full". At the sim some of the best SL creators joined together to help another (skin) creator in need.

All her creations have been taken away from SL, due to legal problems caused by somebody who claims that the skins are copy's of her designs. To see so many creators stepping in to help another person and to let their voice be heard is a very beautiful thing to see. The fact that the sim was full for two days shows the support of all those people who wanted to go there and spent their Lindens to raise money for this cause.

In a short period of time i came across these two wonderful projects: Stand4love and OneVoice. I could not have ever imagined that these sort of things were going on in this virtual world when I started SL.

These projects make me enjoy Second Life even more and they sure make me a proud resident.

Vivienne2

Vivienne2, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

RL has been kind of busy, but today I had some time to go on with the photoshop thing. Still not even close to perfect, but as long as I am having fun....lol.

heart

heart, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Still trying to get better pictures in SL and working on the photoshop skills. Still reading and seeing every tutorial i can get my hands on.

Butterfly

Butterfly, a photo by Shelly-70 on Flickr.

Still playing with photoshop!

Pillow from Ezura Xue for Stand4Love

Ezura Xue made the cutest pillow for the Stand4Love project, it even has holding pose, all for free. So I really needed to make another photo with the pillow in it.

Photoshopping

Today I wanna show my first steps in the wonderful world of photoshop.
I've always taken a lot of snapshots in SL, but those magical moments always kept hidden in my inventory. I tried once to get some pics on my computer and photoshop them, but that wasn't a big success. I experienced lot of difficulty to work right on my Macbook.


But.......since 3 weeks or so an iMac joined my "Apple family" and so i thought it was worth to give the photoshop thing another try, That was not as easy as it sounds, but with trying and deleting i'm getting somewhere. Not even close to perfect, but for a photoshop newbie good enough (at least thats what I think lol)

I am really going from tutorial to tutorial, take the lessons learned into the photo, "Yay, it worked!" But the next day I have forgotten what I did, which tool i used and the program smiles at me:
                         " You'd better go back to the tutorials, dear!"

Second Life

In the virtual world Second Life my name is Shelly70 Resident. I have been a resident of this virtual world since june 11, 2011.
For all the people who now think: What the hell is Second life?!


Second Life is a 3D world where everyone you see is a real person and every place you visit is built by people just like you.
Did this make you curious? Take a look at the website http://secondlife.com


Over a year ago i had never even heard about Second Life, or SL as residents call it. I just finished a book (Karen Rose, I can see you) where murders took place on women who played in a virtual world called Shadowland.
That made me wonder if such a thing existed in the real world, and good old Google gave me Second Life. I just had my 1st birthday, rezday, as an avatar and getting more and more interested in photography and fashion in SL.


Recently I came across a wonderful project in SL, Stand4love.

Stand4love is an awareness charity project to promote the visibility and rights of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Straight loving couples to have the right to marry and be recognized by the law across the world.
It's a picture campaign in Second Life to spread awareness and promote equality and tolerance.


When I saw this I just had to participate. I believe strongly that each of us has the right to love without discrimination and intolerance!
Take a look at http://stand4love.wordpress.com for this wonderful project!

First post

Today my very first post! Since these are my first baby steps on the blogger path, i will keep it short. I will post a real one later tonight. For now i will try to insert an image in here, because hey, there has to be a first time for everything!