SATAN at Templum ex Obscurum :P

For the Templum ex Obscurum NPIRL photographic challenge, I asked you to show us how you see Templum ex Obscurum, Baron Grayson's magically dark (and light) creation... and Ian Pahute (aka Ian Upton) came back with this. You gotta see it.



Ian says, "So what do you do when you get a new piece of video editing software? You play! I grabbed a favorite CD and took my 'Space Navigator' for a trip through the stunning Templum ex Obscurum. This is the result..."

Ian's new software? Adobe Premiere.

Templum ex Obscurum - a machinima by Osprey Therian

Like many of us, filmmaker, artist and thespian Osprey Therian... hasn't been getting enough sleep. And how does she occupy (some of) her sleepless hours? I'll give you a hint: she has 122 pieces of machinima posted on Youtube, including some of my faves, such as her film of Komuso Tokugawa's and MoShang Zhao's incredible SynaesthAsia show, and clips of the traveling, long-running and often NPIRL variety show, The Show Must Go On.

What better place to meet her insomnia head-on than at Baron Grayson's creation, the dark and dreamy Templum ex Obscurum?



This beautiful piece could not have come at a better time, as we are in the last few days of the Templum ex Obscurum NPIRL photographic challenge, which ends this Sunday.

Light and shadows on an epic scale: Templum ex Obscurum

With one week remaining and 402 participants - many of them considered the best photographers in Second Life® - it is getting harder and harder to select just ten images from the Templum ex Obscurum NPIRL photographic challenge Flickr pool to share with you, but the following photographs were each so striking in their own way that ultimately they claimed their place.

The challenge is a tribute to artist and builder Baron Grayson and his Templum ex Obscurum, a dark and poetic place that would have existed only in his imagination were it not for his ability to weave light and shadows together on an epic scale.

In most instances, you can see a larger version of a photograph if you click on it.


Nirvana Panorama by Gary Hayes


The fragile bridge of the crossed destinies by Esco Axelrad


MoonRiver by DreamsBeneaththeMoon


rain by Kean Kelly


Templum - Ivy by Lash Xevious


Templum ex Obscurum by winter wardhani


Fyrja and Michale by xaos theas


save me by F J Pix


Templum ex Obscurum by 2nd Magazine

And finally, a sumptuous tapestry, unlike any other...


Angel - Templum ex Obscurum by ¥ Çãrmíllä Mírabëaú ¥

Again, we must thank every single participant, and Cuwynne Deerhunter - guardian and owner of Templum - for his kind support and endorsement of this project.

In darkness, cerdwin flanagan paints Templum with light

On her Flickr profile, painter and photographer cerdwin flanagan describes her photographic interests as follows: "My subject matter is usually dark and twisted. If you have an aversion to blood and pain and beasts and nightmares, I'm not your girl."

Indeed. Consider yourself warned. Despite the fact that blood and pain are not my thing, I have been drawn to the dark photographs she has added to the Templum ex Obscurum - A NPIRL photographic challenge pool, not so much because of the restraint she has shown with her use of light, but because of the way she paints and defines her images with it.

Click on any of these images to see a larger version.


Here, cerdwin took this self portrait by Baron Grayson, the creator of the extraordinary Templum ex Obscurum, and amended it to her liking, per the rules of the SL-picture-pile-ups group


the language of trees (2)


This photograph was taken long before the NPIRL photographic challenge... even before Templum was placed at its current location. Apparently, Baron Grayson had rezzed a chair in the ballroom


harmony

As always, many thanks to Cuwynne Deerhunter for allowing us to mob the sim he is guardian and owner of for days on end.

Like telegraphic signals, the magical pixels roll in - Templum ex Obscurum

Melodious Source

As of this writing and in just five days, 340 of the very best photographers of Second Life® have mobilized, becoming members of the Templum ex Obscurum - A NPIRL photographic challenge Flickr group to produce photograph after stunning photograph, relaying their views like telegraphic signals, of this high-drama, absolutely cinematic location... via magical pixels.

