I do like to get anyone involved with SLN to ‘mix it up’ where photographic locations are concerned. Yes, the naturist sims look gorgeous, but in order to keep things fresh it’s likely that I’d encourage our photographers to split an infinitive and ‘boldy go’ to places where they can seek out new, photogenic locations.

But where are they? I routinely check out the sims that are reviewed on the Ad Vitam Aeternam blog. Bitacora Viajera is another go-to blog for location searching purposes.

I’d be certain that other bloggers do the same thing, and I do utilise their location links, where provided, to check out if it’s suitable for a bit of naturist photography. For instance, I spotted that Caitlin had mentioned Tuck’s Misty Isle as a location on her blog, so I hopped over there, checked it out and then sent Diane the link to Tuck’s. The result is a few photos from there, taken by Diane, and visible on our Flickr page. Naturist…naked…call them what you want, there’s no real story behind them, so the Flickr page seemed the most appropriate place to publish them, rather than on the main blog. Besides, the Flickr page gives those who take photos an opportunity to break out a little. We don’t need ‘artistry’ a great deal on the main blog. Snapshots of locations or ‘wardrobe accessories’ don’t need to be shown off in full artistic light, in my view (although I know many bloggers do give their photos a lot of artistic input and they routinely look great as a result).

The photo, above, is one of those taken at Tuck’s which isn’t featured on the Flickr site.

One of the things we, as a blogging community, do is to get excited by a particularly photogenic sim, as it certainly frames the shot(s) we take and shows off clothes, hair, shoes, skin in the best possible light. One of the things missing from the blogosphere, I think, is a ‘photogenic sim aggregator’ to extend and expand the excellent work that Ad Vitam Aeternam and Bitacora Viajera do, to source lovely looking sims that bloggers can use.

One disappointing element of photographing in various sims is that, on teleporting into a sim, there are often rules that state ‘No Nudity’. Not a great start for this blog, certainly. And not a great start for many other SL photographers, who do like to take nude photos and share them on Flickr. SLN is linked to many of the people who do take photos, and I’m in awe of some of the great work they do. You can see SLN’s favourite photos, by others, on the ‘favourites’ page of our Flickr presence.

For me, everything is about ‘context’ in terms of taking nude photographs. I know that our photographers will routinely ignore the ‘no nudity’ rule where the situation permits. That is, they will certainly take photos where ‘no nudity’ rules apply if there’s no-one around to ‘offend’. I wouldn’t ask, expect or encourage them to go out of their way to start snapping nude photos if there are others around, but there are times when there’s no one else on a sim. Ignoring a sim rule that actively discourages nudity doesn’t seem too radical in those circumstances.

Hugh tells me that his favoured approach is to simply pull up the SL map (above) and simply select a sim that looks interesting in terms of build…rural, urban, desert…and teleport in. He suggests it’s a hit & miss affair but he has been able to source some nice sims this way, sims he would otherwise have been totally unaware of.

There are a lot of wonderful sims out there, and for many of us it’s a case of finding out where they are.

If you’ve got any favourite spots you use for photography, let me know. Some of the builds out there are so wonderful that it’s a shame they exist in semi-secret.

Ella