1) What is this blog about?
Whim and fantasy. I haven’t set any rules or guidelines for myself, I blog things I like. This tends to result in various fantasy characters or gothic, darker sides of SL. However, there’s a definite cute-addicted streak of squeeing at adorable things and even occasional doses of more normal looks, but they all have one thing in common: I like them.
It is very rare for me to take pictures against white background, most of the time I take my pictures in character-fitting sims or build a scene from a skybox and furniture.
I’m fond of taking pictures that promise a story or present a character. I want them to have mood, personality and spirit. It’s less about items and more about the moment in a character’s fictional life.
2) Which viewer do you use?
Niran’s Viewer. I felt it important to mention since there’s so many ways to enhance SL in it and thus the resulting photos look very different from the official viewer’s, even as raw shots. I play around with various windlights, shadows and graphical settings a lot.
3) Do you photoshop?
Yes. Unless I very specifically state that a picture hasn’t been touched, you can assume that it has been post-processed. Usually it’s not much, a slight change in lighting if the pictures turned out too dark, a very low-level filter for smoothness or sharpness. I’m especially fond of high pass and some pictures just call for posterize or film grain.
As for fixing things in pictures I usually fix what SL breaks: broken avatar-mesh-angles in otherwise intriguing poses, hair-sticking-through-body, jagged edges when SL throws a fit, blurring square bugs if the shadows and big resolution cause them. However, I do not fix items. Clothes and objects don’t get brushed or touched, with the only possible exception of fixing jagged lines of the avatar.
4) What about review copies?
I’m absolutely terrible in asking for such, but I squee for them, certainly! I’ll denote them with the * mark in the credit-list and provide a slurl to the shop within text. I don’t automatically do this to every shop, that’s what the slurl-page is for!
A warning word: I am more likely to blog fantasy, steampunk, scifi or goth looks than casuals. If you want to be sure and/or if you want to see something you made on me, IM me and let’s talk about it. Another option is giving me store credit instead of items: I can promise that if I do use the said store credit, I will blog what I got. If nothing in the selection works for me at that moment, I will not use the store credit either. No loss on either side.
Obvious disclaimer is obvious: regardless of review copies I still blog only what I like.
5) Do you make anything yourself?
Trying to! Shapes and poses, very likely specializing in fantasy in both. I don’t have an in-world shop, but that’s what the Marketplace is for. No refunds, but if the Marketplace hiccups and/or SL breaks your items, just send me a notecard with the related transaction history and I’ll send you a new copy.
6) Do you blog anywhere else?
Yes and no. I blogged for a while for ZombiePopcornSL, but I simply didn’t have enough time for two blogs and my own obviously won. I’m still a huge fan of Zombie Popcorn, though, and I absolutely love their hunts. I also blog about breedables when I have any. Cafe Bunneh (Ozimals Bunnies) and Runic Roos (meeroos) are both closed for now, though. I keep them separate from Astalianda unless the character I’m making happens to need a cute animal companion, of course.
7) How can I contact you?
IM Sonya Marmurek, leave a comment on this blog or poke me in Plurk or 2ndHub. I also spend a lot of time in SLU forums, so you can catch me there as well.