Whether gothic or ghostly, a scene from a dark fairy tale or an epic tragedy, these shots tell us stories about what has transpired there while the banks of fog roll in over the underground rivers, and moonbeams set off the sparkle of the crystal trees.

Some add prose or poetry. Others don't even tag. Most of these images haven't been viewed much, if at all, and a very few have garnered comments and faves from visitors to those pages.

I've picked out just ten of these gems to share with you here today, and I'll publish many more with you over the days to come. Thank you Baron Grayson, creator of this masterpiece, and thanks, too, to Cuwynne Deerhunter - guardian and owner of Templum - for his support and endorsement of this project.


Ed @ iMagical Studio


Annalisa Shepherd


Shoot 'Em Up - F.Paine


Lilith Ivory


Trinity Outlander


rikoko Ewing


freeta Kayo


Rowan Masala


AlterEgoTrip Svenska

A photographic celebration gets underway... and how!

angelahtokyo

Thank you, thank you, dear artists, photographers and friends in Second Life, for your instant and warm reception to the idea of celebrating the extraordinary work of Baron Grayson, the Templum ex Obscurum, simply for the sheer joy of it.

Here are just ten of the many photographs that are coming in to the Templum ex Obscurum - A NPIRL photographic challenge Flickr group from the ultra talented people of Second Life. In most instances, you can click on the photographs to see a larger version. Please remember to tag your photographs with the name of the creator of Templum ex Obscurum, "Baron Grayson", and also add a "NPIRL" tag for good measure, 'cause it makes me happy.

Even as I'm posting this, more photographs that I hope to feature are being posted to the group.


shellina Winkler


Gina Glimmer


Tillie Ariantho


salme


Lilith Ivory


Gary Hayes


Hidenori Glushenko


Tim Deschanel


Solkide Auer

A very special thanks to the kind gentleman and owner of Templum ex Obscurum, Cuwynne Deerhunter, for his patience with our enthusiastic invasion of the sim.

Is Second Life the greatest derivative art form? Templum ex Obscurum signifies that it is

See below for a photography and Machinima challenge.

While art is a reflection of its time, it also inherently influences what it seeks to capture. Until I discovered Second Life®, cinema was, for me, the greatest derivative art form... influenced by everything and in turn, influencing everything else. While the notion had been seeping into my thinking for some time now, what I saw last night convinced me that virtual worlds - as a creative platform - will far surpass cinema in this regard.

For many weeks this past spring, I gave my heart and soul to the Garden of NPIRL Delights, and so it was that I ended up spending less than a couple of minutes previewing what was then a new creation on the grid. I probably didn't even have time to rez it all. I've just been back for the first time, and what I saw there astonished me.

Templum ex Obscurum by Baron Grayson - and now owned by Cuwynne Deerhunter - is a place that accomplishes what many have sought to do in Second Life but have always fallen short of... to transport us into a world that is so rich with narrative that we may as well have walked into a Brian de Palma or Visconti movie. Not the set of a movie. The actual movie.



I do believe we will long remember Templum ex Obscurum as being the first to really introduce this new syntax for content creation. For lack of better words, it is cinematic genius... so beguiling and bewitching that I could devote weeks to reporting on its many parts and details.

Instead, I challenge you, the photographers and Machinimators of Second Life, to show us what you see. I would like to feature the best of your work on this blog every week for the next four weeks, beginning today and ending on Sunday, September 14th.

If you would like to participate in this celebration and challenge, please add your photographs to the Templum ex Obscurum - A NPIRL Photographic challenge Flickr group, and your Machinima to the Not Possible IRL YouTube group. I haven't any prizes or awards to offer... just my enthusiasm and eagerness to see what the very talented people of Second Life will come up with. The selection process will be based on the number of comments and faves.

I was so caught up in experiencing Templum last night that it didn't occur to me to take photographs until the last five minutes I was there. The lighting is the stuff of dreams. I must go back, again and again.

Teleport to Templum ex Obscurum directly from here.

I am photographed wearing Eshi Otawara's Blue Tux dress which can be purchased at her Chambre de Chocolat, and a new hairstyle for Hairspray.