Photography Scavenger Hunt Round 31: Tiny Creatures

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

Given my genre of choice, tiny creatures should not present much a problem.  I mean, all I do is shoot tiny creatures.   I am literally surrounded by them.  That led to the idea of going meta and taking a self portrait with some of my tiny creatures.

I had actually considered taking some BTS photos of the setup, but neither myself nor my wife can locate them, so they are lost to the void of history.  So let me describe how I got this shot:

A simple setup, really.  I took this on my dining room table, with some black cloth on the wall to block out the window light.  I then setup my laptop, and arranged some characters. I set up one light, a 12" LED panel on a C-stand pointed straight in front of me pointing down at a steep angle.  I tethered my camera to my laptop.  This is one of the easiest shots I've done as I used the laptop I was staring at to remote control the camera, so I could literally watch the camera view as I clicked the shutter.

Easy, peasy.

This is the result.

It was only after I took the shot I decided to add the narrator windows, which look like Deadpool's inner-voice from the comics.  I dunno, I think it furthered the plot.

Deconstructing an image: Balance

One of the words for the latest round of the Scavenger Hunt was "balance."  Now that the hunt  reveals have happened, I can show everyone the image I came up with, and talk about what went into it.

The first thing I do when I get a scavenger word is do a mind-mapping exercise to come up with ideas.  I write down all of the words I associate with balance - balanced cheque book, high wire act, juggling, black and white, justice etc.

I originally had the idea of an action figure (I normally shoot toys for the hunt), balancing a cheque book while in the middle of a high wire act.  I liked the concept, but it ended up being to complicated to put into one image.

So I was stumped.  Then I flew to Europe.

12 hours being stuck in airports and third class seats gives ones mind a lot of time to wander, and my mind wandered over the word balance a couple times.  I started thinking why don't I have an action figure balancing on a surf board.  I've done surf boards before for the hunt, so how about a ball?   Better yet, how about balancing on a board which is balancing on a ball?

I couldn't think of which action figure to use, so I mused that I could just do a self portrait. For the past dozen hunts or so I had only submitted toy images, so this would be a huge departure style-wise, and I didn't want to disappoint my fan base.  However art trumps tradition, so I decided to go for it.

Then in a moment of clarity the whole idea clicked.  Yours truly, balancing on a stone yin yang, on a stone ball, all in motion. Balance all the way down.

I had the basics for my concept.   Some further refinements, and this is the image I came up with:

So, how did I get this shot?

The answer is building it piece by piece.

Photoshop has a decent 3D modeling engine built into it, so I used that to make the ball and the yin yang.  I made them as separate pieces, and stuck em together.  The ball is just an image of floor tiles made round. I used a concrete texture I took in San Francisco a few years ago for the stone look of the yin yang.  Why is the yin yang stone?  No reason, just seemed right to me.

The tunnel effect is several textures stacked on top of each other, all blended together with a radial blur, and some selective darkening in the center to give a receding into the distance tube effect.

Finally it came time for me to shoot myself.  I positioned a light in front of me and up about 30 degrees.  At the last minute I decided to put on a lab coat, and use fans to blow on it, so I would have a "blowing in the wind" effect to add more of a sense of motion to the image.

I hadn't given much thought to my own wardrobe.  At the last minute I decided to do an homage to Gord Downie.  If you are not familiar, Gord is the lead singer of a Canadian rock band called the Tragically Hip.  He died of brain cancer last year, but before he passed, the Hip did one final tour across Canada.  His stage outfit for that tour was a Jaws t-shirt, and a jaunty looking hat.

I have been a fan of The Hip for decades, but I have been listening to them a lot lately, as part of my recovery from depression.  So it seemed fitting as a silent homage to Gord, thru his music, helping me regain mental balance.

In the most fanboy moment I've ever experienced, I had a replica hat made by the same milliner who made Gords hats for the tour.  I also bought a Jaws t-shirt.  So already armed with fanboyness, I had my wardrobe.

This is an AutoAwesome gif of some of my attempts to capture myself in camera:

The rest of the processing was the basic steps of masking, tone matching and adding shadows that goes along with any composite work.

So that is the story behind my image for the word "Balance".

Cheers!

Alternate Realities

With a vivid imagination the imaginary worlds described in books can seem almost real. Be careful what you read, 'cause some imaginary worlds are more real than others.

This is my most recent experimentation with shooting action figures, with a bit of a genre mix to include my self portraiture work as well.

I got the idea for this shot the first time I watched the credits for the totally awesome cinematic event known as Deadpool 2.  The ending credits shows hand drawings of Deadpool interacting with the other characters in interesting ways.  This is how I imagine he'd interact with Yours Truly.

