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Kurt and I are currently in Joshua Tree National Park working as volunteers and in our down time Kurt is photographing for our Un Petit Monde project. Joshua Tree NP is notorious for its climbing opportunities as well as its off-road driving, night skies and of course, Joshua Trees. It’s a good thing that the miniatures in Kurt’s bag are always ready for adventure and exploration. While exploring a wash in the Southern end of the park, Kurt found a good spot for his 4x4 jeep convoy. The sand was smooth enough for their tires to be able to deal with it. Half hour earlier the sky had the most unique display of clouds, it would have been a perfect addition to the scene! On a separate occasion, we scrambled up granite boulders so Kurt could document a miniature climber in action.  Kurt is focusing on a few 4x4s overlanding in Joshua Tree NP  Joshua Tree National Park, California (2015)  Kurt is placing a climber on the side of a monzogranite boulder in Joshua Tree NP  Final image - Climber in JoshuaTree NP, California (2015) 
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Kurt and I took a walk on the Royal Palm Hammock Trail in Collier Seminole State Park. We were looking for opportunities and angles to photograph the miniatures. Kurt found just the right tree to photograph the climber.  Kurt focuses on a miniature climber in Collier Seminole State Park, Florida  Final image  A few days ago, Edwige and I were out hiking some trails near the Mississippi River when we came across what we now know to be Shadow Falls. The spring-fed falls is in a wooded ravine surrounded by limestone and sandstone cliffs that overlook the Mississippi . Although I had my camera, I didn't have any miniatures along for the hike. I took a few shots of the area and planned to return with some minis another day.  Edwige had found a set of Preiser Freeclimbing figures online and purchased them for my birthday. I had been wanting these miniatures for quit awhile and was pretty excited to receive them! After discovering Shadow Falls, I knew it would be the perfect place to photograph these mini climbers. So we set out on another hike to the falls yesterday.  Above: I normally shoot at an aperture of f5.6. But with all noise (fine details) in the background, the miniature climber was getting a little lost in the photo. I opened the aperture up to f3.5 which really blurs out the background and helps the eye focus on the climber.  Edwige photographs me struggling to get a miniature climber to stay in place. The moss covered limestone rock was very wet and slimy, which didn't help the situation. Yesterday I watched Andy Roddick lose to Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarterfinals of the 2012 US Open tennis tournament. Andy retired from professional tennis after the match. That inspired me to get out and photograph some minis playing tennis...  Tonight, Edwige and I braved the cold (8˚F) to photograph some skiers on the hill in front of The Cathedral of St. Paul. We have been waiting for enough snow to shoot our skiers and we finally got some this morning... about an inch. I took advantage of some snow covered ice chunks (left behind by the Red Bull's Crashed Ice World Championship) to elevate my miniature skiers off the ground. I would have liked to shoot more scenes from different angles, but... it was just too cold! Also, this is our first "official" shoot using the Nikon D7000 camera. The body is much smaller than my Nikon D2x and allows me to get closer to the ground when shooting horizontal (which helps eliminate unwanted distortion). I suspect I will be producing more horizontal images going forward. If you look closely, you can see the tracks made by other skiers ;-) (Click on images for larger view)    |
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