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Contact Sheet is an irregular column of selected photographs and portraits from Residents of Second Life and other virtual worlds. All rights to featured images are reserved to the artists under appropriate copyright laws. Click on the links as necessary to go to the required blog or Flickr page. Please go to these artists’ pages in any case to leave comments, (as well as comments here), if you have an account on the appropriate service.

Suggestions are appreciated; please send descriptions and links to me by in-world IM, notecard, E-mail to harper.ganesvoort@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

NOTICE: Some of the photos/links may contain nudity. Viewer discretion advised.

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I’m finally re-activating my Contact Sheet column; and as my first piece here in many a month, I give you this order. Go to Flickr, now, and give this photo a fave.  I wish you could give it more than one fave, in fact, because it’s absolutely fantastic!  Tamary has assembled a lovely composition here of her as the model tying her hair back in the mirror, and then raised it from good to outstanding with her choice of lighting, positioning, and the post work to add in the reflection of herself in the old mirror. And I just realized why I enjoy it so much; because it reminds me of the painter’s work of Andrew Wyeth at his best — a sort of hyper-realistic distillation of a moment in time, with the model focused and intent on the small daily task and ignoring totally the photographer capturing the moment.

If there were an award for outstanding photo of the year in Second Life, this would be high in the running, in my opinion.  I really can’t praise this enough; it just captures a mood perfectly!

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Last week, Cajsa Lilliehook put up an article on It’s Only Fashion to speak about one of the Grid’s nicer hair designers, Bubbles Clawtooth, the owner of Clawtooth by Clawtooth.  Cajsa’s article will tell more about it; in sum, though, Bubbles is dealing with RL family difficulties that require his full attention.  He hasn’t had much chance to create new hairstyles, and he could use some financial support to keep virtual body and soul together, if not the RL half of the equation as well.  Cajsa’s thrown down a challenge, which you can read better at her article; essentially, though, it consists of exhibit some old with the new, using three Clawtooth hairstyles.  I chose to feature the wigs with one new dress — Uma from PurpleMoon, in “Tropical” print.  There are several different patterns to choose from, on a dress with thin crossed straps both in front and behind, and a laces slit along the left leg of the midi skirt.  Poulet hits it out of the park again with this one, and Bubbles’ hairstyles go nicely with it….

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Writing from Destin, Florida:

Copyright 2015 by Gidge Uriza.

Gidge Uriza sums it up rather nicely in her article at Its Only Fashion, which I link to for today’s big reblog.  Hair Fair every year gives us a chance to stock up on wigs for our already ready-to-explode Inventories, and I’m on of the thousands of avatars who loves to go there, fight the crowds when needed, and purchase what strikes my fancy.  But, if I could get in world today, I’d try to remember to take off my hair and wear some kind of bandanna — because Hair Fair every year is also to support and remember the kids who don’t have the beauty, luxury — or necessity — of hair in even Real Life.

Wigs for Kids exists for the purpose of supplying hair to children who, for various medical reasons, have little or no hair.  We as adults feel it when we have a “bad hair day,” and those of us who have undergone chemotherapy know how embarrassed we feel when we start having to cover our heads as the tufts of hair are falling out.  Children feel it even more, though; they’re at a stage of development where image is so much more important, where teasing can be cuttingly cruel, or where they just want to look like the others around them.  We remember these little ones on the final day of every Hair Fair by wearing a bandanna instead of the “hair” we normally sport.

Wigs for Kids helps these children reclaim their self-esteem.  But it ain’t cheap, not by a long shot.  The mission page at WfK tells us that each wig is custom designed, handmade from human hair, and the average cost is $1,800.  That’s U. S. dollars, people, not lindens.  You can gather from this that the organization needs all the help it can get, but in two different forms, not just one.

The obvious one is what Hair Fair is for.  If you haven’t been there yet, today is your last chance for the year; go find something that makes you look ravishing when you aren’t wearing your bandanna — you did get one of those, too, right?  They’re available in every Fair sim in a special shop, for donations of 50 or 100 lindens, chump change.  But buy some wigs for Second Life, and help by your purchase to buy some wigs for the kids.  Large numbers of the vendors will dedicate at least a percentage to Wigs for Kids from every purchase, and some of the designers sign over all their sales from the vendors during this fortnight to the cause.  Be generous, please.  And, if you somehow miss Hair Fair, or just decide not to go (silly girls and boys!), go to their site and give a direct donation.

