One of the best ways we rounded up 2024 was chatting with AnnaWhite, a VP extraordinaire and super streamer who loves to write music and sing as well, So you can see that we ate so good having this conversation. well, now we are letting you into the world she has so graciously shared with us.
Enjoy the chat!
What is your earliest memory of virtual photography and gaming?
My earliest memory of gaming is when I was about 5 years old. That was the period in my life when my mom and I moved to Portugal to live with my dad (he went there first to find a better life for us) and he gave me a PC as a present. I think my first game was GTA San Andreas. My dad got me a CD of that game. I was really happy. Also I remember playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Warrior Within a lot, ones of my favorites. That’s how my love of gaming started.
But the first time I did Virtual Photography was much later after that. It was in 2015 and together with my friend we were playing The Crew. We found that there’s a photomode and started taking shots there. At that time I was already making photography IRL for a few years so I found it interesting. We didn’t know that it was called “virtual photography” back then but we even created an instagram account where we were posting our shots. Unfortunately the page is forever lost and my friend stopped doing VP but we still keep those shots and talk about that sometimes, it's very nostalgic. I’m trying to convince him to start again!
Is Anna White your actual name or a pseudonym?
Anna is my real name, White is a pseudonym I created in my childhood.
Since I was little every stranger called me something like "ice-cream" or "snow-maiden/queen" because of my very pale skin. It was always surprising to them, especially if I’m on the beach because I never have tan. You know, like a vampire from Twilight, lmao. Some people joke about it being racist but that’s absolutely not. I like to put the meaning of my pure and sincere love to what I do and my desire to spread love around into that. Like a light in the darkness. That’s what “White” stands for and that’s why I always send white hearts emoji.
What platforms do you play on? PC or Console?
I’ve always played on PC. It gives me much more freedom in everything.
But I enjoy playing with Dualsense controller especially when doing VP.
You’ve mentioned on your Picashot bio and now that you do “real-life” photography, do you think this has any effect on your “in-game” photography style? If it does, how?
Of course! The knowledge I have from it helps me a lot in VP in every aspect. And it has a huge effect since I look at everything from the perspective of a photographer who is used to walking on the ground and finding a perfect angle of the things I want to take a shot of. Trying to capture the right moment with the perfect lights and shadows sometimes I even forget that I can literally fly with my camera much higher/lower than in real life. There’s also something in me that makes me want to make realistic shots, especially with cars. I love using neon lights in VP as you can notice, that’s also connected with my IRL photography style. Neon is my love.
And of course the editing, I can’t go without it as any IRL photographer even if it’s just a small touch of contrast. I edit all my shots individually but they all have the similar style no matter where I took the shot, real or virtual.
What is the process like when taking game photos?
I could describe it with one word: improvisation. I might have a vague idea of what I want to make but I never plan my shots, I just play and enjoy the game and its surroundings. If I see something that catches my eye I enter the photo mode and start “flying” around to find the perfect angle. The best moment is when it “clicks” and the image appears in my head, then I just try to make it real. Sometimes, it turns out even better than I imagined it.
Let's talk about your photos. You use light, fog and shadows in such an intricate manner. Is there any intention behind this or it just comes to you?
I think it comes to me naturally because I always strive to make an unusual photo. Something that stands out and can catch the eye of a person who just scrolls their timeline. And for me, the best way to do that is to use the light like a brush of white paint on the black canvas. Fog helps with that too because it absorbs some of the light, making it more smooth and the shot becomes deeper. I love when you can “go inside” of the shot when you feel like you can touch it. But I’m yet far from achieving that, in my opinion.
You've shared over 35 photos of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Picashot. What makes this game special to you?
Oh this game is really special to me! I have chosen to post the best ones on Picashot from more than 5 000 shots I have from this game!
The level of immersion is what makes it special for me. A huge and beautiful world, with tons of customisations of your horse/characters and various biomes, gives me a lot of ways to tell different stories through my photography. I can picture Arthur as a real outlaw or like a well-dressed gentleman, show the high intense moments from the missions or just a calm life of the camp. Whatever I want is there. It’s the best game of all time for me. I just can’t get enough of it even after finishing it several times! Maybe because it’s also my safe place.
Aww. That is so cool!
Do you have any favorite virtual photos that you've taken? If so, what makes them special to you?
The moment to choose favourites is the hardest, I think every VP’er can feel it, hah!
I’ll choose 3 favorites from the recent ones because they reflect my current level of skills.
This one is №1 because it was made right after I upgraded my GPU (4070ti) and achieved the perfect lighting I could never achieve before with my old GPU (1660S)
Second will be this because I was trying to make a tropical shot of the car for a long time but there always was something I didn’t like. I talked about shots that sometimes turn out to be better than I imagined - this is it!
This one is my best usage of the surrounding objects as well as the composition of the shot too.
Are your photos inspired by anything/people i.e game devs or virtual photographers?
