Beginning my adventures in YouTube

 A while ago I realized that I had built up a collection of cameras and microphones that I purchased on various whims that I wasn't really using.  It seemed that I had everything I needed to record some of the adventures and creative processes that go on in my studio.

So, long story short, this is my first YouTube video about my creative processes.  This one is about printing a 3D Deadpool mask and giving it glowing eyes.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Self Portrait

 The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my entry for the word "self portrait" 

I do a fair amount of self portraiture work, so this category should not be much of a problem for me.  However my creative core crinkles when given an obvious direction, so I decided to do something a little different.  It's not that I didn't want to do a self portrait (I did one for another shot this round, after all), but I wanted to be a little unique and outside-the-box-thinky. So I decided to turn the concept on its side a bit and show Deadpool taking his own photo, showing the back of his camera in the process.

I have a scale camera I could use, so my original thought was to simply pose Deadpool holding that camera.  Then take another of Deadpool to show in the back screen. Composite the two together and I'd be done.  Should take all of 40 minutes to knock this sucker out.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So I set up the shot and...

... uh... crap.

Turns out the back of the toy camera looks like a dogs breakfast when up close.  This will not do.  No amount of Photoshop is gonna make that look good.  This is what  Micheal Jackson's plastic surgeon on the 8th nose-lift must have felt like... The best one could do is make him look like a slightly less creepy dancing pedophile.  That doesn't fit my vision at all for this shot!

Time to switch some gears and do this in a triple layer composite.

I started by taking an unplanned photo of the back of my camera with my cell phone, like this one (but not exactly this one as I used a different one, but you get the idea):

Then I took a shot of Deadpool to show in the rear screen:

Then some composite time in Photoshop and I had this knocked out.  Took more like 2 hours than 40 minutes, but I am pleased with the results:

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Fluffy

 The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my entry for the word "Fluffy" 

I had troubles thinking of ideas for fluffy, and as such it was the last shot I did for this round.  The only idea I had was Deadpool slicing a stuffed toy.  However I had a similar shot, much better executed, in this round already, so it seemed like a cop-out to do a second half-assed one (I prefer to use my whole ass for my work).

However, sometimes a cop-out is required to get a shot for the hunt, especially when one runs out of creative steam after a long, but fun-filled, hunt round.

I got a sack of toys from Good Will which contained a stuffed doll, and decapitated it - ya know, as one does.

I then set up the scene so Deadpool was swinging his katana at the doll.

The doll has a wire shoved through it, and another wire holding the head up.

To save on some gnarly composite work I cheated on the katana posing.  To get the scale I wanted I grabbed the hand and katana from my 18" Deadpool, and mounted it in front of my 12" Deadpoool. This way the blade would be nice and large in frame, but would look like it was attached to the smaller figure.

This is the final shot with no compositing and minimal cleanup and colour grading.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Teal

 The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my entry for the word "teal" 

Teal is a colour.  There is often a colour word in each round of the hunt, so I expected there to be one in this round.  Teal, however, isn't exactly in my normal creative colour palette, so I had trouble coming up with ideas for it.

Tea was also a hunt word this round, and my only thought was "Teal is just tea with an L".  This would become important when I was actually shooting my tea shot.

As I was shooting it, I thought I should just do the tea+l thing.  The idea that came to mind was making a Mrs Nesbitt Tea logo that was painted onto a brick wall - think of those old Coke signs painted on ye-olde shoppes - and having a character spray painting on an L.

So as I was shooting my tea shot, I also posed Buzz Lightyear to look like a spokes-spaceman for Mrs Nesbitts Tea.

I then took that image and processed it to look like a logo that was painted onto a brick wall.  Then I projected the image onto a TV screen and posed Deadpool with a spray can.

After that it was some basic comp work, and adding in some paint splatters.  The final result is here.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Window

 The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my entry for the word "Window" 

Window.  Its like a thing you can see out of... almost like a window to the soul, but not.  So I decided to make a self portrait with a window to my soul....

I tried mocking up something, and immediately hated it.  I mean, can you blame me?

I think I could beat that idea into submission, but it would take a whole lot of work (I even started making a window out of balsa wood to serve as a better mind portal).  However his was about a week before the deadline and I was losing steam.  

So in desperation I looked up to the My Little Pony on my shelf (fun fact: first Christmas I shared with my now-wife, then girlfriend, she asked me what I wanted, and I said "a pony" so she got me a My Little Pony doll.  I had no choice but to marry her after that) ... and inspiration struck. 