But another way to help is to donate hair.  That’s a roger, RL hair.  Like I said above, the kids’ wigs are 100% human hair, no synthetics.  You have to get the hair somewhere.  The Web site also has an aid to finding a salon that will help harvest tails of hair from donors — a minimum of 12 straight inches; pull curly hair straight to be sure — for sending in to the organization.  You can find the details here.  My own family has done this in the past when we’ve had the length, and hope to again in the future.

It’s not a hairy thing to help out here; indeed, the good work here can only grow in length.  (Sorry, that’s the best I can do writing fast here.  Any road, please help out.  And remember Hair Fair next year as well!)

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Writing from Destin, Florida —

The family is off on its annual outing in Destin.  I took along an Ethernet cable this time so I might be able to get in world on my laptop, but I can’t seem to get a connection; so I’ll be reblogging things without too much in the way of photos until about Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  I always try to bring you the best, though, so stay tuned to this blog!

First up is a piece from Gidge Uriza at Its Only Fashion.  She reminds us there’s only a few more days left to this year’s Hair Fair, so you’d better get in while you have a chance to stock up at the Grid’s Home of Hair and Heart this year.  Remember that many of your purchases will be at least split with Wigs for Kids to help that group supply wigs for children who have lost their hair for various medical reasons.  This charity is almost as popular as the various Relay for Life functions, and is often well-stocked with Residents for the first few days.  Now’s the time to work your way around, before it sinks beneath the waves for another year!

Gidge is wearing in her photos one of the hairstyles available at the Fair, from Olive, along with a dress from this month’s Collabor88 which, if you are interested in it, you should be sure to pick up the demo on first!  Gidge mentions what she is wearing is fitted to the Belleza mesh body, so don’t spend more than a linden to be sure that you can wear what you want.  See photos at Gidge’s article.

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Hair Fair is among us again, and the crowds should have eased a little by now. I, however, was one of the foolish, uh, brave ones who plunged into the thick of things on the first night and worked my way, walk or cam, through all four sims. I came up with several items, among which is what I have on my head now, from sYs.

…When at dawn she sighs, and like an infant to the window
Turns grave eyes craving light, released from dreams,
Beautiful she looks, like a white water-lily
Bursting out of bud in havens of the streams.
When from bed she rises clothed from neck to ankle
In her long nightgown sweet as boughs of May,
Beautiful she looks, like a tall garden lily
Pure from the night, and splendid for the day….

If I’m going to be wearing fresh hair, I might as well be wearing fresh clothes, and so I dropped into Junbug. Their region has a large pond in the middle with a board walkway circling it. There is a great supply of water lilies and waterweed there, which gave me the idea to look up a poem involving lilies.

…When her mother tends her before the laughing mirror,
Tying up her laces, looping up her hair,
Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,
More love should I have, and much less care.
When her mother tends her before the lighted mirror,
Loosening her laces, combing down her curls,
Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,
I should miss but one for many boys and girls….

A concern: I wish I could remove the pin in the wig which you see here, at least at times. A minor objection, but I hope Systi will consider making this “disappearable” in future.

…Cool was the woodside; cool as her white dairy
Keeping sweet the cream-pan; and there the boys from school,
Cricketing below, rushed brown and red with sunshine;
O the dark translucence of the deep-eyed cool!
Spying from the farm, herself she fetched a pitcher
Full of milk, and tilted for each in turn the beak.
Then a little fellow, mouth up and on tiptoe,
Said, “I will kiss you”: she laughed and leaned her cheek….

