A Few Minor Victories

Contests have been a great way for our fledgling studio to get experience and exposure. I've chronicled below some of the "near misses", but here's a quick look at some of the little successes that have kept our spirits up.

First, one of my all time favorites "Breakfast in Bed" won Second Place in a contest hosted by MadamG Zagato in her New Paris Sim. This set piece, centered on my lovely wife Atia, was shot in our own bedroom on our parcel at Merrywood, using nothing but some Windlight settings for the atmosphere and some judicious lighting.



"Breakfast in Bed" was originally an entry in a contest sponsored by DollyRock to feature their clothing line (the negligee Aita is barely wearing is called "Breeze") - we did not place in that contest, but as an entry in New Paris, we garnered a red ribbon - our first award ever.

The next month, we returned to New Paris with an original composition that combined studio techniques and a bit of after-the-fact photo manipulation, entitled "Inner Child"



Our own Melinda, in a very different persona than before (see "Contests We Have Lost", below), as a dignified elderly lady hearkening back to her distant youth won us a Third Place, a few kudos from the other contestants, and a tiny bit of pride in a good idea well executed. We had no designs for this one as a commercial piece - we weren't showing off a clothing line or a skin or hair - it was just a spark of an idea that we fanned into flame in our studio.

But in that same month, this piece, titled "Windows" won us a Second Place in the ::Exodi:: Candace Skin Contest and then another Third Place at a subsequent New Paris photography contest.



As I've said, we like doing set pieces and try to capture everything in the camera - this example required only slight post-work to include the light streaming through the windows. Other than that, everything was done in the studio in an attempt to show off the ::Exodi:: "Candace Peach" skin to best effect and in an interesting composition, with Nance Bellic again being willing to bare nearly all in the effort. (I'm playing the part of "The Man" in the background) We also entered "Captive" in that contest (see below), but this one gained us the winnings, a few Lindens, slight recognition, and loads of good experience and fun.

And of course, our most recent and proudest victory came when one of the first to join our family of models, Joi Smythe, was named "Miss Sinatra Style" for September of 2009.



This snapshot we consider one of our finer attempts in our style - we built and lighted the set entirely in our studio, posed Joi and our senior fellow, Earl Ametza, as the chanteuse and the accompanist, captured the moment, and did nothing further to the final than add a border and our name to the corner.

All these works and more are on display at our Photogenix Studio Gallery, as well as our Flickr stream.



~B~