I know, I know. Many of you are used to this being Gwyneth Evans’ roleplaying blog. And one day I may return to that. However, stuff has happened lately that has made me not want to role-play or write about roleplaying, and until I’m past that stuff, my SL catharsis is, as often, photography. I’ve been a tourist in a lot of different places lately, and some of them are worth sharing. I also think I’ve taken some pretty good photographs, though your mileage may vary. 🙂

When I don’t know where to go, or I want to experience something amazing, the first place I go is Ziki Questi’s Blog. Ziki is a goldmine of information, both in current an archival posts, and the photography is pretty good, too. 

One of the places I’ve been to recently that really made my heart happy was The Colder Water, which of course I discovered through Ziki. The link is to her post on the destination.

I very often don’t use regional windlight settings when I’m photographing, and sometimes not even when I’m just visiting: I have a few windlight settings that I like very much and use all the time. But sometimes, the setting for a space just grabs me, and that’s what happened with this windlight. I couldn’t get enough of it.

I’m glad that The Amazing Catwoman isn’t actually a goth, because posing someone gothy in this space would have felt redundant. Instead, I felt that the Catwoman became gothy by association with that sky. The only other sim I’ve been to in the last year that made me feel so overwhelmed by texture and the beauty of grayness was the stunning H22O, which I think I might have posted about at some point. If I haven’t, I’ll dig up the photos of Gwyneth dancing in the rain for you all at some point.

This rocky shore just brings home the things I love about our English beaches. I don’t like expanses of sand and oiled up people on questionably tasteful lawn chairs. I want a crag. Cormorants. A seal colony. I’m so in awe of place that bring those amazing places to life, and this sim really did it for me. 

With graphics set to “stupid” (and omg, thank you Firestorm for the 64-bit Mac beta!), The Amazing Catwoman casts a long shadow as she hurls herself through the endless twilight of The Colder Water.

But what would it look like in full daylight? Would it be as stunning? There’s no doubt the moodiness of the sim has a lot to do with the windlight setting, but how about everything else? Would I like it as much in another light?

Actually, yes. Just in a different way. Here is a very similar photograph, also shot with a long shadow but at a different time of day, and I think it holds up. I should mention there are actually three lighthouses on the sim; the one you can see behind The Amazing Catwoman is not the one you could see in the distance from the photos shot on the pier: that one is on the island across which she’s running.

I probably took dozens of photographs while I was there with the Catwoman. I doubt if I’ll bring Gwyneth there, but you never know where the Bird Goddess is going to end up. 

The sim features loads of stuff you don’t see in these pictures, like a railway line that goes into the middle of the sea and the lighthouses themselves, which are well worth a look.

There are also odd little jellyfish creatures floating around everywhere, but the less said about them the better. I’m pretty sure they were chasing The Amazing Catwoman. She has such an effect on wildlife.

I hope you’ll want to visit The Colder Water. It’s a really beautiful place, great for losing yourself in, for a few minutes or a few hours.