Using Junk for fun

Junk diorama.

I've enjoyed the challenges of making something out of nothing. I've watched some great videos about how to make dioramas out of junk. Below are pieces of stuff I was going to throw out. Medicine vials, parts of a defunct humidifiers, CPAP hoses, Toilet Paper rolls, soda caps, and miscellaneous card board boxes and pieces.

That is what the 'creative' table looked like before photographing the characters.

Below is what the photo ended up looking like.

The minibots are actually cheap cake toppers from the dollar store a few years ago. Except for the Lego Droids that I picked up at a yard sale, the cost of this whole set up was $1. Of course I got out my old paints and enjoyed giving everything a look of rustic old pieces of junk.

I keep these pieces in a box with fake rocks I made out of Styrofoam board I found in another junk pile in the shed. I keep thinking I should toss it out...but.....

The fake rocks were used to make this scene of an Ogre and Orcs meeting in a cave. The 'fog' was made with a long exposure of mist from a face mister.

When I get stuck inside all day, I busy myself while my hubby naps. This is something I can do with headphones on. I listen to music and rearrange my junk so I can make a new scene.

This included some of the previous junk stuff. The figures are cheap Hasbro Droid figures from the Star Wars series. I like robots and droids, they are cool. The light in the back is simply a medicine vial that I sparsely painted and set over a balloon light.

The possibilities are endless at my little creative table. The fun part is that  I can set things up and tear things down constantly. 

This next shot is a set up for a Dragon and Rock Monster portrait.

I do say that I make a lot of adjustments and mistakes before I get one shot that I keep.

Many years ago, I swore I'd never 'shoot' anything involving still life. But I took an online class specifically for that just to challenge myself. I enjoyed the class much to my surprise. Still Life can be very technical or very simple.

Since delving into the fun world of toy photography, I've decided that this is so enjoyable and presents with so many creative aspects. I'll keep on keeping on!

I'll never stop enjoying nature photography, but this is a great way to practice the art of photography when I cannot get out in nature.

Amazing Junk? Car Buff Fun!

Old farms in our area often have old vehicles dumped into the 'dry runs'. I imagine that it served a two fold purpose. Get rid of the old car and slow down the rush of water to slow erosion. 

I don't see that it was especially effective, however I decided to see what I could find. 

This dry run is part of our original farm before it was split up in the 1980's. I'd have to check my papers, but the previous owners to the 1980's had a large tract of farm land and woods. The ownership on this farm goes all the way back to just after the Civil War. I believe that I read that the farm was part of a grant of some sort.

With that history out of the way, I decided to explore the dry runs that feed into my creek. I do have permission from my western neighbors to explore their land, but I've never explored this section.

To my huge surprise I found the perfect junk yard.

This dry run held 3 vehicles and parts of a stove of some sort and unidentifiable things.

Here is the hood to this car. A Chevrolet!

The interior

I imagine when this vehicle had seen its last days, they pulled out the engine and dragged it to the edge of the dry run and pushed it down. I walked around it and found this tag attached to the body.

I did 'google' these numbers and the one thing I know for sure is that the paint # is for black. I found a lot of images of what this might look like. The following one is probably more closer than some of the ones I found on Antique car sights. Of course I did not find or see a hood ornament like this one. It may be buried under 70 or so years of dirt and debris.

However, I think it was broken off.

There were two more vehicles in this ditch.

I have no clue what this may even be! But I will have to go back and explore some more. It looked as if the roof of the car had been cut off and it had a rubber seal around it.

It was definitely a two door and a search of a body number related to Briggs Mfg. Co. brought up nothing. Well, nothing that I could decipher. There was a discussion of sales for these tags though!

Who knew? My neighbor may have some gold buried in his dry runs!

I'd like to go back on a better day and get some photos of the dashboard.

Anyway, on to mystery car number 3. 

At first I was sure these had to be Model A's. When I got home I put the numbers in a search engine. The first few numbers indicated a Buick of some kind. PJ 113110 the letters BCD just confused the search engine.

It was fun to try though.

Under one of the vehicles there were stove parts. Did they all get chucked in the ditch at the same time or what? I won't ever know.

I left this dry run and started around the ridge to the next one. I found this prize but didn't stop to check it out. Did this farm really have this many vehicles???

This last photo is of a dry run just on the other side of our fence line to the west.

I've photographed this vehicle a lot over the years as it is 30 seconds from my porch. As you can see, it may or may not slow down the water when it runs!

It has a partner vehicle just 20 or so feet from it. Right now it is covered in brush and bulldozed trees. Here is what it looked like a few years ago.

So far I've counted 6 old vehicles in ditches within short walks from my house. 

I think I do need to walk to another spot where in the past I did note model T's or model A's era vehicles on my east neighbor's land. 

What treasures!

I don't have much knowledge about old cars, but this is really quite interesting. Apparently, I just need to explore the dry runs near old farmsteads just below the ridge tops.

I've found more than one Homestead junk yard while hiking the Reserve. Of course one has to know where to look and after exploring our surrounding forest here, I've got a pretty good idea of how to find the cool Junk.

