The unauthorized autobiography of a boy named Dave, filled with action, suspense, drama, humour (and yes, even sarcasm!), at a level so intense that only Googlebot cares.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
What's This?
This came in the mail today. I wonder what it is...
Oh. It is a box. What's in the box?
Oh... another box. How Matroyshka doll!
Pretty... but seriously... what's in it?
Oh... it's my business cards
See? Looks just like me!
Now, you may be wondering what is on the other side of that card. To find that out you're gonna have to have what us artists call "a business relationship."
I am here for all your artsy needs. Let's do this thing.
I am here for all your artsy needs. Let's do this thing.
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Happy Birthday LEGO!
Here's to LEGO and their awesome bricks, which made up a huge part of my creative outlets as both a kid and an adult.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Toy Photography Blogging
If you are a fan of toy photographer, you may be interested in this kick-ass blog called toyphotographers.com.
I know it is kick-ass because some amazing toy photographers contribute to the blog. I know you'll like it because I am also now contributing to the blog on a regular basis - I'll leave the kick-ass designation for Yours Truly as an exercise for you, the reader.
Today they published a review of a LEGO set I wrote with help from my son, Zeke. It is a review of the LEGO Star Wars set based on Luke Skywalker's island called Ahch-To. You can check out the post here: Review: Ahch-To Island Training.
I am also working on a series of posts called The Foundation Series. It centers on insights I've gained during my artistic journey so far, both philosophical and practical. Hopefully others can benefit from them and help them along their own personal journeys. The first post in that series can be found here: The Foundation Series: A Journey Begins. New posts will drop approximately once a month.
I'll link to any posts I write for toyphotographers.com from this blog so if all you are interested in is the stuff I contribute, stay tuned here and you won't miss a thing. However there really is some great stuff over there from everyone, so I suggest you follow them directly.
I know it is kick-ass because some amazing toy photographers contribute to the blog. I know you'll like it because I am also now contributing to the blog on a regular basis - I'll leave the kick-ass designation for Yours Truly as an exercise for you, the reader.
Today they published a review of a LEGO set I wrote with help from my son, Zeke. It is a review of the LEGO Star Wars set based on Luke Skywalker's island called Ahch-To. You can check out the post here: Review: Ahch-To Island Training.
I am also working on a series of posts called The Foundation Series. It centers on insights I've gained during my artistic journey so far, both philosophical and practical. Hopefully others can benefit from them and help them along their own personal journeys. The first post in that series can be found here: The Foundation Series: A Journey Begins. New posts will drop approximately once a month.
I'll link to any posts I write for toyphotographers.com from this blog so if all you are interested in is the stuff I contribute, stay tuned here and you won't miss a thing. However there really is some great stuff over there from everyone, so I suggest you follow them directly.
Friday, January 19, 2018
No Figure Challenge: Accepted
Sometimes challenges are a great way to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. A case in point.
Over at the Toy Photographers blog yesterday, Lizzi issued the challenge to take a toy photo without a figure. The idea being to create a story without any characters in it. Intriguing idea.
I don't accept any old challenge that comes my way, and at first I was going to ignore this one too. I love a good challenge that stretches me creatively, but I had taken several photos without figures in it. I have a couple AT-AT photos that had no figures in it. Then I remembered that those AT-AT photos were inspired by pictures of elephants, so really I thought of them as characters, so they didn't really count. Nerts! Perhaps I never have really taken a LEGO photograph without figures in it. So based on that insight:
Challenge Accepted.
There wasn't a lot of time to complete the challenge, so I got started right away. At the time I was watching a Foo Fighters concert on YouTube, so my mind immediately went to a guitar. Perhaps a lonely guitar on a stage, waiting to be picked up and played.
So I hopped over to my studio and grabbed the most photogenic guitar I had in my collection. An electric guitar needs an amp, so grabbed one of those as well. I set up a couple lights to act as spotlights, and set up the scene.
As almost an afterthought I grabbed the smoke machine to add some atmosphere. It was then that what I really wanted was not a guitar waiting to be played, but a guitar that was just put down after having been played. Someone had just rocked his heart out on that guitar, and has just left the stage, leaving his guitar on the stage, still smoking from the rock show's special effects.
This is the resulting image:
As it turns out, this ended up not reminding me so much of the Foo Fighters, but rather how I imagine Kurt Cobain's guitar looked after filming the Smells Like Teen Spirit video (yeah, I know, the guitar isn't the right shape, but beggars can't be choosers. It is the colour of the smoke that sparks the mental connection in my brain).
So that is the story of how I created a LEGO photograph without any minifigs.
Challenge Completed.
Over at the Toy Photographers blog yesterday, Lizzi issued the challenge to take a toy photo without a figure. The idea being to create a story without any characters in it. Intriguing idea.
I don't accept any old challenge that comes my way, and at first I was going to ignore this one too. I love a good challenge that stretches me creatively, but I had taken several photos without figures in it. I have a couple AT-AT photos that had no figures in it. Then I remembered that those AT-AT photos were inspired by pictures of elephants, so really I thought of them as characters, so they didn't really count. Nerts! Perhaps I never have really taken a LEGO photograph without figures in it. So based on that insight:
Challenge Accepted.
There wasn't a lot of time to complete the challenge, so I got started right away. At the time I was watching a Foo Fighters concert on YouTube, so my mind immediately went to a guitar. Perhaps a lonely guitar on a stage, waiting to be picked up and played.
So I hopped over to my studio and grabbed the most photogenic guitar I had in my collection. An electric guitar needs an amp, so grabbed one of those as well. I set up a couple lights to act as spotlights, and set up the scene.
As almost an afterthought I grabbed the smoke machine to add some atmosphere. It was then that what I really wanted was not a guitar waiting to be played, but a guitar that was just put down after having been played. Someone had just rocked his heart out on that guitar, and has just left the stage, leaving his guitar on the stage, still smoking from the rock show's special effects.
This is the resulting image:
As it turns out, this ended up not reminding me so much of the Foo Fighters, but rather how I imagine Kurt Cobain's guitar looked after filming the Smells Like Teen Spirit video (yeah, I know, the guitar isn't the right shape, but beggars can't be choosers. It is the colour of the smoke that sparks the mental connection in my brain).
So that is the story of how I created a LEGO photograph without any minifigs.
Challenge Completed.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Lucky There's A Family Guy
So a site exists where one can make their own avatar in the style of the TV cartoon Family Guy, so naturally I did my own:
Their palette of colours was limited, so I Photoshopped in my standard orange t-shirt (and some, ahem, grey beard hairs). Otherwise, straight from the site.
You can do your own at www.familyguyyourself.com
You can do your own at www.familyguyyourself.com
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