My Little Ponies have designs on their asses - they call em cutie marks, I call em ass-tattoos. Throughout my brainstorming for window I kept getting flashbacks to my PTSD inducing IT days brought on by that damnable Windows OS. So doing the math:  pony ass + logo == good enough!

And by definition good enough is good enough, so I grabbed the pony, took it outside and tossed it on a small concrete block retaining wall in my back yard, positioned it for the then setting sun, and started shooting.

One of the straight-from-camera shots looks like this:

Good enough actually turned out to be not that bad at all.  The location was right in front of a chain link fence, and the neighbours house was on the other side.  This made the background a horrid mess (for the shot, the neighbours yard actually looks quite nice).  I played around with a very shallow depth of field to blur all that crap out, and I was left with a rather pleasing photo. 

I tossed a Windows 2000 logo on its ass, and called it a day.  This is what I submitted to the hunt:

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Tea

The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my entry for the word "Tea" 

Tea:  It is a nice drink. One I even enjoy on occasion.  However it may be one of the least inspiring words I've seen in a long while. One might say it isn't my cup of tea (hey-ooo!)

However my wife had an idea for a shot a long time ago that we never got around to shooting.  She wanted me to recreate the scene from Toy Story where Buzz Lightyear attended the nieghbours girls tea party as Mrs. Nesbitt.

So I decided to do that.  Now, because I am a complete and total professional at this blogging thing, and a consumate story teller, I completely forgot to take any behind-the-scenes shots for this. 

Go me!

However its pretty standard fair for my work these days.  My wife, the uber-quiltress, made an apron for me. She also let me use a tea set she has sitting around . I 3D printed a hat, made some scale furniture out of XPS foam and craft paint that I painted the pinkest pink I could,  and set everything up.

The hardest part was removing Buzz's arm.

It's a pretty basic shot overall.

Interesting this sort of led to an unplanned mini-series within the hunt, starting with fluffy, this one, and then teal.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Sparkle

The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my entry for the word "Sparkle"

There are some words where ideas come fast and loose, and one is almost spoiled for choice.  Others I have to fight tooth and nail to get even the faintest thread of an idea.  Sparkle was the exact middle - no ideas at all until blind inspiration struck out of the blue.

So when I get a list of hunt words one of the first things I do is write them in a notebook, and then I write some first thoughts associated words beside them.  This helps spark my creative flow.  For example, this is my notebook for Ink:

Contrast that with my notebook entry for sparkle:

So much to work with there, eh?

"Nerts!" I said to myself, and I grabbed my headphones and went for a walk.

I am not sure if it was the muses shining on me or the music of choice or a combination of the two, but I got about half way down the path - right where the path bends to follow the river... you know the place, when the following thought came to mind.  "Tinkerbell has sparkles!  I bet Tinkerbell could become a photo... but,I normally shoot Deadpool.... Tinkerbell... sparkles... shoot... Deadpool.... wouldn't it be great if Deadpool shot Tinkerbell and she exploded in a mass of sparkles?"

Then that became: "It *would* be *freakin' awesome* if Deadpool shot Tinkerbell and she exploded into a sparkle ball!"   Then I started to laugh like a mad man.  I literally LOL'd right there where the path bends to follow the river.  When I laugh at an idea, I know it is a winner. 

When I got back to my studio I hopped into Photoshop to play around to see if I could get a sparkle effect I was looking for.... turns out I could.  So I took a shot of Deadpool to composite into the shot:

If that shot looks weird, its cause it is.  I have been playing around with an idea I've had to shoot figures in front of a TV screen, with the background I plan on using projected behind them.  This allows me to get scale, and more important, angles (light positioning, but also camera angles, and posing) correct for whatever I am going for.  I then still comp out the character as normal, but this way I know the figure is correct for the background.

I comped it together, and I laughed again.  I showed it to my wife, and she loved it.  And the coup-de-grace - I showed it to my 7 year old daughter, expecting her to revolt and the idea of Tinkerbell exploding, but she literally doubled over laughing.  Then she said something that makes me know she's my daughter - "Uh, Daddy... the wand is wrong."

I scoffed at that... then I did research, and dang it, she was right!  So I changed the wand, polished things up, and came up with the final image that I submitted to the hunt.

Ironically this was the first photo I had finished for this round of the hunt.

