I'm offering this up for a "pileup" (http://blog.koinup.com/2008/07/take-part-in-user-created-projects.html) the idea is that people can download this raw screen-shot image, 'shop the heck out of it, and repost it while listing what they did with it. So, I want to offer this whimsical flight of fancy.
I surf at this place called "Manjini" a lot. One of the things I like to do occasioanlly is a little house keeping. They have loaner surfboards on the beach, and new riders / SL users can ride them to try out surfing. Well, they often times just TP out leaving the surfbaords all over the sim, and not at the beach for other people to use. So I fly out and return the boards to the beach. And I get a fun ride back in for my troubles.
It was on one of these rides I snapped this image. I hadn't PLANNED on taking pics, but the muse took me and I snapped it quickly. So let me tell you what I did to get this image.
I'm running "OnRez" as my SL client. I used the camera focus controls (control-8, 9 and 10) to bring the camera lens to almost 150 degrees, almost fisheyed. The board forced the camera over my shoulder, and that can't be avoided easily, so this camera angle produces a wild effect. You can almost see the whole wave while surfing. Draw is set to 64 M, and the only detail I don't like is the one tree in the background that hasn't rezzed fully. I'm running at pretty low graphical settings, which is the only way to get decent framerate so you can surf.
I tried to re-create this image in world, but I just can't. Spontaneity has it's place. So, if you want a challenge, here you go!