Yuck

Well there it is. I've officially gotten the first cold in years. At least 12 years to be exact. It pretty much took me down and out of commission for a few days.

Interestingly enough, I never had a fever, just a throat that felt like I'd swallowed glass. I felt like someone ran over me with a dump truck. 

I was able to do chores, so I must have been doing pretty okay.

I spent time sleeping in the spare room and reading books. 

I think I got enough sleep over the last few days that I won't need to sleep for at least a month now.

I felt better today, the sore throat was gone the head wasn't quite as stuffy, but the body still felt a bit slow and worn out. Which meant more reading. 

Tomorrow the heater dude is supposed to come and replace the intake fan motor. I've surveyed the driveway and figure he can turn his van around in one spot and thankfully, the ice melted off the driveway this afternoon.

I hope it all goes well. Thursday night there is a snow storm predicted of 6 to 10 inches. No problem as long as I can get to town and grab a few items.

I still feel yuck-y. But my voice has returned and evening chores were not a big deal, I just hauled hay and water slowly.

I know I'm not up to par as I haven't even picked up my camera since Saturday! [I did though this afternoon...]

I've been having a blast with the light box.

Below, 

Manny the Mannequin adopts a bunch of wooden animals....

Manny now realizes that he will 
have to feed his menagerie!

 A ring holder?

A St. Clair Pear glass paper weight.

During my resty-sleepy-nappy-time, I watched some tutorials on Toy Photography I really enjoyed the videos by a person that goes by SirDork. He explained how to to 'action' shots with still toys and I decided to try it. 

I also watched videos of other Toy Photographers who made huge elaborate sets for their toys.

Some were toy collectors and their ages surprised me.

What better thing to do with toys when you collect them, than to make sets and enjoy playing again?

This was my first try at a very simple set up. A snowball fight between cast off toys that a neighbor kid gave me long ago... I did it this evening after chores.

Now back to chillin' and resting.

Can't wait to get to full steam ahead!

Just this

Someone suggested that I wear bubble wrap...hmmmm...

Good idea? Maybe!

Moe to Joe: We aren't catching anything!

Joe: From what I understand it doesn't matter. It's just relaxing to sit and do nothing. Relax and enjoy the fresh air.

Moe: And you are still wearing that silly hat.

Joe: It suits me. Let's fish.

Have a great weekend everyone.

More wooden model fun

Well, I had so much fun with the mannequin, I thought I'd sit down and try to think up another scenario or two. I had more phone calls to wait on. 

My cell phone does work, it doesn't get voice service inside the north portion of the house and rarely gets any service in the kitchen. It does receive texts and all the other good stuff. Just no voice service most of the time inside the house. We attribute that to living with hills surrounding our place and the steel roof.

I really had to work at thinking of things. I tried making paper flowers that would be tiny enough for the mannequin to hold. Boy was that ever a failure. Meanwhile, apparently little wooden dog got hungry and mannequin fed him.

I tried to get the mannequin in a nice sitting position, but it kept falling over. I wanted the tiny dog in his lap. That didn't work. Then I tried making a blanket and a pillow. 

That worked but I didn't like how the shot turned out. The color of the material I used took away from the feel I was trying to get.

I went to all white and tried this.

Bad dog. What happens when you let wooden fido get the mail!

I tried several positions and the light from the back door kept changing.

This was much harder than it looks! Light, shadows, and no distractions to take away from the subject matter. 
But it was a great mind exercise.

Wooden Stories

Over a year or so ago, I received a package from a childhood friend with a surprise inside. She told me a story about how her parents wouldn't let her have a pet so she saved up her allowance each week and went to this little store uptown and eventually bought herself a wooden zoo. She felt that her Zoo should move to a place where they would be used more. I inherited these beautiful little animals from her.

I picked up a cheap wooden artist's mannequin last summer on a whim. I wasn't sure what it would be useful for at all. I ended up setting it aside until a two Flickr friends posted photos of their very same mannequins. One was a study of shadows and light in photography. The other one was of the mannequin juggling peas. [He said he used wire and frozen peas and had to edit out the wires!]

With Valentine's Day coming up last week, I thought I'd do a bit of experimenting with light and what else? Hearts!

I learned something. I could work with the mannequin.

And then I thought about it some more and decided that I'd try and do something that had an emotional impact.

I thought the mannequin would be so hard to work with because it has no features. However. Having no features made the positioning and the composition more important than ever.

Joy

Love

Caring

Adventure

[Standing the mannequin on ice with a wind was tricky, but I got it done before it tipped over.]

This was a great exercise in creativity. I may do more. 

The weather is predicted to be nasty today. I wonder where my wooden friends will take me next?