It is not always easy to get the perspective I am imagining. Back in March, Edwige and I were shooting  in the Petrified Forest for our Route 66 postcard series. In order to get a (horizontal) miniature's eye view, I need to get as low as possible, sometimes even lower than the subject I'm photographing.

For this particular shot, I had to use a smaller camera body and focus through the view finder without the aid of my 2x right angle viewfinder (doesn't fit my smaller camera). The view finder magnifies the image so its easier to focus. Also, I have to be honest... the tumbleweed was too far out of the shot, so Edwige gave it a "nudge" so that it would be in the frame.

Something about this location that I didn't know... See those telephone poles in the background? They are no longer in use and indicate where the old Route 66 used to run. It is now grown over so the original road is no longer visible. If I had known this at the time of the shoot, I would have tried to include them in the photo. But I like the result even without them.

Well, I'm working hard (or hardly working) on getting the Puddle Monster series put together. Because I use real frozen seafood (which is difficult to work with) I need to plan ahead.

I have many ideas... But I don't seem to get them into production before the crabs and octopus start to spoil. I do keep them in the freezer, but they need to be thawed to work with. Placing them in a puddle, then back to the freezer, then thawed again, doesn't work that well. Using plastic or rubber creatures just isn't authentic enough... so unless I want to use live crabs (I won't) I will have to find a way to make this work.

Tip: I learned from the seafood guy at Wholefoods to wear rubber gloves when working with seafood. It keeps the fishy smell from getting in my hands, and staying there!