Photo Cafe' Beach Lounge
~ Chat Transcript ~
5th March, 2022
H.11:00 AM SLT[ The following Episode #13 will be on:
Sat, the 19th of Mar H.11.00 AM SLT! ]
[11:05] Duraya: Hello everyone, welcome to the photo café. I am glad you could join us.
[11:06] Duraya: Art has always had many unique and different reasons for being created.
[11:06] Duraya: There can be mere imagination, communication, entertainment, social or political comment, psychological or healing purposes and more.
[11:07] Duraya: It is up to each of us personally how we use it.
[11:07] Duraya: And we strongly believe that art and creativity can help us to stay sane, whatever happens around or inside of us.
[11:08] Duraya: Thus, we chose to talk about expressing emotions through art today.
[11:08] Duraya: Before we start let’s listen to Kika and what she came up with about supporting collaboration among interested fellow photographers.
[11:08] Duraya: Ready Kika?
[11:08] Kika Yongho: Yes thank you Duraya!
[11:08] Kika Yongho: Hello Photographer friends!
Last time – upon Elfi’s input – we mentioned the intention to start a new initiative that will see all of us involved in sharing our specific competence and make them available to the others in dedicated workshops. Did we forget about it? Nooo!
[11:09] Kika Yongho: So here we are with the start of this new project: the “Photo Cafe’ Workshops”! But.. What was it about? Basically, the idea was having each of us to host a specific themed workshop about a theme where we are more prepared or confident for all the others to benefit.
[11:09] Kika Yongho: The Photo Cafe’ Lounge will be available for the Workshop Relators to host their speech and the Photo Cafe’ Staff will be supporting you as Relators for your specific needs (rezzing rights and so on).
[11:10] Kika Yongho: So we got all the basics covered.. Who = You! … What = Workshops! … Where = Here! … When?
[11:10] Kika Yongho: To sort out this “feature” an XLS spreadsheet has been created and shared on google drive. You can click the following link to see it.
MIND YOU! If you are using Chrome and you are logged in with your RL account, open a new anonymous Incognito window to prevent it from showing your account before clicking. Ready? Here we go! Click here:
[11:13] Kika Yongho: set your browser to anonymous
[11:13] Kika Yongho: private navigation window
[11:13] Kika Yongho: so we see you as anonymous 🙂
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l2c_ztauBnxcwW_RlbIeTrkZoXYxMTIcTRlaFmdRtLQ/edit?usp=sharing
[11:13] Kika Yongho: You can start to think about what you could present to your Photographers colleagues from your personal experience and knowledge (SL or RL … technical skills or maybe composition and so on).
[11:14] Kika Yongho: But back to the XLS… The first part is for you as Relator to fill in. The first column “A” is your SL avatar’s name. The second column “B” is the title of the Workshop you are going to present. Basically the Workshop Title.
Column “C” Summary can be seen as our Cafe’s Agenda: a list of the main topics you are going to cover in your Workshop.
[11:15] Kika Yongho: All clear so far? Let’s finish to see the the XLS.. Column “D” is for eventual Notes or Comments from you (i.e. “This is a Workshop about this but not about that” or “I will provide you an easel” … and such). Last column for Relators is “E” = Time required in minutes. This is the expected time you can offer for your Workshop. So for example if you have one session of 60 minutes you simply write this there. If you plan to have two sessions, you can take 2 lines of the XLS and label them “Part 1” and “Part 2” in your Title.
[11:17] Kika Yongho: Now! At this point, as soon as the Relators will have provided their Workshop ideas and offers, all the other Photograpers can sign up expressing their interest to join a course. You can add your SL avatar name to the others that will be in the column “F”. For the moment the list of participants is only to see if there is enough interest about a certain topic or not. The planning part will follow soon so.. Stay tuned for the next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our News Kiosk at the Info point and receive all our latest info!
[11:17] Kika Yongho: Thank you all for your attention, bookmark the XLS file for later and let’s go ahead with our agenda! Duraya please and thanks again!
[11:18] Duraya: Thank you Kika!
[11:18] Duraya: Please don’t be shy
[11:18] Duraya: you have something to share!
[11:18] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): c
[11:18] Duraya: and if it’s less than 60 min we will manage to find something for the rest of the cafe
[11:19] Duraya: questions to Kika, me, Dane and Kapaan 🙂
[11:19] Duraya: yes Jaminda – you have a comment
[11:20] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): I just thought I would throw in there that a field trip can be nice so someone might want to facilitate that as a session
[11:20] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): I was thinking about that one to onceagain’s place
[11:20] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): done
[11:20] Duraya: sure!