Every piece of art inspires me whether it's music, musical clips, shots from game devs or virtual photographers and real life photographers, or movies.
For example, I have this shot that was inspired by the music video of Miley Cyrus - Slide Away, you can see the similar shiny dress and pool in the background.
In what ways has virtual photography enhanced your gaming experience?
Well, I can say I almost stopped running in games. Walking at a calm pace and admiring the job the developers made on every little detail of the game made me love games much more than I used to and really appreciate the developers too. There are times when gaming becomes something routine and boring and playing it this way helps a lot to change that approach and start enjoying the process again. I can recommend that to everyone. Honestly you should try it.
What’s your favorite thing to do apart from taking game photos/gaming?
Music. I love singing, writing songs and learning how to make music/play instruments. I hope one day I’ll release my songs when I’m good enough at it.
Oh, so you are an all-round cool person! Noted!
Also streaming takes a big place in my heart, but I should make it more regular. I love every moment of my streams when we are just chatting and having fun on my streams, no matter how far away people are, at that moment when you’re live - it’s like they’re your guests at home.
Can’t decide between these two, sorry, hah!
What would you say was your best part of virtual photography and gaming in 2024?
Oh, that’s a really hard question for me. The whole year was amazing, filled with different moments I think I’ll remember all my life.
I’ll choose the moment when I was invited to the Pixel Focus Podcast to talk about connecting with the community. As they said: “Considering your heavy involvement in it as of late, we thought you'd be a perfect candidate” and at that moment it really hit me that people actually see what I’m trying to do in the VP community, which is unite everyone no matter of the follower counter and push the VP further so we can achieve bigger goals together as a whole.
And if we talk about the best part of gaming - in the beginning of the year I got a great support on coming back to streaming so I became a Twitch affiliate, that’s one of the best moments not only in 2024 but also in my life because streaming games was my childhood dream.
If you were to change or enhance one thing in Forza Horizon 5, what would it be?
Light sources. Let us put some light sources in the photomode, please! I don’t care if we’ll have to be offline for that or not, but that would be perfect.
Is there a particular game you want to play but haven't been able to?
Disco Elysium. I know the community of this game and I really want to play it but I’m still waiting for the moment when I’ll be ready to dive in. I’ve heard you should be mentally prepared for that and it’s the toughest part for me.
You can only play two forever. Which ones will they be? — Death Stranding, Starfield, Spiderman Remastered, Riders Republic, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Days Gone and Baldurs Gate 3
Oh you didn’t put RDR2 here! You knew I’d choose it, right? Haha!
Death Stranding, maybe then I’d finally finish it because I never do that every time I play it! And of course Baldur's Gate 3. I don’t think I should explain why, hah.
Can you share a gaming/virtual photography experience that had an emotional impact on you?
Finishing the Phantom Liberty DLC of Cyberpunk 2077 hit me hard. I just burst into tears, especially when that song started playing at the end credits. I still can’t listen to that song without tears. Very emotional. Very strong. I love CDProjektRed. I’m going for another one on my second character to take shots there and I hope I’ll manage to make it without tears this time. (No, I won’t)
Do you have a favorite quote from a game?
"You Sir are a Fish" - Arthur Morgan
You might expect something sad but nope, it’s this one, always makes me laugh. Even now!
Haha!
When did you first learn about Picashot?
Summer of 2023, I saw it from some VP’er on Twitter and just fell in love with the app. Really glad you keep making great updates, it became much better!
What’s your favorite Picashot feature?
The feature is that you have all shots automatically folded in “games”. It’s really comfortable to use, because you choose the game when uploading the shot and then can visit that page to see the photos from one particular game. Very useful to analyze what games you should pay more attention to when taking shots or for example to see how your skill grows within one game. Keeps everything organised and I lack that.
Are there any features you'd like to see on Picashot?
I’d really love to use a double tap to like a photo. And also reply to a comment right from your notification tab. Everything else is perfect.
Any advice for aspiring virtual photographers who want to emulate your kind of style?
My advice will be: don’t. Emulating and trying to copy others’ shots (don’t forget to give credits to the original if you post that) can be useful when you’re trying to learn photography, sure! But you should try to find your own style that reflects your vision, not mine. That’s what art is made for, and VP is a branch of art. It takes time, sometimes a lot of time, but with practice it will come to you naturally, so don’t worry about that.
Editing can help with that a lot, so learn it, you can express yourself much better with using it. Might be hard at first to understand what all those sliders do, but once you get into it it’ll make your life easier. (I’m talking here about adjustments of contrast, colors, etc., not photoshop.)
And most importantly, don’t be afraid to experiment and do crazy things in your photo mode. It’s not a routine job, so you should feel free to do whatever you want there. The imagination is your only limit.
Thank you so much so sharing, Anna! This was such a delightful conversation to have!
Follow @AnnaWhite on Picashot!
