Help Me Teach Real Life Photography on a Virtual World

Why a photography school and gallery on a virtual world ?

- I will put together 2 great passions of mine - Empowering People by teaching real life Photography skills and creating and managing a virtual world and community

- Because not everyone from anywhere can attend REAL LIFE Photography classes, I want to make this passion of mine available from the comfort of any home computer and virtual worlds allow all sort of realtime community interaction - Avatar presence - School & Gallery buildings - Slideshow and video screen - Files exchange - Text chat - Voice conversation

Photo by Isabel Caldeira

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What virtual world ?

- Second Life (www.secondlife.com) because it is the most populated, has been since and offers the best tools for building and running the school and galleries - Second Life is not a game, it is a 3D immersive platform where most of the builds and interactive contents are created by it´s own users - It can be used for Museums, Schools, Parties, Concerts, Conferences Gaming and Business

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What are Second Life virtual worlds ?

- Worlds are 3D environment (cities, landscapes or places) created by users, where you enter with your fully customisable avatar and can interact on such a complete way as real life - There is an constant developing market of interactive goods and tools that make world creation, decoration and gearing up, much easier for non experienced builder or scripts - Second Life has it´s own currency and any virtual money made inward can be converted back to real world currency

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How to access the virtual world ?

- Just a computer - All access is 100% free - Register you free account/avatar here, download the world viewer here where you confirm your avatar name and password on the viewer and you are in - Each land parcel or private island has it´s own URL address (SLURL) that is accessed thorough the viewer to reach it, for example - Do you want to visit an Paris 1900 recreation ? Go here after registering account and viewer download - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Les%20Champs...

- Check this great blog for virtual worlds news, mainly Second Life - nwn.blogs.com

- This project will open for use and classes on June 30th

- I use Second Life since 2007 and you can friend my avatar at will - Loff Auer - Check below some of my Second Life achievements in worlds creation and community management

- AI actually own a small land here - Feel free to visit - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Avant/248/24...

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How to enjoy our School-Gallery world

- Virtual Worlds platforms allow the creation of groups, where I can manage exclusive land access and even specific parcel access and privileges, so after you create your Avatar you must tell me the exact name to be added to this project special land perms group

- Please check the different pledge amounts and perks, witch will be set and managed inside the future exclusive community group

- Medium donators may insert pictures on virtual galleries, than can be priced by them and sol to any Second Life user that visits and buy them

- Bigger donators will have a small land parcel, where they can enjoy a permanent free home 24/7 to do whatever they please, including publicity of any kind and even their own small business . office or store

- Full donator will be an exclusive sponsor, with logo and links all over the project spots and reference on the project tittle

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Funding - Why 4.000€ are needed

- Building a virtual world and maintaining it online requires big server resources, technical building skills and specially endless hours of seeing up all details and helping people to learn how to deal with the environment to take more advantages of all features

- This project if fully funded, can run freely for 1 year - Please check here what takes to have our own private sim/island - Full Region purchase & Maintenance

Your generous contributions will be used as follows:

>>> 500€ - Land purchase - One time SL setup fee

>>> 3.000€ - 12 month X 250€ monthly server fee

>>> 400€ - Purchase of market contents (decors, builds, animals, gadgets)

>>> 100€ - Crowdfund and paypal fees

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What if funding is only partial

- If funding is very low, under 750€, the project can happen anyway, extending for 3 months, but I will rent a smaller land parcel from another island owner and build a small school and gallery, for 10-20 people classes

- If we get at least 750€ but end up very far from the 4.000€ goal I can go on for 2 months more (3 months of weekly photography classes) and afterwards monetise the project by renting small parcels of land for Second Life users that want to setup small offices or shops - But having the whole world only for us to enjoy and for a whole year would be the best option

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Why Me - Carlos Loff ?

- I have been teaching Photography to small groups, face to face, for a living since 2009, using Meetup, either for thorough diverse themed single workshops or longer term courses (average 3 events per week) - Here is all my work, since 2009 - www.meetup.com/clicsboa - The biggest Meetup group in Portugal

- Besides teaching Photography I got my Geographer´s university degree and worked 21 years on environmental education for schools

- I have an photography degree since 1990 from AR-CO, worked as a freelance photographer since 2003 (portrait, real-estate and events) and since 2009 turned to teaching, making it 90% of my activity and income, because my biggest passion is to communicate and help people improve theirs skills, than watch how they become so happy and proud by their newer achievements

- Check some examples of my Photography portfolio at the bottom of this page

Carlos Loff on Facebook - www.facebook.com/carlosloff

Example of an outdoor portrait workshop - Photo by António Folgado

Example of landscape workshop - Photo by Svetlana

Example of a presentation by me on Second Life - Photo by myself

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How will the classes run

- Classes will happen on a weekly base, every Sunday and last for about 3, staring at 11 PM (London/Lisbon) = 3 PM (US - Pacifica Standard)

- I will use voice and be able to hear people talking but you can enjoy the hole class and communicate with me and everyone else just by text chat

- There is room for up to 50 people (Avatars) - first come = first served, but do not worry because in Virtual Worlds a 50 people attendance is rare and quite record braking

- First half of each class will be previously themed, meaning I will deal with an specific topic/technique, show examples and elaborate in detail about all camera exact setups and approaches for optimal results

- Second half of each class I will be open to answer any question about any personal issue, expecting people to have very specific doubts on any field and ideally to share special photographs (no matter how crazy and difficult) they would like to know exactly how to take similar ones by themselves

- Of course sometimes my answers will include special gears, necessary to have for certain techniques, but you will be amazed on how many great pictures can be achieved with some dedication and very low budget

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What type of world holds our School and Galleries

- Since Virtual Worlds have so many possibilities, where only our imagination is the limit, I will not stick to dull square minimal school and gallery buildings

- I will build a dream tropical resort, teaming with living creatures, that will be permanently accessible online, where there is a central big open school amphitheatre, several open air galleries and where people can also enjoy the many perks of a rich and appealing virtual world, like: meet each other at anytime and make new strong friendships, live on a small bungalow, attend parties and other events, practice sailing, diving and jetski, swim with the dolphins, dinner at sunset, fly planes and gliders and many other fun activities

- These images are my last creations on Second Life, not online right now, but all ready to be deployed and they show exactly what type of virtual world - private island - we will enjoy

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Why Me on Second Life

- Virtual Worlds Past Portfolio - Builds and community events

VIRTUAL LISBON

First photo - Real life - Other 3 photos are my virtual replicas

Mention on Media - Here

SPACE LIFE - Explore and Colonize

Mention on media - Here

Lisbon by the river - First Belém tower

Reference on Portuguese Media (http://www.destak.pt/artigo/4760)

Virtual Rossio Plaza

Reference on Portuguese Media (http://diariodigital.sapo.pt/news.asp?id_news=478124))

Tropical Resort - Coral Homes

(Reference in Virtual Worlds Blog (http://faridaliexperiental.blogspot.pt/2011/08/exploring-second-life-coral-homes-atol.html))

Winterfest 2010 - Virtual Rossio - Partnership with radio team - AWVR

(Vídeo on Dailymotion (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlq234_onesummer-oh-at-lisbon-rossio-awvr-stage_music))

Reference in Virtual Worlds Blog (http://culturadeborla.blogs.sapo.pt/573831.html))

Virtual Horse Festival

Lingerie Fashion Show

Tropical Beach Hotel

Star Wars interactive exhibit

Fantasy Wedding - Partnership with Midnight Jewell

Social Town

Beach concert

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Some Examples of my Real Life Photography Portfolio