[OPEN] Ilda’s April Catch-All

[ilda]

Characters: Ilda, you, your bibiru, anyone!
Date: April 16th to 30th
Location: all over Aifaran
Situation: selfies, putting up advertisements for/with Yato, affinity things
Warnings/Rating: none, but will update when something comes up


A - IT’S SELFIE TIME! (open)

[ Perhaps her friends would regret encouraging her. Or even simply giving her the idea in the first place. But Ilda, barely a month in Aifaran, has decided that she has a life goal: to be queen of Xa Xa! As she’s told Bakura before, if she’s gonna be laughed at anyway, why not make money out of it and have fun at the same time?

So she’s been exploring the city, during various times of the day (and night) and in varying weather conditions, looking for interesting and unusual things and places and even people to take selfies with. Rooftops! Under bridges! Under tables! Beside a stranger’s feet for his mismatched pair of socks!

She’s not even asking permission. She just comes zooming in, a quick clickity click, then poof! Off she goes, laughing at her own selfies!

They’re not even pretty. Some of them are blurry. Most of them either have too much of her face, or too little of it. Like just her forehead. ]


B - DOUBLE TROUBLE (Meta 1, open)

[ Wait, is that Ilda again? What does she want now? Another selfie? And why can’t she use her own yimo for that?

But now that you think about it, the first Ilda actually seemed kind of... off. By Ilda standards. This one looks more like her usual self - bubbly, chatty, with no care in the world.

A wild Ilda approaches! ]


C - EXPLORADVERTISING (closed to Yato)

[ Ilda remembers what she and Yato are supposed to be doing today, but she can’t quite recall if he’d said that he would bring the posters. So she’s taken the initiative to procure some customized ones! They’re basically large printouts of a really adorable cat poster she found on Xa Xa, and she’s handwritten Yato’s name and a message on each of them.

She sticks up one on a random wall, then leans back to look at her work, quite pleased with herself. Fitting, eh? BELIEVE! IN YATO! MAKE A WISH NOW! ]


D - WILDCARD (open)
[ Hit me up at notanybunny for a specific starter! :D ]

Comments

[spoilsfun]

Did she not know anything about photography?

"The camera. If you don't let it focus, the image will be blurry. Photo composition is when you pay attention to how the different parts of the photo are arranged."

[ilda]

Alas, she knows nothing about photography. The technology for that has long vanished from her world; they've gone back to paintings being the closest thing to pictures.

"So how do I let it focus?" she asks. She understands the concept, at least. She has, after all, been told many times (mostly by her twin brother) that she needs to focus on her life and whatever she's doing, or else she's going to get terribly lost. She supposes that's what Conan means by the image blurring if the camera isn't focused, although she finds it funny that objects need to focus, too.

She's more confused by composition. "And there's a correct way for arranging the parts of a picture?" She's seen all sorts of pictures over at Xa Xa, but she's taken it to mean that you just have to snap away at anything and everything.

[spoilsfun]

Conan gives her an assessing look, and decides that a demonstration is needed. He pulls out his own device and takes a quick photo of a nearby bench, then turns it around to show to her.

"This is how it looks when you don't focus." He turns and takes another photo of the same bench, this time taking care to use the focus settings. He turns and shows it to her. "See how much clearer the photo looks now? As for the rest of it, the way you arrange the different components of a picture can change how people view it."

Putting away his device, he pulls out a notebook and draws a quick diagram of a photo with several objects arranged it. Then below it he draws several diagrams of the same photo, but with the objects arranged in different patterns.

"See, if there is no pattern to how a photo is arranged, someone looking at it won't know what to look at first. It just looks like a collection of objects. There are several ways you can make it more interesting. For example, if there is too much going on in the background of a photo, you can zoom it in to minimize the background distractions. The human eye is naturally drawn to lines and shapes, so you can use that to change how your audience views a photo."

[ilda]

Ilda’s always had problems with attention, but she’s a little too invested in the yimo and the whole idea of taking pictures that she actually manages to follow Conan’s demonstration without her mind wandering off. At least, she’s able to see and realize the difference between using and not using focus, and how arranging objects can change the overall effect of the picture.

Still, she’s no techie, so as soon as he finishes, her questions start coming in rapid-fire succession. “Wait, what did you do? Which buttons did you press again to focus? Do I have to press them in order? Is there a time limit when I press them? Are there other parts of the screen I have to touch to focus things? What’s zoom? What kinds of lines and shapes should I have in my pictures? Do I have to arrange people, too? What about the sky and sea, is there a rule for them, too? Like how far the things and people in the picture should be from them? How about colors? Colors are important, too, right?”

[spoilsfun]

Conan sighs and shows her the steps again. He really didn't think that this was so difficult to understand.

...This was also why he made a terrible teacher.

"Maybe you should see if you can find a book on composition. There are dozens of methods people use to improve photos like that, and like most arts, there are just as many opinions on which are the best."

[ilda]

Ilda tries her best to keep up, but Conan’s still going a little too fast for her to completely follow. She’s noticed the sigh and the exasperation, though; her own twin brother’s reacted the exact same way many many times before.

She makes a mental note to just go through the steps again later, although she’ll have to be extra-careful not to send her pictures to the entire city again. Maybe she’ll just use something else for practice. Like cats. Everyone likes cats, right?

At Conan’s mention of a book, though, she can’t help but make a face. She’s never really liked books. Too many words. “Um, just one more question?” she starts with a sheepish smile. “Are there books with pictures instead of words?”

[spoilsfun]

"Probably. Most instructional books usually have diagrams at least."