Beauty - more than pixel-deep!

Playing with photography in SL I certainly see many "beautiful" places and Avatars, and love playing with Photoshop for editing. The "magic" of getting an Avatar's image just right, where the eyes seem almost to convey expression, carries with it an amazing sense of wonder - is it art? Or just luck?

But beauty of character, mind and heart, is far more prized. Photography always works well when you have a rapport with your subject, which is why I like to take the time to get to know anyone I photograph. It's funny but a few *stunning* avatars I have met - maybe their eyes or skin amazed me for a time and I thought they would be awesome to photograph regularly, soon showed such blandness of manner, even rudeness and lack of gratitude, that I realised their *beauty* was just pixel deep - I could have more fun making images of an Alt I made to order - that made me laugh a bit - because interaction and textual intimacy is part of what I also like about SL - but such is the way some people behave!

Beautiful eyes!

I have old friends I regularly see and photograph, others it's just once, a chance meeting that results in them getting a lovely profile image, or even help with buying a new skin or outfit, and the discovery that they had little beauty beyond the pixels in the way they communicate with and brush off the photographer! However, even short-term encounters can be inspiring, when a really fascinating mind is met even for a while, and the rapport helps create a more deeply artistic and expressive image, such as below:

Still one of my favourite image edits - where my work was greatly appreciated.