BTW if you are wondering if Tinkerbell deserved it, I refer you to Peoples Exhibit A: https://peterpan.fandom.com/wiki/Tinker_Bell#Personality. In which you will find she attempted to murder Wendy, and as an adult fairy has dubious intentions towards the minor, Peter.  She is one naughty pixie.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Fairy Tale

The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us.  This is my BTS for the word "Fairy Tale."

When I first saw this word I knew I was able to come up with something.  There are so many fairy tales, and so many takes on them, both modern and ancient, that something had to stick.  However the problem with things like this is that one gets spoiled with choice, and settling on a single concept is harder than it seems.

I was searching the Internet one evening looking for models to print with my 3D printer.  I came across a rather detailed model of Pinocchio, that plucky puppet with a heart of gold and a nose for the lack of truth.   I decided I'd grab the model and print him off as he seemed like a decent fit for the category of "fairy tale".

[not pictured:  Pinocchio being printed on my 3D printer]

I still needed to put Pinocchio into a scene.  I've never really watched the movie (just enough to know it gets *really* dark and an LSD trippy half way through).  But the scene that comes to mind is Geppetto making the damnable psycho-puppet in his workshop.

I decided to use Deadpool as a Geppetto stand-in, cause, you know... Deadpool.  

Of course Deadpool isn't going to paint up a puppet as a normal version so I decided to make a Deadpool painting a Deadpool puppet.  The model has Pinocchio wearing a hat, but I decided to cut it off, and use some wood putty to recreate the top of his head (including that thing that sticks out the back of his mask)

I needed some props for the workshop, so I made a work bench (the one Pinocchio-pool is lying on above) out of XPS foam.  I also printed some tools on the 3D printer, then painted them all up.

I also needed a paint brush, which is simply a real brush cut short.  I also used some prop jars to make some old paint containers, filled with actual paint (extra points for thinking inside-the-box on that one. I'm clever that way).

Then I set up the scene, using the same brick wall from "ink", and a Lume Cube panel for light.  I decided to use the Wade Wilson head for Deadpool, as its hard to see out of those masks, and he is doing some detailed work.

The final image is what you see here.  It turned out pretty much as I envisioned in my head.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Ink

The 31st round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt is upon us, and the first word this round is "ink".

When I started brainstorming words around ink I quickly settled on the idea of an old-timey writing... thing... of some kind.  An old quill writing on a scroll, or something similar.  I couldn't really nail down exactly what I had in mind.   That is until the COVID gods smiled upon me.

Almost 2 years ago I ordered a Gandalf 12" figure.  It was delayed at first by normal reasons (as top end figures often are), but then it was delayed again by COVID-19 and its horrible effects on global commerce, especially from China.  

This figure is pretty dang detailed.  Real hair, detailed props, real material on the robes, cloak, and hat... even the eyes moved.  The eyes were posable!  I mean, damn.  

Image from Asmus Toys 

A week into the hunt I was notified that this amazing Gandalf was finally shipping. When it arrived a few days later it did not disappoint.  It was everything an action figure photography nerd ever wanted in a model of one of the most interesting characters from the fantasy realm.   

It also helped solidify my brainstorming as Gandalf has many scenes where he is looking at old parchments.  So I decided to do one of those, but with a twist: Gandalf reading a modern click-baity article but in an ancient library setting.

The first thing I did was write out a scroll.  I wanted it to be a mix of modern and ancient so I made two scrolls - one was a fake click-bait article on the best inks, and the other was an old-timey story - in fact it was just the first few sentences from The Hobbit, in a Lord Of The Rings font.

I printed off the scrolls onto basic printer paper, and then set about aging it.  I first started with some washes made from actual inks, bit I didn't like the effect - it was too aged - like a bad Photoshop job (only *I* am going to do bad Photoshop on *my* images - its only fair).  So I went with the tried and true method... tea.

I cut up the printed paper into scroll sized bits.  Then brewed a strong batch of tea (Earl Grey, if you must know). Then I soaked the paper in the tea, laid it out on a baking sheet, and dried it in the oven (240f, 5-10 minutes until golden brown).

I needed to populate an entire library, so I cut up a whole pile of paper and gave it the tea treatment. Some of the paper I cut to be left as sheets of paper, others intended to be made into scrolls. It took me several hours (an entire NHL game to be precise - Leafs lost, those bastards!)

Once I had my aged paper I set about making the long strips into scrolls.  I started by rolling them up over a  BBQ skewer. (I did this during a monthly Scavengers hangout, so if you wondered what that rustling from my mic was - it was my scroll factory).

