Entertainment Weekly

Kurt was commissioned by Entertainment Weekly magazine to photograph a beach full of miniature people lounging in front of giant books to introduce the Summer’s 10 biggest reads. (June 3/10, 2016 p. 72-73)

Kurt photographed this HO scale scene on a small beach in Minnewashta Regional Park.

DAY 1
It’s mid-day, we finally found the beach we were looking for. Kurt took a quick test shot on the edge of the lake and confirmed that it was the right spot. We propped up the books on the sand as close as possible to the edge of the water so that the lake would show up in the photo. Occasionally a boat would trigger a series of waves but fortunately none were potent enough to soak the books. 

Kurt positioned the miniatures to make up several story lines and proceeded to photograph for the next several hours. Unfortunately we were facing a couple major challenges: for starter, the sand was too dark and too coarse so the miniatures did not show up very well. Also, the books were casting a shadow onto the scene and there was nothing we could do about it. After struggling all afternoon, Kurt admitted that it would not work and we packed it in for the day.  

DAY 2
We woke up early with high hopes and ready to do good work. At 10 a.m. we were back on the beach and had it all for ourselves. We propped the books up in the sand and Kurt sprinkled some medium grain sand onto the foreground. Kurt worked on creating a beach scene, arranging the HO scale figures to create new story lines. By the time we were ready to shoot, the sun was practically above us, illuminating both the books and the miniature scene. Somehow, clouds managed to show up at the right time to complete our beach scene. We were very happy with the end result!

Kurt manipulates a figure prior to the photo shoot

Adjusting the umbrella of the HO scale ice cream vendor

Kurt straightens up a sun bather prior to photographing the scene