Imagine if these items could tell their stories. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Fresh air Hike & Junk

*I'm going for a walk. to the Big Spring. I'll use the field road, the snow mobile trail and the cropland to get down and back. I'll stop by the big dry run on the East side of PeeWee's.*  PeeWee was the nickname of the owner of this land.

I tell this to my husband as he goes for his morning two hour-ish nap. He knows these locations as he has ridden and explored the neighbor's land we still refer to as PeeWee's.

 

Here is a photo of the Big Spring

Photo of the Big Spring last winter when 
the water still ran quicker. The warm air and water
creates incredible frost on the rocks:

I went from the Big Spring over to the East Dry Run and walked up to where the little spring flows out of the 'step rocks'.

This spot in non drought years produces a small steady stream of water that works its way through all of these rocks.

In a normal cold and wet winter it looks like this:

A person can literally walk on two to three feet of ice or even more. It fills the dry run with incredible colors of ice that vary from blue to green and in places... an orange color.
These photos were taken in 2015.

Two years of drought has changed the flow of the tiny spring. It still runs, but the temperatures have not been cold enough to create the river of blue ice like it has in years past.

Charlie is standing next to some cool roots and there is a critter path that leads up the bank from where the animals come down to drink from the tiny spring.

In years past, the river of ice has been at least 4 to 5 feet thick right at this spot. 

From here back to the top where the snowmobile trail is a 100 foot climb up to the top. The grade is steeper than 25% so it is pretty intense.

The ground was frozen enough to climb up and out to the top. Yes, I climbed it. I do it each time I visit this spot. It is easier than back tracking into the valley.

Below is a map of my walk in the terrain mode of maps. The road viewed is called Tigen and it is a dead end road.

The yellow dots are places where someone lives. The start and stop is where we live. The black dot is where the where I was standing in near the little Spring.

I include this terrain map so you can see that the hikes are not on flat ground except when I cross cropland. You can see how steep our terrain really is.

View from the top 14 seconds.

My walk on the ridge was interesting also. I've decided to do another project on Farm Junk. Why not? Old farms have cool junk that farmers dumped in their dry runs to slow erosion and get rid of old machinery and things like tires. 

Here is the first of my Junk Files. 

The Viking.

Hey, it could be advertised as a great AirBnb! 

--- Unplug! Enjoy Nature in our Viking Hut! No internet, no electricity! Experience the outdoors like a Hobo!

The open air feeling of this AirBnb is wonderful. Hear all the forest noises all night long. The unobstructed window faces east where you can watch the sun rise over the Driftless Region!

That's it folks....

Charlie and I have a lot of junk to find this winter. Can I just call it Still Life??

A little more fun with Droids

Play on the cheap. A week or so ago I made another diorama out of some CPAP trash and used it for my Legos which are tiny. I have a 4" droid made by Kenner that I thought would be fun to make a diorama for also.

What better time to do it when it is 100+ degrees out? 

I gathered a chunk of cardboard that wrapped around some meds in a box and spray painted it slightly, then I glued a hose washer, bottle cap, hair tie, and bit and pieces of random things together. I made a box of of cardboard and pipes out of straws. The mesh in front is from a potato bag that was destined for the trash.

The base was the top of a cardboard box and then I just ripped pieces to make them ragged looking.

As it is presented here on the table, it really doesn't look like much. So I closed the curtains in a way to let in light as I wanted it ....

and took some shots...

this was the result.

I think the process of 'creating' the scene was most of the fun. I just went at it, adding bits and pieces and shading it with colors. I wanted a textured background but not so textured as to take away what was happening in the photo.

One of the things I like about this method is that fact that it is simple and it doesn't have to be Perfect to give one a sense of mood. The other thing that tickled me is that it cost nothing as I had all the items on hand in the trash pile. 

What is also very important here is paying attention to the depth of focus. The items behind the droid and slightly in front shouldn't be in clear focus unless the intent is on highlighting those items.

I lucked out with good light simply by moving curtains. No magic there! The photo was shot for highlight drama. That means it was exposed to bring out the lighter areas and leave the other areas a bit dark.

Of course Peazy can't do all of her work alone. She needs to have her deliveries....

NED-B apparently has volunteered to help.

And there is generally some time during the day for tea...

Even Droids get a break. 

Now if I can get a Droid to do my cooking. 

The weather is finally breaking so I leave my droids and toys and head outside to chase insects and find hiking adventures.

Thank goodness! Oh wait, the Droids will probably come along....

I'm a Winger!

I like making things up as I go along. I wing it when being creative. I don't plan, I do. Sometimes it is a fail, and sometimes it is a Win.

I decided to watch tutorials about 'making' terrain for sets and dioramas, most of the artists or creators drew up plans.

One fella who was using Junk he found around the house just 'winged' it.

That is my style. Take stuff and put it together to see what works and what doesn't work.

So, armed with old hair ties, a CPAP machine, tubing, garden mulch, cardboard, glue, spray paint, and paint...

I winged it....

I won't bore you with a ton of shots. I will offer 55 seconds of a series of photos with titles for what I did.

I discovered that I enjoyed working with cardboard more than the other materials. Cardboard is easy to cut into shapes that I want and when I am done with using it, I have no issue in recycling it.

