Welcome to our first ‘Weekly Feature’ post, this will be more of a deep dive into artists’ work. It will be different from our weekly ‘VP Showcase’ where we will showcase 3 pieces of art, rather than 15, but we will also include a scaled-down interview with the artist alongside. As always the artists are all credited down below, and click on the images to get an enlarged version.
First up we have @Stef_Gallery, who posted this magnificent photo of an eerie Night City. We asked her the following questions about her artwork.
VPGamers: Why do you enjoy virtual photography?
@Stef_Gallery: I love taking photos in real life and when the weather is bad, or it’s winter, I can’t get outside to take photos, so virtual photography allows me to enjoy my passion when the weather isn’t the best. These days I love it even more that I can take photos in video games.
VPGamers: How did you come about this shot?
@Stef_Gallery: I like to walk around in Night City all day and see which street I could photograph.
VPGamers: Why did you choose this photo, in particular, to showcase on our site?
@Stef_Gallery: I really love city shots, especially when it’s raining in-game and puddles form. I like it when the city lights reflect off of them.
Our second artist is @LUCEFER_DW, who created this stunning image below in Red Dead Redemption 2. We asked them a few questions, below is their response.
VPGamers: How did you come about this photo?
@LUCEFER_DW: I came up with this shot completely by accident! I was exploring the woods looking for a place to shoot a deer that I had tamed with a mod. While searching I realised that I could tame the birds flying nearby as well. Immediately I came up with the story, then all that was left to do was to catch the right moment and work with the colour and blur.
VPGamers: How long have you been doing virtual photography and how did it come about?
@LUCEFER_DW: I think most people started their journey as a virtual photographer on Steam, as I did! From the beginning, I’ve been posting funny moments and showcasing bugs from various games, and as time went on, I wanted to do something more serious. Watching the communities activity, I was looking at other people’s works, and gradually the idea of doing something like this came to me more and more often. I started fully engaging in in-game world photography with the release of CyberPunk 2077, and a few months later I started sharing my results on my Twiter feed. For over two months I photographed that game and it was really hard, I spent a huge amount of time on one shot that ended up not satisfying me, so I didn’t post them anywhere. I wasn’t familiar with the tools needed to take and process pictures, and the basic principles of photography.
VPGamers: Can you give any advice for anyone wanting to start out in virtual photography?
@LUCEFER_DW: The beginning is the hardest part of your journey in everything, you have to face a lot of difficulties, remember to keep your head up and move forward without looking back! It’s been about a year since I made virtual photography my full-time hobby and I still face some challenges – you can’t do without it if you want to get better at what you do!
Our third feature is @CyberTribal86, who created this wonderful portrait artwork from Days Gone. Like the 2 above the interview is just down below.
VPGamers: How did you come about this photo? Like, do you spend a lot of time taking VP?
@CyberTribal86: The amount of time I spend taking photos really depends on what I’m going for. Some days I have a very easy time with it and I can take a lot of shots I like with ease. Other days it’s more of a challenge. In this case, I wanted to practice some landscape shots since it isn’t a subject matter I dabble in very much. I took maybe six or seven from this area at various angles and orientations before settling on this particular shot.
VPGamers: How long have you been doing VP for?
@CyberTribal86: I started with VP in the early part of 2020 after my wife took over hosting duties for DOAMonday, a weekly event themed around the Dead or Alive fighting game series and its volleyball spin-offs. At first, I did it to support her, but I discovered along the way I enjoyed it so I started expanding into other games as well.
VPGamers: What sort of VP do you enjoy doing? Is it a mix, or do you enjoy doing one genre more than the rest?
@CyberTribal86: I’d say most of my photos are either action shots or portraits. I’m a big fan of colour over black and white, but I’ve done a limited amount of black and white or silhouette pieces. I also dabble in auto racing photography from games like GT Sport and Wreckfest.
VP Gamers UK 
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