I know what you’re thinking. And you’re right, that is the most obvious title I could possibly have come up with. The truth is, Lawless McBride gave me a great title. I’m just not creative enough, nor talented enough, to segue it into an introduction that doesn’t dissolve into potty humor, so I had to *cough* flush it. Lack of creativity and talent, though, are certainly not issues for Dove Swanson of Long Awkward Pose. I recently met Dove and Law at their treehouse for a little chat.

Dove came to SL in October of 2006, so she has seen some pretty amazing changes come along. Is there anything that stands out – good or bad – as the biggest change?
Dove Swanson: Hmm. Voice at first …I was totally opposed to it, felt like it would change the game for the worse. But then I got over that silly mentality and embraced it – I’m glad I did, because I spend probably every minute on SL in a private voice conference with Law anyway. So yeah, I would count that as a big, and good change.

Windlight was pretty neat at first, the concept anyway….but now I think it’s one of those side projects they spend too much time on improving when THIS client is still total shit. Can I say shit?
You can say shit This is a mature Blog…lol
Dove Swanson whews.
I was totally excited about sculpties too …first time I heard about it on the blog I went “oh my god, that’s going to change SL as we know it” ..and I [love] sculpties

And there are a few changes that haven’t been so great and actually limit a business owners ability to provide the kind of service their customers deserve. According to Dove, there are “tons of little nitpicky things too ….the group limit and it’s many glitches ….transactions history ….lack of support for bad transactions and so on. [It] kinda takes alot of power out of our hands and leaves us helpless most of the time when it comes to our customers.” Even with those challenges, I’m sure you will find that Dove, like so many content creators, goes out of her way to help her customers.

Let’s talk about the products Dove offers at [LAP]. When asked why she chose to focus on poses, I learned that Dove used to do photography in SL. “…and after I got burnt out on photoshop” she says, “I remember thinking about how I used to say ‘gosh, this pose would be perfect IF…’ or ‘I wish this pose was a tiny bit different.’ And I thought, ‘I’m sure alot of other photographers/graphics artists in SL think the same thing at one point or another, maybe I could do something about that.’”

According to Dove, the progression from photography to posemaking seems very natural and she is confident that many of the current photographers will be making their own poses in the future.

It seems the truly creative people are the ones who see a need for something and just create it…like you’ve done…I’m so jealous of that skill and talent.
Dove Swanson: I am jealous of so many people’s skills, trust me. lol If I could make clothes instead of poses, I probably would. Or hair. Or build even. I envy those talents and skills! Just so happened that pose making seemed to be something that I was actually good at – still surprises me to this day because I don’t really think I am …but I guess so. I look at them and I think “hmm, could be better” …maybe that’s just the perfectionist in me talking – but then people like you will say this sort of thing and it makes me all warm and fuzzy and sometimes I have to let myself believe that maybe I found my calling

I want to see how I turn out at animating …that’s my next big project. I will create a whole animation …think that it’s okay …upload it …test it out ….keep trying it for like a week – and then I trash it because it’s just not right or good enough. So I’ve been practicing and hope to fine-tune my skills (or lack of)…

Where do you find inspiration for your poses?
Dove Swanson: Oh lordie, all over the place! For specific sets ..like the themed ones? Geisha, Faery, etc…I will usually search out photos or art of that sort of thing with google. For my model/normal everyday poses I very very often rely on magazines …I’ll even be flipping through a People magazine sometimes and go “OH! I like that pose! I could do that!” and voila. lol I use Maxim alot for the sexy/dramatic poses.

Law has been helping to inspire my more recent men’s work …I think it really helps to have his male input on them …as it probably shows in my first and second set versus the latest stuff which in my opinion is way better than the early work. He will clip magazine ads and scan them in for me …or find pictures on the web and show me and sometimes he just verbally describes it for me and I give it a whirl and we fine-tune it together.

I noticed your latest release includes some props (yay!) have you got more in the works?

Dove Swanson: Yay 4 finishing the prop work! LOL That was bit of a headache and more of a task than I thought it would be. I was originally just going to make poses for the props and just sell them that way. But then I thought how annoying that would be for the end-user and so I had to find a script, which took days, then I had to mod it, which took more days, and test it and so on …then I was finally done and you know, I actually am excited by the possibilities it opened up. I really do want to work with more props – I’ve had some offers from people…which is good since, unfortunately, I’m still NOT a builder at all. LOL I will have to probably always rely on the kindness of others to let me use their work in combination with my work. I would love to do some chair/wall/rail work though. I’ve always always wanted to do a tire-swing set…and to script it now that I have that technique would make it so much more fun.

So you collaborated with Laynie on this recent set. Any more collaborations in the works?
Dove Swanson: yes I did, Laynie is a sweetie. There are some more possible collaborations in the works…but nothing solid yet, so I can’t say I imagine in the future, since it would become difficult to work out pricing schemes between props and poses, my work will just be commissioned and sold to the creators of the props (or objects rather, since some are not just photo props).
So Law helps you work through some of the men’s poses…does he participate in other aspects of the business as well?
Dove Swanson: Oh yeah…he participates in almost every step of the male poses now. From inspiration, to actually being the avatar they are tested/adjusted on, to modeling them for ads and so on. He also is the resident “door greeter” aka: flirt. lol He likes to think he schmoozes all my lady customers Plus he just plain ol’ puts up with me grumping over poses when they aren’t going how I want them to….stands around watching me work on them for hours – he’s really very patient. lol He inspires quite a bit of my couple’s pose work now too. Hehe, I guess that’s to be expected. They’re fun, I tend to be a little goofy with mine sometimes. heh. I try not to take myself *too* seriously.

Any hints as to what we can look forward to from LAP in the next couple of weeks or months?
Dove Swanson: Ooooo …:D I’ve already got more male poses on the table in progress….some themed sets also that were requested “special order” ….I want to break into the wedding side of things a bit – do a whole collection, from couples poses, to singles, to props even – all wedding themed. And of course, as I’ve been promising, animations and AO sets. I think actually, that I am going to start gearing my pose releases to be better made for AOs – slowing the transition on them, lowering the priority …so that they can easily be added and used in AOs, or photo studios – whichever you prefer.

That sounds so interesting…I’m really excited about the direction you are going and I’m sure you are too.
Dove Swanson: Me too! It will be fun I think or I will kill myself in the process. Either/or… exciting. LOL

Anything thing you want to add?
Dove Swanson: Just …probably want to say thanks to all of my wonderful customers ….you guys keep me keeping on …you guys inspire me to keep making poses and learning new ways to better my “craft” …and you guys make me want to be a better business person in SL …that’s why I try to maintain lower prices and return the favor in the form of freebies and gifts. So yeah, thanks!

Thanks so much, Dove…this has been great
Dove Swanson: Thanks Gabby! My first interview-thingy yay

Dove has a huge and varied collection of poses for sale at her BelleStar location…and the prices couldn’t be more reasonable…run, don’t walk, to Long Awkward Pose.

What are you waiting for? I said go! Now! Happy Posing!

I used the new Ladder and Circle props for several of these pictures and Pyper and I played around in Dove’s store for the the rest…Thanks, Pyp, for helping out