[11:20] Prins (skylog): c
[11:20] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): c
[11:21] Duraya: okay Prins please
[11:21] Prins (skylog): a hour is a long time to run a session
[11:21] Prins (skylog): done
[11:21] Duraya: yes I know
[11:21] Duraya: but as I said before less is welcome and we will arrange around what you can offer
[11:22] Moki Yuitza: c
[11:22] Duraya: onceagain please
[11:22] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): Jaminda, what you mean exactly with “field trip”?
[11:22] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): done
[11:23] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): I mean we all go to a sim and take pictures on a shared theme Once like we did with your sim after the exhibition
[11:23] Kika Yongho: Yes that can be a project
[11:23] Duraya: thank you Jaminda
[11:24] Duraya: I have Moki on my list
[11:25] Moki Yuitza: i think this is an awesome project, and i’ll try to attend to as many workshop as i can so thank you for this opportunity
[11:25] Moki Yuitza: and now, it’s more a question than a comment…
[11:25] Moki Yuitza: i’m not skilled in anything around photography, except building (that can be used in example for backdrops or similar)
[11:26] Moki Yuitza: i could offer this kind of teaching, if someone would be interested
[11:26] Duraya: sure!
[11:26] Prins (skylog): c
[11:26] Duraya: done Moki?
[11:27] Moki Yuitza: in this case, i could fill the form, but to plan a workshop, and especially the amount of time, i should know what level of knowledge are the participants
[11:27] Moki Yuitza: could it be possible to leave that cell empty for now?
[11:27] Duraya: of course
[11:27] Moki Yuitza: Prins said that one hour it is a long time
[11:27] Duraya: no hurry
[11:28] Moki Yuitza: in my experience, for a basic building workshop, you need more time, but all depends °͜°
[11:28] Moki Yuitza: done
[11:28] Duraya: you can also write in the notes of the forms which level you start from and then people know what to expect
[11:29] Duraya: and offer a basic and an advanced lesson would be possible as well
[11:29] Duraya: Prince please
[11:29] Prins (skylog): As Jaminda says – We can maybe find 3 sims, where we take shall take one photo and make a fast exhibition. It can be interesting to see how people see a place or object and learning don’t necessary end with the perfect result.
[11:29] Prins (skylog): done
[11:29] Kika Yongho: c
[11:30] Duraya: thank you Prins , Kika please
[11:31] Kika Yongho: I just wanted to tell everyone that the ideas are great and you can also offer yourself as relator / host for a project you want to see done or leave the filed blank and maybe someone will offer to host a specific request?
[11:31] Kika Yongho: done
[11:31] Duraya: thank you Kika – that sounds very good so far
[11:32] Duraya: okay – today’s agenda
[11:32] Duraya: I might talk a bit more than usual today but as you already noticed I have the discussion tracker on.
So just throw in c (comment), q (question) and r (retrieve) whenever you feel like 🙂
Please remember to close your comment with ‘done’. Thank you!
[11:32] Duraya: As you will see – or of course most likely already know – expressing emotions in photography is an important part of storytelling.
[11:33] Duraya: Artists create because they feel something and want to express that feeling through their art.
[11:33] Duraya: There are many different emotions that can be depicted in an image.
[11:33] Duraya: We might strive to highlight joy, happiness, sorrow, despair, and love, although of course the interpretation can differ depending on the viewer.
[11:34] Duraya: Photography is a lot about evoking feelings and emotions.
[11:34] Duraya: They can be hidden and obscure, or specific and obvious.
[11:35] Duraya: They flow right on the surface of a photograph, slapping you across the face, or swim below, awaiting discovery.
[11:38] Duraya: Other than in rl photography here you can’t rely on catching an emotion by:
watching the subject and anticipating important movements
focusing on the eyes
serial shooting and hoping for a hit
surprise shots
[11:39] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): c
[11:39] Duraya: well you can try
[11:39] Duraya: yes onceagain?
[11:41] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): what i can talk about, not teach because I’m not able, is my experience in rl, that I think isn’t so far from sl, about how someone can present a project and the steps that need to be followed from the idea to the exhibit
[11:43] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): is called storytelling
[11:44] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): done
[11:44] Duraya: I mentioned earlier there was a difference to rl photography – that could be a very interesting theme for a workshop
[11:45] Duraya: In here you have to know what kind of, and how you want to show – in this case – emotions
[11:45] Duraya: So how to meet the challenge of capturing an emotion in our photography making it appear genuine?
[11:46] Duraya: Angry. Happy. Sad. Bored. Excited. Confused. Scared. Contemplative. Determined. Focused. Brave. Vulnerable. Proud. Disappointed… and many many more.
