Princess Sara and the Frog's Quest

Ideas sort of start out randomly. I had this partial building that the grandkids had left me and wanted to try and do something with it.

I took out Princess Sara and her stick horse and set her in the building. I added another character and then just messed with ideas that bounced around in my head. [My husband says it is an echo chamber inside my brain!]

Some time ago, while bored, I watched a video about how you can extend a building for photography by using a mirror. I thought I'd try it. 

To create an optical illusion, I added flowers to the back where I took the wall down. If seen 'in' camera and slightly out of focus, the flowers and bricks seem to be part of the set.

The kids had left some holes in the walls of their build so I thought I'd try putting lights through them to make the scene a bit more interesting. These are some Ulanzi lights I purchased on the cheap for some other still life work.

What it looks like from above.

What it looks like from behind the camera.

I wanted to add a bit of atmosphere to the scene. There are all sorts of ways to add atmosphere. Photographer's Atmosphere [very pricey atmosphere in a spray can], fog machines [very pricey, but now they make hand held ones], and a simple battery operated face mister. The face mister has an arrow pointing to it....

To add the mist, I simply turned it on and lay it on its side next to the open space that the light was shining through.

The scene as it looked in camera.👆

I kept moving minifigs around and finally decided to have Princess Sara talking to a tiny frog. I mean all good stories have a Princess and a Frog right?

I swapped out the Acorn person for a Knight. Not just any Knight, I chose one female knight I call Joan. 
In this scene Joan holds Princess Sara's stick horse while she meets in the castle garden at night to speak to the Magical Frog.

I mean, why not? 

The mirror did its trick the castle garden seems to extend in the background forever. The lights and mist add mystery and Joan's eyes are watching over her Princess carefully.

The final shot:

For me, it was important to see Joan's eyes through her helmet. It seems silly that she is holding both an weapon and a stick horse, but that is the fun of toy photography. Anything you desire can happen.

After shooting this photo, I decided that perhaps Sara and Joan should go on the Quest that the Frog sent them on.

Do I know what their Quest is yet? Nope. I imagine if I follow them, I may figure it out eventually.

Rainy day fun with Still Life

 

Teddy Bear Garden Club
Meeting

With two days of darkness and dreariness filled with rain and well, gloom...I decided to mess around with --- toys of all things! Surprise!

I had to be quiet because the other half was Mr. Sleepy Head. I did chores of course along with transplanting Bee Balm plants that were emerging. They are so hardy and tough. I knew with the rain, it might be a good time to move things [in between showers].

I decided to clean up my old camera and hired a crew to do that while I swept the house for Charlie hair.

Kidding of course. I decided to take advantage of the low light coming in from the east and south windows. It wasn't harsh, but perfect for Still Life.

You don't need much room to 'make' a scene.

Clean up Crew

What it looked like before I put up a tea towel...

"Oh no Chuck, we need some eye drops! Can

you get the top off?"

These are HO Scale pieces and they don't like to stand up on their own very well. Viola! Some Elmer's Glue works very well. This wipes off easily and works wonders! It goes on purple and fades to clear.

It is amazing what happens to a creative person when she gets bored from being quiet around the house. 

I got out the kid blocks and a little light and set them up on my 'play' table.  For special effects I put the camera on a timer and simply used a face mister for fog and water in a spray bottle for rain.

With almost no edits, I got these photos of this little Lego figure:

Pre-edit. 

Upped the blacks and....decreased

the color...

I even tried making Frank the Trooper float, and that failed miserably. I used a fishing line to suspend him and tried the following. He kept swinging around and nothing worked out for me.

I went back to what worked before and added a filter to the light.

Original:

Final:

I added some contrast and a used brush that comes with ON1. It is supposed to be a comet, but I thought it looked like a blast from a blast. The 'rain' is from the spritzer.

Friday morning we had sunlight! It was cold and windy...but Charlie and I adventured down into the valley to the Big Spring.

More about that...

later.

Today it is snowing again.

thhhhppptttptptp...ffffttt.

Wicked Weather!

You can Dance in a Hurricane

But only if you

are standing

in the

Eye.

I heard the above words when I was listening to my Pandora Station with earbuds while sorting out medications for Hubby. Doing meds for half the month or the full month takes quite a bit of time. I generally listen to music to blot out any distractions.

I just loved the lyrics to this song and sadly I don't know what the song was!

The winds whistled and roared above our little hollow and once more, I was grateful for not living on the ridge. We'd had over an inch of rain during the night with a lot of lightening and thunder. 

A few times when the thunder shook the house, Charlie was sure that the world was about to end.

Since it was soooo gloomy out, I decided to do some lightbox photography.

The ambient light was a little easier to control. Pictured above is the lightbox with a black background and a little Ulanzi cube light, a balloon light, a face mister, and tacky stuff. 

The tacky stuff is great for keeping the feet of the taller figure in place.

The little light comes with filters to change the color of the light. I'm still experimenting and learning all about light. I never thought I'd ever do anything other than outdoor photography.

However, here I am, learning something new.

I am really happy how this turned out. I used the lightbox with the lowest light setting and a diffuser over the light.

I used the Ulanzi cube with a slightly orange filter at the foot of the toy pointing up.

I used the face mister to produce...well, mist!

I learned a lot about mist. It can confuse the camera and it can also make things rather grainy. 

Finding the right balance takes a bit of work and quite a few shots.

Dark Trooper leaving his

charging station with 

a mini Dark Trooper

I found these non-Lego Legos a while ago when searching for knights.

[Pointing below at the photo---->]

If you are a fan of Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings series, these guys would be identified as Uruk-Hai Orcs. One Orc from Lego would be nearly $26.00. 
In a photo like this, you cannot tell if it is a real Lego or a knock off. I was able to get 7 Orcs and 7 Elf like knights in one package for less than one Orc.

These guys look pretty fierce. And now I am laughing because this Orc is holding his shield upside down!

A few days ago, I did make it down to the creek to enjoy some quiet time with Charlie. I had Squatch and Hobby in my bag. I went to my favorite spot and did this:

It's nice that they too can get out and enjoy some peaceful times.

This morning the moonlight woke me up and the skies were clear and bright!

Whew! Mother Nature has decided to give us another break from the Wicked Weather.

It'll still be a little windy, but at least I can get out today and enjoy the weather.