A new moon : SHAPING THE FUTURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Reign Congrejo

Moon Mamma is better known as the Finesse of Photography. Moon brings her core skills from being a real-life photographer into this virtual space. Her inspiration comes from different muses: color, a dream, music, and even down to purchasing a new wig.

Creativity comes in many forms; Moon takes her subjects and places them in the middle of a room with a single light to capture the most amazing works of art you have ever seen. It doesn’t matter the subject— a person, pet, or object, shade and colors, light, lines, curves, textures. She focuses in, sees the vision, and creates the fantasy; dares to break the rules and make her own.

The world holds so much beauty, which is one of the reasons Moon loves to shoot in real-life landscapes and Macro Flowers; in this virtual world, Moon has fallen in love with conceptual and lifestyle photography. “In-world, you can build anything and turn it into a visual to share. When working in real life, Moon’s style is weddings, lifestyle, and landscape; all work is done digitally using a Nikon d700.

Challenges do come to this photographer. The comfort zone always finds its way back in, and Moon refuses to become the status quo and pushes her way through to stepping out and trying new ideas; one is to get more involved in Editorial photography.

Moon is by no means an amateur; she has graced many real-life magazines and newspapers. She has set a goal for herself to create a black-and-white coffee table book of her photos in real life. In the virtual setting, Moon would love to create a gallery for her work as well as represent others.

Moon’s passion, purpose, and wanting to help others with their photography skills have led her to create a photography academy here in Second Life. She calls it her “metaverse baby.” She would notice others’ work and say to herself, “this would be awesome if they angled it this way or put a light to make it POP.” Moon is autistic, and before opening her academy had some doubts about teaching her first group of students. She was worried if they would understand, if her pace was slow enough, was her humor too much, or would she rub someone the wrong way. However, she worked through her fears and found that on the other side of fear was the success of her sharing and teaching on a subject she is so extremely passionate about in both worlds. She found herself not teaching, just having a conversation about something she is in love with. Moon creates a learning environment of peace and tranquility, but don’t get her twisted: she will be hard because she sees the potential in you. With Moon, you will learn composition, lighting, photo enhancement, and a few fun things in between. Ad work is part of her repertoire, so it depends on what the students want to walk away with for their success. She ensures that you leave her with the skills to make a remarkable photographer— I know, because I was one of her students.

What is the best advice you received as a photographer?

----------Trust my Eye