Then I beat up the edges with a knife blade, to give it that old torn look.

Rinse and repeat until I had a pile of scrolls ready at my disposal.

All that was left was to set up the scene and take the shot.  I put the main scrolls on a scale work bench I made for a different shot for this round of the hunt (details coming up in a follow-up post).  I used a fake brick background I had lying around for the wall, and a couple un-fake bricks to act as a shelf behind Gandalf.  Toss in a mess of papers, scrolls, and an old book into the background.  Add a couple Lume Cubes to provide light, and a scene was born.

The final shot looked like this.  All in camera, except some cleanup of errant dust and hairs, and a healthy dose of colour correction.

 If you are wondering what that click-bait article said, here is the full text:

10 Best Inks For Wizards That Will Surprise You

1. Elvish Magic ink

The ink made from the tears of Galadriel mixed with the finest Mallorn tree nut juice.

2. Dwarvish Tunnel Ink

Deep in the Mines of Moria is a vein of black tar that makes an ink that flows smoothly out of your journaling pen.

3.  Hobbit Pipe Weed Ink

Made from the drippings of Old Toby, and perfect for genealogical records.

4. Orc Blood and Copper Sulfate

The blackest blood purified by the magic powder makes an ink so dark it will steal your soul and make you long for the better days.

5. India Ink

Available at Staples.com, use promo code “RADAGAST” for free shipping!

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 30: Pantone Color Of The Year 2021

This is a behind the scenes of my "Pantone Color Of The Year 2021" shot for the 30th round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt.

This is one of the most unique "words" for any hunt I've been in.  First of all Pantone had not even announced the color yet when the list was published.  Second, when they did release it, they had two colors - a grey and a yellow.  The hunt has had a colour almost every round, but never two in one category.

This was the first word I shot this round.  In fact I had it completed within 24 hours of the list being published.  A bit funny that it was the last one released this round, but thats how the cookie crumbles.

My ideas started floating around posters, and Bob Ross style paintings.  I couldn't really nail it down in my head.  Eventually I used the whole experience of how this "word" was revealed to me and put it into a picture.  I imagined a scene where Pantone put a poster of 2020s colour (a blue shade) up on a wall, which faded over the year, and a new poster was being put up over top of it to announce 2021s colours.  

I decided to keep the idea of Bob Ross putting the poster up.  I imagined the poster to be large size, more like a small billboard.  In one of the seasons of Bob's show The Joy Of Painting, the intro montage is Bob with a paint roller painting in a scene.  I figured that paint roller may be a good way for him to be attaching the poster to the wall. 

All I needed was a wall, a poster, a paint roller on a stick, and a Bob Ross.

Luckily I had an 8" Bob Ross figure in a box (doesn't everyone?) so I grabbed him from the shelf.  I made two posters in Photoshop and printed them out at 8x10 on my printer.   I then fashioned a Bob Ross sized paint roller out of wire, string, white felt, and a chop stick.  Finally I made a wall out of a 16x20 piece of foam core, and some craft paint.

I glued the 2020 poster to the wall, and aged it up. I love aging things, and I enjoyed it much.  I then glued the 2021 poster on top of it, leaving one corner unattached and curled.

After that it was a matter of setting it all up and shooting it.  I used a Lume Cube mounted on a gooseneck attached to a Platypod to light the scene.

Post processing was a few simple textures to add a bit more character, and the result is what you see here.

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 30: Upside Down

This is a behind the scenes of my "upside down" shot for the 30th round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt.

Almost immediately I got stuck on the idea of Australia.  I wanted to get a Crocodile Dundee figure standing on a globe, upside down.  I lacked a Croc Dundee figure, and the ones that existed were way too expensive.

I went with my backup idea of dressing Deadpool up as someone from the outback.  So I got him a hat, and a machete. Originally I carved a machete out of a piece of wood with a Dremel, but I didn't like how it turned out, so I 3D printed one instead.

Somewhere along the line I remembered that I've always wanted to recreate the Hamilton poster, but with Deadpool instead of Hamilton.  Ya know, this poster:

To match this I posed Deadpool in a similar poste to Alexander Hamilton:

After that it was a decent amount of Photoshopping to merge the image with a star and textures to create the Hamilton look.  Once I got it looking right proper side up, I flipped the whole thing... upside down.

One thing I couldn't decide on was whether to flip the text upside down or leave it upright.  I finally asked an impartial person (my son) and. he thought the text should be right side up, so thats how I left it.