[11:46] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): c
[11:46] Duraya: Franny please
[11:47] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): when I started to be interested in photography here, I started to study all the pics of those skilled photographer that are around
[11:48] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): and about emotions in photography there are many good photographers that can be studied and “copied”. With copied I mean to attempt to reproduce something like you saw in a pic
[11:49] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): because with attempts you can realize what you need..you don’t need only a good pose but light and storytelling of course that it’s like the engine that pushes you to realize the pic
[11:49] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): finished
[11:49] Andrew (andrewharlan55): c
[11:49] Duraya smiles – yes – I will be talking about those ‘ingredients’ 🙂
[11:50] Duraya: Andrew please
[11:51] Andrew (andrewharlan55): I’m kind of new to photography in SL, so I’ve been experimenting a bunch to convey emotion. I started focusing on the expression and looking at myself in the mirror to see if I could catch it, and move the eyebrow just a bit. I found it’s tough to get something that’s not kind of corny a lot of times. What I also found is the that subtle changes in head position and posture, even with the expression the same give a whole different emotional message.
[11:52] Andrew (andrewharlan55): And I’ve been surprised a couple of times by how much the angle of the shot changes the emotion of it, as well.
[11:52] Andrew (andrewharlan55): Done
[11:52] Duraya grins – I see you don’t need me – you all found out yourself 😉
[11:53] Duraya: Anyway – let’s get a little order into it
[11:53] Duraya: We know how to read emotions rl. Emotional intelligence guides our reading facial expressions and assuming the way others are feeling.
[11:53] Duraya: We read this emotion and perhaps even feel the same as a subject. We do have an immediate and intuitive visual understanding of the world.
[11:54] Duraya: I tried hard to find rather natural facial expressions. Anyway -usually expressions are not that distinct, they are more subtle.
[11:55] Duraya: and I am absolutely sure if you have to name the expressed emotions we will get a lot of different answers 😉
[11:55] Duraya: this picture shows a lot what we get in our HUDs. Just a few expressions look natural.
[11:56] Duraya: That’s the reason why I rarely use facial expressions to express something in my pictures.
If you found something useable in this field please share with us.
[11:56] Kika Yongho: c
[11:56] Duraya: yes Kika
[11:57] Kika Yongho: I agree they are mostly equally bad but some have animations rather than static poses and that helps me to catch perhaps in the movement something that suits the photo (again n shoots to get a decent one just like RL :P) done
[11:58] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): c
[11:58] Duraya: thank you
[11:58] Duraya: and Franny please
[11:58] Andrew (andrewharlan55): c
[11:58] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): I would like to suggest the pose by SAPA: NadySapa
[11:59] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): done
[11:59] Duraya: thank you Franny
[11:59] Duraya: Andrew 🙂
[11:59] Moki Yuitza: c
[12:00] Andrew (andrewharlan55): I’m trying to find where it is now, but I’ve also been playing with the expression animations and slowing down the animation time. Doing that, you can almost get those serendipitous in-between expressions.
[12:00] Andrew (andrewharlan55): Done
[12:00] Kika Yongho nods
[12:00] Duraya: oh that sounds interesting – you have to find it and share it with us please!
[12:01] Duraya: Moki on my list!
[12:01] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): q
[12:02] Moki Yuitza: before a question for Andrew: i’m interested how you can slow the animation, could you teach me (and maybe all of us)?
[12:02] Andrew (andrewharlan55): Firestorm viewer: Developer > Avatar > Animation Speed
[12:02] Duraya: thank you Andrew
[12:03] Moki Yuitza: i use mainly poses and animation, but if i need to change the face expression, i find useful the lelutka animation hud, it works in great part also with other brand’s heads (with some limitations and sometimes weird effect, but it works)
[12:03] Moki Yuitza: done
[12:04] Duraya: Franny – you have a question?
[12:05] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): Andrew already answered but at this point it would be interesting a workshop or collaborative works about it, about slowing anim and finding the right moment
[12:07] Duraya: speaking about the right moment – although there is a lot left to say I would suggest to continue with this next time which will be the 19th
[12:08] Duraya: I prepared more but sometimes 60 minutes is not long but too short 😉
[12:08] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): I think we found something very interesting
[12:08] Duraya: yes we did
[12:09] Duraya: and it’s worth taking the time to do it thoroughly
[12:09] Kika Yongho: Can I add also that Relator(s) can be more than one, joint ventures
[12:09] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): q
[12:10] Duraya: yes – join, let’s share and have fun and develop 🙂
[12:11] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): I have still a question for andrew
[12:11] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): it’s fast lol
[12:11] Duraya: sure Franny
[12:11] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): it’s a technical one
[12:11] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): is it the developer menu affecting only our viewers or even others?
[12:12] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): I mean if we slow the anims all people we’ll see us with slower anims?
[12:12] Andrew (andrewharlan55): Just your avatar.
[12:12] Franny Blame The Cat (francesca.pfeffer): ah ok thanks
[12:12] Duraya: awwww – I would have welcomed the powers to move others 😉
[12:12] Duraya: see you all in a fortnight hopefully
[12:12] Duraya: thanks for joining us!