Excerpts from “Love in the Valley,” by George Meredith (taken out of order)

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The details:

• Skin: Glam Affair Cleo (America – Clean B)
• Hair: sYs Micha (currently available at Hair Fair 2015)
• Eyes: Sterling Artistry Jeweled Eyes (brightblue)
• Nails: ZOZ Summer 2015 French Polish (currently available at Fashiontropic)
• Attachments: SLink hands (Casual) and feet (High)
• Gown: Junbug Tomoe-San (Earth)
• Shoes: R.icielli Thayla High Heels (Fuschia)
• Jewelry: Dahlinks Stage and Screen diamond and gold stud earrings; Maxi Gossamer Valentina cross necklace (short size)
• Makeup: Buzzeri Gem Lips (Tigers Eye); *BOOM* Liquid Glaze (lashed Silver); SlackGirl 90s – 2 (shade 1)

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Interesting combination, you say?  Perchance.  All I can say is that I finally found a few matches for W in Vanessa Blaylock’s alphabetical inventory challenge.  I dug out the green wax bangles that I have on my wrist here with some luck; they came from Yak & Yeti several years ago.  And the “war” is this hairstyle from Vanity, Love After War.  You can’t see all the pileup or the tail in back due to my position and the brick walls at the Blarney Stone, but it’s a big updo that works quite nicely.

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It’s hard to believe, but Hair Fair is upon us again!  It sneaked up on me this year; I usually look forward to this event each year, but the summer has been active beyond belief with getting my daughter squared away for her freshman year at college (and figuring out how to arrange the budget to pay for it; but that’s another story).  In any case, the time is here; the fair opens on Saturday, July 13, and the Hair Fair Demo group is delivering demo boxes now to members, so you can check out the styles in the quieter, less laggy place of your preference.  Not everyone has served up yet, but I’d say for a starter to check out some of the offerings from Slink, sYs and cheveux.  Remember, if you join the demo group, you can catch up on demos that have already been delivered by going to the Notices tab of the group in your viewer and clicking on each message present, then click on the attachment button below there.

And remember, too, that monies received goes to benefit Wigs for Kids, which provides wigs for children with various hair conditions.  Last year’s Hair Fair took in almost L$2.8 million, a RL contribution of nearly $11,000!

The Fair will run from July 13-28.  I hope to see you there.

SUPPLEMENTAL, 12:48 p.m.:  That other Harper (some chick name of Beresford, I think) has put up some shots of items, and a map and sim list.

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The OFPC might be over for another year, but I’m still scrambling to get back into stride here at Around the Grid, what with various RL things going on; I seem to be on the road quite a bit lately, so that my usual times for writing are getting eaten up.  So it was delightful to get a few minutes to jump over to Dani Plassitz’ store, Styles by Danielle, and pick up a few beautiful things to do a photo shoot. 

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Sometimes you just gotta slow down and relax.  That’s what’s so nice about the various popular coffee houses and bars in Second Life, such as the Pixel Bean (redesigned from last year); you can kick back as much as you want, have a cuppa virtual tea or coffee, even pet a cat if you want.  (You can’t do that in real coffee houses, of course; health laws won’t let them have a house cat or dog.)

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I slapped together the two photos I posted Wednesday for Cajsa Lilliehook’s Red Lip Wednesday Challenge in a half-hour before having to get ready for work.   I must have done a better job in 30 minutes than I thought, because I got a fave on the post.  Here’s four more, with the local effects finally kicking in, and a touch more makeup to improve the look.

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(Stop the slideshow, right-click and select “View image” or equivalent to see the larger image.)

And here are, as ever in demand —

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The details:

• Skin:  [PXL] Candy SK NE NudeLips MEB
• Eyes:  Sterling Artistry Jeweled Eyes (rose quartz)
• Hair:  Analog Dog Delora (cherry) [An old style, and possibly the curliest hairdo on the Grid, though I’m sure I haven’t exhausted all the possibilities]
• Costume:  Deviance Enchantress (Onyx; includes the staff I’m holding)
• Boots:  R2 Pumehana Ioa boots (black)
• Makeup (in order of application):  [sYs] EPSILON – Graphyc eyes (blue); Glamorize Tribal Touch eyeshadow (Gilded); *BOOM* Love my eyes Liner and Mascara (medium thickness); Glamorize Dirty Babe Lips (Bleeding Fire –a glowing shiny red)