The final image is here:

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 30: Clouds

 This is a behind the scenes of my "clouds" shot for the 30th round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt. 

This is one of those photos that came together at the last minute, and in fact was the last image I finished for this round of the hunt.

I did have several ideas early on in the process.   One was a simple air plane, or Star Wars-ian craft, flying through clouds.  That idea soon expanded into creating a scene where DB Cooper was jumping from the plane he hijacked. I even went so far as to purchase a model of a Boeing 727, the same plane DB Cooper jumped from.  

Another idea was creating something along the old Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercials where an angel is on Cloud 9 eating some cream cheese.  You know the one.

I had thought of a variation on this with an actual angel, or Deadpool eating a bagel with cream cheese lounging on a fluffy cloud. 

However none of those ideas really got me excited enough to get around to actually shooting it (and in the case of the DB Cooper shot, I misplaced my 1/12 scale "duffle bag of money" prop).  So I was in a massive state of meh about the whole thing.

As I mentioned this was the last image I finished for this round.  The day after I finished the penultimate shot I sat down at my craft desk and started wracking my brain tried to come up with some ideas for this final shot so I could close out the hunt.   Thats when I looked up and got inspired, like the cream cheesey heavenly angels kicked my muses ass.

In actuality I looked up at my 1/6 scale Doctor Strange figure I keep on the top shelf at my crafting desk.  I started thinking about how he may be put in a zen pose of some sort.  Then I thought he could be zen'ing through the clouds. 

These action figures have a whole selection of hands and other things that can be swapped out to give different poses.  I dug into that box, and found some hands I could use that fit the zen motif.  Finally I double checked that Strange could sit cross-legged (not all action figures are flexible enough to do such a pose).   

Once I had it all checked out I knew I had a winner.  

I tossed Strange into my light box, mounted on a Platypod with some goosenecks to hold him up in a zen pose.  I also had his cape elevated to give the impression it was flapping in the wind. This is the setup and the SOOC:

Then I removed the background, tossed him in front of a shot of some fluffy clouds.  To give him a place to sit, I painted in a nice fluffy clouds using Photoshop brushes.

Finally I added a radial blur around him to give a sense of motion.

The end result is presented thusly:

Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 30: Warming

This is a behind the scenes of my "warming" shot for the 30th round of the Photography Scavenger Hunt.

After a wee bit of brainstorming to come up with ideas I ended up reminding myself of a shot I already wanted to do.  I have a Kermit The Frog dressed as Indiana Frog action figure, and I used it to recreate the rolling ball of death scene from Raiders.  I've always wanted to recreate another shot from Raiders, which was when the Ark of the Covenant was opened by those damn dirty Nazi's and the wrath of God melted them.

So, step one:  Obtain the Ark of the Covenant. It's only been missing for thousands of years, so how hard can it be?

Not hard, it turns out.  Just a couple days of 3D printing, and some gold paint:

I also needed a pole for Indy to be tied to.  I went to Lowes to get a couple wooden dowels of various diameters to use as a pole.  However when it came time to actually cut the dowel I realized I could likely use the paper towel tube I already had on my desk.  So I did. I also added some drywall putty to give it some old wood textures (Also, I now have extra dowel.  If anyone needs any, let me know).

Once all the props were painted and dried, I set everything up and shot it in my lightbox:

I look multiple shots with a Lume Cube in various positions to get all the right light reflections.

This was a Photoshop heavy image.  I started by combining all of the shots to get the lights. Adding the  massive burst of light from the Ark took several layers of brushes and some light leak textures:

It took a while, but I finally got the flash of lights blended in a satisfactory way to capture the "Glory of Yahweh" sufficiently.  Finally I dodged and burned the shadows, and then added some general textures.

The one thing I could not accomplish was getting Kermits eyes closed.  I couldn't find an example where his eyes were ever closed.  If you are not familiar with the movie, those who look upon the ark with it being open is looking into the Glory of Yahweh, which no mortal can survive, so whoever looks at it gets killed in a dramatic flesh-melty way.  I settled for Kermit looking away from the flash of light.  Sometimes one is truly limited by the characters they chose to use in their art.

The final result is this:

It turns out my idea for Kermit the Frog dressed as Indian jones being tied to a pole, looking away in an attempt withstand the wrath of Yahweh escaping the Ark of the Covenant was a unique idea among the entries.  Who would have guessed?