JT ain’t no JK

JT Castanea ain’t jok’n around when it comes to his interests in photography and video, whether it’s in SecondLife or that thing some call Real Life.  Some of you may have already seen his work floating around in SL and on FaceBook.

In JT’s own words, “My dad took me in the ocean with a raft when I was about ten.  I could swim and he said, “If you fall off swim that way” and he pointed toward shore.  I was hooked from the start.  I remember the thrill of him telling me the only way to get into this…is to dive right in.  There’s no walkin’ into the ocean.  I spent the next ten years perfecting that head first relationship with the waves and the sea.  I am a true child of the sea and I know this because even when she has me by the throat and pounding me…I feel calm.

The video thing in Second Life sort of just came as a slow process that is still ongoing.  It’s always going to be a work in progress.  The editing of the clips is time consuming even as I get better at it.  Capturing surfers on these waves with different boards is a challenge to render and be cool.  It’s just a thing I’ll keep chargin’.

Photography has always been a passion both real life and SL.  It’s all about lighting and timing in both worlds.  I’ve always believed the “art is in the “seeing” and then go get it.  Take what is given and charge it.  Painting/working it in Photoshop later is so subjective that I end up just testing things and if it looks cool I keep it.  I can see a sort of “style” developing as we tend to stick with stuff we like if it works.  Like all of it, sometimes it works and sometimes you just have to keep trying.”

I hope to be using some of JT’s pictures for an irregular series of posts featuring some of the public surfing spots in SecondLife, so stay tuned (whatever the heck that means for a blog).

JT is also interested in collaborating with others in SL.  If you’re interested in sharing ideas about techniques for photography in Second Life or if you’d like to talk to him about some photos of you or your sim, give JT a holler.  While it might be his preference, I’m sure he does more than just nude photography (coff, coff).