I used my 20" Deadpool figure for this shot, as well as a very temperamental Dave stand in (he's becoming a bit of a diva - it is a bigger problem than you think!). However with some coercion, bribery, and a heavy dollop of Photoshop Magic(tm), I managed to get the shot I wanted.

Maximum effort!

Et tu Treebeard?

Rockin' 'Frisco Part 2

When last we spoke (well, I typed, you read), our tale had left us at the weekend.

It is time to explore San Francisco.

So those that know me know that I am a big planner.  I like having an itinerary, or at least a list of places to explore, before I head to an area.   This trip was no exception.

I had over 30 things on my list, between landmarks, statues, historical areas, photographic vistas, and geocaches.  None of them included going across the Golden Gate Bridge.

It seems the adage of "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy" also works with the transportation infrastructure of a city.  I say this because a large part of my day involved crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

So I did not explore public transportation much before I left.  However when I arrived I noticed a hop-on/hop-off bus I could take that would, in theory, take me within easy walking distance of most places on my todo list, and give me some history along the way. So I paid the fare and hopped aboard.

It started off well, tho it was much slower than advertised (brochure says 2 hours to do a loop of the city, in reality its closer to 3.5 hours).  However I paid my money, so I stuck with the bus.

While on my way I got views of things on my list, like City Hall:

As well as many things not on my list, like a massive amount of gay pride flags (turns out June is gay pride month in the Rice-a-roni city).

So the bus's route had a stop on the far side of the Golden Gate.  It also included a secondary tour that had a stop on the near side.  What this meant, in my mind, that I could do a quick detour of my plan, and walk across the bridge one way, and take the other tour bus back, the continue on my way.

I verified my plan with the tour bus operator, and it all seemed like a workable idea, so I went for it.

Off on foot I went to explore the Golden Gate, starting with taking in the panoramic view of the bridge, and the San Franciscan skyline:

I also tried some long-exposure shots of the bridge to remove the traffic - it mostly worked.

On either side of the bridge are pedestrian and bike paths (respectively), so I had a whole sidewalk to use to cross the bridge.

The best thing about the bridge crossing is the unique views of San Francisco.

So I arrived at the far side of the bridge, and grabbed some lunch (clam chowder in a bread bowl, as any tourist should get when visiting San Francisco).    After lunch is when my plan unravelled like a cheap sweater.

I went to the spot where the secondary bus (trolley, really) was supposed to meet me.  It was supposed to come by every 20 minutes.  So I waited 20 minutes.  I confirmed with a local park ranger (the place is a national park, go figure) that I was indeed waiting in the right spot.  After a decent time later (after all, traffic is a nightmare), I decided I was led astray by the good people at Big Bus Tours, and decided to hoof it back across the bridge.

So despite being quite foot sore after my trek across the bridge (and my explorations the days before - the perils of being a fat guy), I started walking back across the red span.

When I got back to the proper side, a bus was (thankfully) waiting for me, which soon whisked me away for the rest of the tour, and the rest of my day (which was meeting up with old friends for supper)

So at this point my 1 hour detour to walk across the bridge had taken me 3.5 hours, but at least I had some interesting shots, an unexpected virtual cache find, and a new story to tell.

Also memories of that one time I walked across Golden Gate Bridge... twice!

So with my complaints about being foot sore, you'd think I'd take it easy for the rest of the weekend.

How little you know me!  For I am about to embark on a hike that is unparalleled in the history of Yours Truly.

Stay tuned!

Selfie: Mona Lisa Dave

This got a finalist standing in The Art of Self Portraiture community  for the April challenge: Imitating Art.

My Short Career As A Russian General

This is my first ever submission to Self Portrait Sunday, an ongoing series of events in The Art Of Self Portraiture community on Google Plus.

Selfie: The Force Awakens

Selfie: I Am Canadian Edition

I stumbled across the Don McLean American Pie album cover, and wanted to recreate it as a selfie.  However, not being American, I added my own national twist to the story.

Selfie: Snowpocalypse Edition

... that time I was standing under a bridge in a "monster blizzard" taking self portraits, ya know, as one does.

I was all alone under that bridge, so I set the camera on a tripod, racked it out to 200mm to get that sweet, sweet lens compression, stood 10ft in front of it in the falling snow, and posed.  I used my camera as a remote trigger.

Ain't technology fun?

Pieces Of Me

A lifetime of self discovery is a lifetime of figuring out how all the pieces of your personal puzzle fit together.

I'm Feeling Lucky

Just a little something I was working on lately.