Writing from Kissimmee, Florida —
The judging is over, and it was fun. There were lots of great submissions this year — 48, if I have my count correct — and the quality was excellent. That was helped along by lots of great gowns this season from the designers, of course; but the creativity of the models and photographers really shone as well. We had to agonize some over which ones worked better for the theme, or if we had the best ordering of awards. As always, we do our best, and we hope you’ll agree with our choices.
First Place, with a prize of $L25,000:
Copyright 2016 by AnoukAnna Resident; all rights reserved.
AnoukAnna Resident does a wonderful piece here with a monochrome portrait of a dilemma probably faced frequently by Sarah Jessica Parker — or at least by her most famous character, Carrie Bradshaw. The drama comes from the shadows in a monochrome photograph and the model’s facing into the composition instead of toward the viewer, while she contemplates the choices available to her in her shoe closet (from Garbaggio).
Anouk wears Allesandra, by Thalia Heckroth, with the Boa hairstyle from Moon Hair.
Second Place, with a prize of L$10,000:
Copyright 2016 by Reese Firanelli; all rights reserved
Oscar Night starts long before the walk down the red carpet. Reese Firanelli took this to heart, and shows us some of the preparations a visitor to the awards would be going through to prepare for the big evening. The focus is on the model; but then the eye begins to travel about the dressing room, taking in the lipstick in her hand, the gown — Frozen by Dead Dollz — the balloons behind Reese, leading down to the champagne glass on the side table, and the flowers in the jar on the vanity. Nicely composed and executed; even just a little bit of unfocus on the sides to simulate depth of field focused on the model.
Reese’s hair is Betsy, from Truth.
Third Place, with a prize of L$7,500:
Copyright 2016 by Skye Donardson; all rights reserved
What’s worse than losing, ending up “just” one of the nominees instead of the winner? Why, doing it when someone is wearing the very same dress as you! But how about when two others are wearing the exact same gown??? (Guys, you got it so easy….) Skye Donardson had a little fun with the theme, and tickled my funny bone here. She was also very creative as well — she’s playing all four roles. The women (Skye, Skye and Skye) all wear Extravagance from Graffitiwear, while Skye the guy wears a three-piece charcoal evening suit from SiNdulgence.
Honorable Mentions (L$2,000 each; no particular order of placement):
Copyright 2016 by Ric Applewhyte; all rights reserved
Ric Applewhyte notes that it’s his sister making the entrance here, but he’s pretty darn good as an escort as well. Elric (that’s his full name) wears a [Deadwool] Peak tuxedo, with dress shoes from Glamistry. His sister is wearing Dirty Princess’ Exquisite Princess, the Annie head from Catwa, and Truth hair.
Copyright 2016 by Connie Arida; all rights reserved
Connie Arida glows in this copper gown, Kimbra from Just Because. She once again achieves her extreme realism of appearance, something she practically has the patent on for in-world photography.
Copyright 2016 by Euridice Qork; all rights reserved
Euridice Qork calls up some old-school glamour in this confection that reminds me of the late Thirties or Forties and Hollywood’s Golden Age. The lady on the runway is very well preserved indeed, if that’s the case — or knows how to channel vintage as well as Winona Ryder. Logically enough in this case, for she wears Orla by Sonatta Morales.
Copyright 2016 by Strawberry Singh; all rights reserved
Finally, Strawberry Singh comes down the carpet, in a pose and gown so infectiously full of joie that it cannot be ignored. She wears a Zaara gown from a recent round of Collabor88, and the expression is part of the range for the Catwa Gwen head mentioned in her own blog article.
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Congratulations again to the winners, who should be getting paid within a few minutes of my publishing this article; and many thanks to all the entrants. It was a really, really tough pool of contestants to choose from this year, with phenomenal shots almost across the board, and extremely hard to choose, even with three people as a judging panel this year.
In light of how difficult this year was, be ready next January, for the Eighth OFPC; the contest will open sometime in January 2017. Jem, Conan and I will be discussing possible changes, in order to give more people a chance to win; this may result, in one way, in a reduction of prize money, but will allow us to give out more glory to a larger pool of photographer/models!
Previous winners:
Around the Grid 