Using the old CPAP machine was a great challenge. I cut apart the old and outdated hoses and enjoyed 'making' space junk out of them. Using mulch and chunks of wood as 'rocks' was fun also. I kept many of them loose so I could reuse them in different scenes. Of course I can toss the wood back into the flower beds too.

The process was a learning experience. 

I even used a screen grab of a wrecked spaceship to add a digital background to a shot.

The Lego Droid sort of gets lost in this shot, but photos that don't turn out perfect are how we learn.

Original:

This one almost feels too busy. A focus just on the little droids would have worked much better. But by trying this over and over, I will eventually come up with something decent.

I do like the detail of the background though, it looks rusty and very much like a space junkyard!

I did put a little balloon light inside the container that was bright blue.

My first photo of the morning was taken on the porch. It ended up being my favorite. It isn't just a shot of toys. He just looks so SAD!

Battle Weary Droid

This was the cardboard design I made. I think I like this little 'scene' best right now for a background.

I may make more of them with certain themes or ideas in mind.

I cannot image trying to 'make' this scene out of Legos. Besides, I like to mess around with paints and try new things all of the time.

I did watch videos on making terrain for wargaming sets. They were pretty interesting. I mostly was interested in those videos that used things that most people would have on hand.

Oh boy. I have a lot of boxes!!!

 

From Trash to Treasure?

So, last week we had horrid weather and I think I pulled lower back muscles or something else. It was painful to walk to bend to stand and well, if you've ever had that sort of pain, ... you will understand.

I spent some time reading library books, I spent some time staring out the window swearing that I'd never complain again about -10 degree weather, and of course spent time supervising the driveway rehab project.

Creatively, I felt stuck. Even with the beautiful foggy  mornings, I didn't feel too inspired. Nothing really got me going. That is until I was bored and decided to watch YouTube videos on how to build dioramas on the cheap using common items.

A guy built a little HO Train Scale tree out of a stick and wire. I was fascinated. Another person made realistic rocks out of foam board and another one that made rock backgrounds out of chunks of wood and mulch. 

I knew I didn't have the patience for the tree or the materials. But making rocks out of chunks of wood was intriguing. We had wood chunks all over the place. I live surrounded by a forest.

Lo and Behold, I found a chunk of foam in an old junk pile while I searched for wood chunks.

Wood chunks from the pine stump in the yard that I'd been pulling apart.

I thought at first I'd try using a box and a paper bag on the kitchen table. Could I 'make' a scene?

Then an idea popped into my head. I took a large paper bag and opened it up. I tried this ----> but it was sort of a fail.

Which ended up being this and this---->

It was just sort of Ok. Like Meh Ok. 

I needed to step away and do something else first. 

I got out the knife, paints, and Modge Podge. 

Let's make some rocks.
I broke the foam into chunks and then used a knife to make it look rough. The dude in the video said to save the pieces of foam for another project. So I stuck them in an old to go container.

I mixed the Modge Podge and the paint and started the messy journey in a nice cool house, while the world baked outside.

Wireless headphones and music helped drown out the sound of the TV blaring in the next room.

After laying it on thin and then thicker, I had to set it all aside to dry -- a long time!

So I rearranged the paper bag on my 'creative' table and grabbed some chunks of wood. I set a piece of packaging material from my trash and added it for texture. It was the right color and might be useful.

I added some figures randomly. 

I finally settled on an old Halloween prop [spider], a Tusken Warrior Lego figure and a small Tusken Warrior figure from my collection.

It really doesn't look like much at all.

But.
Using a narrow depth of focus I wanted the scene just to give an indication of the spider and I wanted the figures to be in sharp focus while the items behind just added texture.

The figures kept falling over because the paper wasn't taped down. I used an Elmer's Glue Stick on their feet.

And the final result was:

Whoo Hoo! 

Meanwhile, the 'rocks' had dried enough so I could add more shades of color.

I wanted dark-ish rocks, but with some eye catching highlights. I added a grey wash to the high points and had to set them to the side again to let them dry.

Finished rocks:

But now I was in the mood to hunt for treasures and see what I could come up with in junk piles. 

These items were part of an old CPAP hose. I wanted to make something like a space junk pile.

Sometimes I wonder about myself. I get in a slump and then all of a sudden I get in a crazy mood to 'make' things and experiment. 

The first attempts with some of the items were fun. It needs more 'work', but here is two just for fun shots.

Mr. Eggstreme must have come to the wrong Lego Scene here! 

My first attempt at my Space Junk. 

I have to figure out what to do with the light better. 

But I think it turned out okay for a first attempt. I may add the rocks and some more light to make something more notable. But for now? This is it.

Let's face it. I had a great time and had my creativity and imagination challenged. It sure makes the days go by and gives me something to enjoy.

I'll be taking some more items and creating texture on some old pieces of pipe using glue and would you believe it...??? Baking soda.

What happens when I am done with all this stuff? Why, I can toss it back into the junk pile outside the shed or send it to recycling. In the mean time, I can have fun with stuff no one else would think of as useful.

One person's junk is another person's treasure?

:)