Winter hasn't been much of a winter in Minnesota this year. But that is no excuse for not shooting winter scenes! So, Edwige and I headed over to Como Lake earlier this evening with the miniatures.
I purchased a small flying saucer last year with hopes of using it in one of my winter scenes. "The Thing" (1982) is the inspiration for a scene I'd like to create. Well, the part of the movie where they discover the alien spacecraft... not the violent, gory stuff. Anyway, we'll have to come back on a different day and play around with that idea. For now, here's a guy that appears to be locked out of his ice fishing house.
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Yesterday was my birthday and I received some new Preiser figures to play with. Edwige found the hazmat crew I had been wanting for months. I have a lot of ideas for photographing them, but my first thought was to bring them down to the old loading docks at Sibley and Wabasha in the lowertown area of St Paul.
The ceiling at the docks is always dripping some kind of liquid, I assume it's water. I thought it would make a great scene for my hazmat crew to investigate. While there, they discovered rusted barrels possibly containing toxic waste. I realize that some of my photos do not give the viewer an understanding of just how small the figures are. So, in the second shot I placed my foot in the scene for reference. Edwige and I awoke at 5:00am yesterday so that we could arrive at the State Fair grounds around 6am. I wanted to take advantage of the morning light as well as have crowd free backgrounds for some of my shots. I really enjoyed the calm and almost surreal atmosphere of the Midway. Around 10am we gravitated over to the livestock barns. I always forget that I have an allergy to hay, which makes it extremely difficult to concentrate while shooting. In spite of that, I think we got some nice shots. While in the Swine Barn, we met some wonderful people that helped to educate us on pigs. As a result, the shoot became even more meaningful. I need to find some miniature farmers for next year. I can see doing a whole series on just livestock! Near the end of the day, I decided to to re-shoot a scene I had attempted last year. It never fails... when you are kneeling just several inches away from horse manure (with a camera), people are going to stare and make comments. But hey, it's part of the Minnesota State Fair! :-) It wasn't all work yesterday. We had lunch and took in a live show (go see Sean Emery... very skilled/talented and hilarious!) After it was all said and done, Edwige and I spent 14 hours at the Minnesota State Fair!
One of the themes we have been working on this summer is Puddle Monsters. I use frozen seafood as props and place them in small puddles or ponds around St Paul. In the image below, Edwige photographs me shooting a fisherman with a crab-like creature emerging from the water. A scene like this can take some time to set up. Although the boat I used in this scene actually floats, it will move out of position with the slightest current or breeze. As for the crab, I have inserted thin flexible wires into the arms to better hold their position. And without the use of a stone or tree branch, the claws would sink straight the bottom. Here, I used a branch under the surface to hold the creature up. Because I never really know what the environment or light will be like before I stumble onto a scene, I like to compare it to documentary photography or photojournalism. Of course I manipulate the subjects I place into the scene, so technically it is neither one... But, the process is very similar. I would have more control over the elements if I just built a diorama of the scene and lit it with artificial light instead of being in the real world environment. But shooting with available light and using nature as it is, is what draws me to photographing the minis. These scenes, like the real world, will never be perfect. That is their charm (in my opinion). Below is the final image...
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. |
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