Petrified Creature

About a month ago I read this article on Gizmodo: Any Animal That Touches This Lethal Lake Turns to Stone and it really intrigued me. I found the pictures of the animals so haunting and beautiful. I knew I wanted to create a similar image in SL. The animals were Photographed by Nick Brandt and can be found in his new book, Across the Ravaged Land. I’m going to take the quote from Nick Brandt from that page and quote it here myself since it is a perfect description for what these images are about:

I unexpectedly found the creatures – all manner of birds and bats – washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. No-one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake. The water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds. The soda and salt causes the creatures to calcify, perfectly preserved, as they dry.

I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life’, as it were. Reanimated, alive again in death.
–Nick Brandt
Across the Ravaged Land

So I actually took this picture two days ago, on Tuesday (here’s the raw shot) because I wanted to include it for the Topless Tuesday challenge as well. However, I struggled with it in photoshop all Tuesday, then Wednesday as well. I finally just gave up this morning and decided to go ahead and post what I have. I actually really dislike the image, since it’s not at all what I wanted to do but I figure I already did it and I really wanted to share the story and the actual haunting pictures by Nick Brandt, that I decided to just go ahead and do it.

I was going for a fairy turned to stone by the lake. I loved the way his images were colorless and so crisp and clear. I think I will try again some time, maybe in a few months after I work on my photoshopping skills a bit more.

I also wanted to quickly mention the wings I’m wearing in my picture. They are mesh wings that are materials ready by Two Cats One Cup and currently available at the We Love Role-Play monthly event. Both of those blogs haven’t been updated recently so click over to Seraphim to see everything available at the event and then take the SLurl to go shopping!
UPDATE: I’ve been told that this is the actual website for We Love Role-Play and it is up to date so you can check out all the vendors here: We Love Role-Play website (thank you Anarya Elderslie for letting me know!)

In the image, I am actually wearing two versions of the wings that were in the folder, the regular and the version for petite avatars. I just wanted to add a bit more flutter to the image. The wings are not only materials ready, they are also scripted so they have a flutter animation as well as optional sounds. I found them to be very beautiful. They are only L$105 at the event right now, so make sure to check them out!

Credits:
*Skin: -Glam Affair – Elvi – Fairy 04 A by Aida Ewing (@Kustom9) (flickr)
*Hair: >TRUTH< Uma – silver by Truth
Mesh Eyelids: Slink Mesh eyelids (alpha) (photo prop) DARK by Siddean Munro
*Mesh Hands: Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands – Relaxed by Siddean Munro
*Wings: c( TC ) Tristani Faerie Wings by Sei Minuet (@ We Love Role-Play) (flickr)
*Pose: Diesel Works by Rogan Diesel