About
If you want to learn more about me and this effort, you’ve come to the right place.
Flickr
Join me on this adventure where most all of my images go.
Youtube
If it strikes me right, some of my images are the background image to music I love.
Deviant Art
There is so much creativity on Deviant Art. How could I not make a home there?
My story
Welcome to my my ‘little place’ on the internet. As I am launching this site today, I am hoping that it will in time, become a place that you’ll return to on occasion because I am adding some value to your life – if only in a virtual way.
A little background about myself might help light the path for where I hope this site will go.
I first signed up for SecondLife in July of 2006. I had seen a story on the evening news that sparked my interest. I was involved with a group called “Whalecall” at the time and seeing other not-for-profit groups setting up in SL was a perfect invitation. The first several weeks in SL were a shock to my senses. It was easy to fall into this new world with so much to learn and see. The next few months were spent by myself learning to build and script while making plenty of mistakes along the way. Eight months later I felt I had done just about all I wanted and was starting to get bored. I actually closed my account and then two weeks later realized I wasn’t done and begged the Lindens to reinstate my account…and they did!
I first signed up for SecondLife in July of 2006. I had seen a story on the evening news that sparked my interest. I was involved with a group called “Whalecall” at the time and seeing other not-for-profit groups setting up in SL was a perfect invitation. The first several weeks in SL were a shock to my senses. It was easy to fall into this new world with so much to learn and see. The next few months were spent by myself learning to build and script while making plenty of mistakes along the way. Eight months later I felt I had done just about all I wanted and was starting to get bored. I actually closed my account and then two weeks later realized I wasn’t done and begged the Lindens to reinstate my account…and they did!
After that return I began meeting others socially and found a whole other world that I hadn’t expected. The whole idea of dancing avatars began to make sense once I came to value the value of socializing with others in this world…of sharing experiences. This avatar had been created primarily for promoting Whalecall but my interest was expanding into areas that I didn’t feel should be associated with Whalecall so, Aedan was created in October of 2007. He ran away to another planet with a good friend to explore SL for several years. When that ended, I once again became bored. The original magic of SL was gone – my senses were no longer overwhelmed and events in ‘real life’ (henceforth called ‘RL’) demanded more of my time.
Since 2012, I’ve made several attempts to rekindle my interest in the virtual world that is SecondLife but until recently, each has failed and was followed by several months, even a year of inactivity although I will confess that the last break was for addressing RL issues. I don’t remember what prompted me to login again late in 2018. Perhaps it was boredom. Perhaps returning without any real goal was the secret.
I observed a close friend’s hobby/task of creating scenes of houses, furniture and other trinkets and sharing them on Flickr. Her photographs we amazing to me. In my time away, the introduction of mesh into SL and seeing the amazing detail of some of these items, and the amazingly beautiful avatars that were now being created really grabbed my attention.
I started experimenting with photography in SL myself and quickly got hooked. There is so much power available to create any atmosphere one could imagine using the windlight tools. Combined with the realistic mesh items available, I thought I’d give this a try. And here we go! The more I saw the work of others on Flickr, the greater my interest grew. There are so many people there expressing their artistic abilities and it has pulled me back in.
In reality, the art being created and displayed on Flickr (and elsewhere) are not the sole creation of the person creating the lights, the scene and ‘snapping’ the camera lens. There are artists beginning from those who first imagined this was possible to the creators who put so much effort into creating and massaging amazing virtual goods, clothing and avatars. All of these tools are placed in our hands to let imagination and creativity run wild using various software packages. All these efforts go into the final products.
Nor should the importance of those who choose to simply enjoy the final products. Their interest adds to what is a vibrant economy within SL.
All of this has been a creative spark for me. I am anxious to learn to create better, more beautiful, imaginative and enticing images initiated in SL. This thought has rekindled earlier thoughts of a writing project illustrated with images I create which in turn has spawned so many other ideas.
This entry is but the beginning of my effort to take all of these pieces and put then on a canvas. Please enjoy your visit.
Aedan