That title can be read a couple (or more) ways, and I mean both (or more) of them: I've often written about how Second Life empowers people to discover new talents and rediscover old ones. It makes me sad when parents, altho well-meaning, discourage their children's curiosity of asking "Why?" and coloring outside the lines, perhaps scribbling all over the walls (I actually did this). And when someone can come inworld and begin pushing prims around, assembling clothes, making poses, scripting code, etc. it's incredibly self-empowering for them to unlock those doors, and inspiring to me. This is why I love hearing such stories, and exactly why a big part of my job is showing how easy it is to get started via video tutorials like this:

You know the writer's adage: "Write what you know". Well, I show what I know. Those first few steps can count for a lot, because without taking them, you never go further — this progress is like crisp snow flow curling into a mighty avalanche, for you grow upon yourself boldly.

I'm active in Second Life photography — if you're interested, I've a whole guide with tips, tricks, and more! — and it continues to amaze me how snapshots, both raw and post-processed (there's a wide spectrum of excellence!), are available as "quality in quantity". Searching Flickr for "secondlife" in fulltext reveals 472,911 matches, and the biggest Second Life group currently has 168,926 photos and 6,142 members as of this writing — more as you read this! There are many more communities and colors out there; among the ones I use are Koinup (whose WindLight contest I'm judging), SLBuzz, BlogHUD, and Snapzilla, and I salute their growth.

As art often is, there's such an array of… stuff that says a lot about the person doing it, taking those pictures. What I particularly love about Second Life photography is how it, like First Life photography, appeals to people of all ages and experiences: younger chums capture hanging out with buddies at trendy hotspots, older folk reveal places they visit whose offline analogues they might be too shy (or unable) to travel to, and just about every variation you can possibly think of. Gurus who do graphic design for a fulltime living leap in and whip up awe-inducing composites, piquing the participation of newcomer upstarts who want to learn more. And just when you've thought of something that hasn't happened yet, it might, soon! No demographic is left out, the barrier of entry is relatively low, and continues to drop as tools (including hardware to run Second Life on) become — to paraphrase Daft Punk — better, faster, stronger, and hopefully easier (not harder ).

(Don't get me started on Second Life videography — I'll do another post for that! )

On weekends, I'll often browse both wide and thinner nets of Second Life snapshots, smiling at what I find. I gather SLURLs to places I'd like to visit, marvel at the latest fashions, and basically soak in SL culture — which is often an amplified version of our offline lives. Sometimes, I'll use tools which flavorfully enhance the experience, like the PicLens add-on or a very cool Flickr Related Tag Browser. I'll never get all of it, there's just such a big sea of fish! But I'm definitely contented in the bounty, the plethora, the cornucopia of visual delights we can savor. AND FOCUS UPON, should we choose to. I do.

What makes me smile even more is realizing how people who've never heard of Second Life are likely to come across SL photos, especially when there are cross-appeal tags like "sunset" and "nature", or photos showing a "mixed reality". I encourage these fresh eyes to follow their curiosity and learn more about Second Life and how it can benefit their First Life.

As a child, I used to visit the local farmer's market and wander through stalls of arts and crafts, handmade goods. I was often agape at the variety and sheer fact that someone would take the time to do this. The commercial aspects didn't elude me, but they never stood on their own. (I have no qualms about "selling a lot" or "selling out" as long as you're happy about what you're doing, simple as this.) While digital copies are much quicker to distribute and not constrained by physical resource limitations in regard to production materials, that doesn't mean the humanity behind such self-expression has disappeared; rather, it's found new ways to manifest itself. the would-be photographer's shutter finger has become like a Diclonius' vector, reaching out beyond perceivable space. New and old often fuse, "remix" as they say au jour, and gradually evolve into changed forms. Such as the popular trend of splashing retro-grunge and scratches over a minted, pristine inworld photo to imbue it with some artificially aged "character". No, it's not the same; it never is, but in reminding us of things familiar and tradition-cast, we feel more comfortable to go forth and explore further.

And by the time we've gone a long distance, perhaps even untethered ourselves from the umbilical cords that held us attached to points of origin we knew all too well, maybe we will have done many more great things indeed: for ourselves, for each other.

Are you into Second Life photography? What does it mean to you?