Vacations mostly over?

How is your summer going? Already had your holidays, or are they still ahead of you in August?

Ella & I, as you know, concluded ours on different days last week, Harry’s never been away, preferring to spend his summer in the company of his dog and his sketchbook & camera in different parts of England, Barbara appears to be active behind the scenes, her two weeks in Italy already concluded, and only Diane seems to remain ‘missing in action’, as we were aware she would, touring parts of eastern Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as far as I’m aware).

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English Fenland No.3 (©2014 Harry Leistone)

We’ve two new writers lined up, one a temporary replacement for Ella, an arrangement that works well for both parties as it helps pick up the slack left by Ella’s temporary withdrawal from SL to study various elements of SL & web design to improve the long-term look of SLN, while the new writer we’ll introduce you to returns to university at the end of September and won’t have time for blogging. Apricot appeared in SLN for the first time last week in our Topless Tuesday post. A couple more shots of her are below.

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Our other new writer is potentially a longer term prospect, depending on the reaction to her contributions. And she’s our first American writer! 🙂 More of her in the next few days.

The daunting task of editing SLN just got a little more daunting as the inbox begins to fill with contributions, photos, and the task of me having to assemble them into a cohesive whole rather than simply write my bit, pose for a few photos and head off to the RL pub with my husband, job done.

Wish me luck. I think I need it for the next 6 weeks or so. (As far as I’m aware Ella resumes editorial duties on September 7th).

Pookes

I haven’t abandoned you

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Just to let you know that, although I’m not going to be posting regularly, I’m still undertaking SLN-related stuff in the background. I’m currently working and experimenting with a programme called ‘Pixelmator’ which has several different tools which should hopefully improve the finish to the photography. On the basis of my taking it up, Harry is also experimenting with it. Early experiments are with tools that have allowed me to slightly improve photographs, as with the above ‘before and after’ shots. Using ‘Pixelmator’ I’ve been able to lose awkward shadowing. In this photo, the bottom photo has lost shading from the model’s chest, knee and groin area to create a more realistic look. And this is how my summer’s going to play out, undertaking behind the scenes work -not just with photography either-to improved the overall quality of SLN for you, our readers.

Ella.