Does whatever a Spider can

I love photographing toys. For me it is like mental-zen. I get to set them up and position them and add lights and just play around with photography and lighting. Because they are just small action figures, I can make little spaces for them to work in.

This is a SpiderMan figure by SHFiguarts. They are very posable and they are of fantastic quality. This is the Far From Home figure based on the movie (which are the best Spider Man films to date)

The brick walls are dioramas made by SHFiguarts. I have a little tiny spotlight that I used to light Spidey and create that circle of light around him. I covered the light with a yellow transparent gel.

Since I’ve got you looking at Spider Man, I bet you are singing the Spider Man song in your head. Gotcha!

You Shall Not Pass!!!

I got this fantastic little Gandalf statue for Christmas last year. I recently did a little set up with him here at the studio with some fake plants, lights and a little atmosphere aerosol, and, viola!, a photo of old greybeard himself.

My wife is a huge fans of the Lord of the Rings books, and I am an especially huge fan of the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films. Hardly a week goes by that one of us isn’t tossing out some kind of LOTR quote in regards to something.

I like the little bit of orange light on Gandalf’s shoulder to camera left. There is some mist coming down from above his head and that little kiss of orange light just makes the photo for me. This particular model sculpt is also amazing. It captures Ian McKellen’s likeness but is also so stylized.

"Open the goddamn hatch we have to get him inside..." ALIEN

I love toys and action figures. I love Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction masterpiece “ALIEN”. I especially love toymaker NECA and their toys based off of that film.

I took a week and sat down with some of these figures and created some small “moving stills” vignettes so that I could play with composition and moving the camera and smoke and lasers and all kinds of stuff.

Over the next three days I’ll be posting the three videos I created from that week of playing and experimenting. Some of these use audio and music from the 1979 film.

This is the 3rd of 3 posts.

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Have questions about these motion stills videos? Want to talk shop? Want to talk ALIEN? Leave a comment down below!

"It seems to have life ... organic life" • ALIEN

I love toys and action figures. I love Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction masterpiece “ALIEN”. I especially love toymaker NECA and their toys based off of that film.

I took a week and sat down with some of these figures and created some small “moving stills” vignettes so that I could play with composition and moving the camera and smoke and lasers and all kinds of stuff.

Over the next three days I’ll be posting the three videos I created from that week of playing and experimenting. Some of these use audio and music from the 1979 film.

This is the 2nd of 3 posts.

Homage to ALIEN (1979)

I love toys and action figures. I love Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction masterpiece “ALIEN”. I especially love toymaker NECA and their toys based off of that film.

I took a week and sat down with some of these figures and created some small “moving stills” vignettes so that I could play with composition and moving the camera and smoke and lasers and all kinds of stuff.

Over the next three days I’ll be posting the three videos I created from that week of playing and experimenting. Some of these use audio and music from the 1979 film.

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If you have any questions or comments or just want to talk about how awesome ALIEN is, leave a comment and let’s talk shop!

Random Access Memories

Spent some time with my Daft Punk action figures and some small LED christmas lights.

I recently picked up their album "Random Access Memories" on vinyl.  I have the cd, but the vinyl release sounds so much warmer.

an elegant weapon of a more civilized age

I recently nabbed my Force FX Lightsabers out of storage and brought them to the studio to house them on the wall.  I've always wanted to find a simplistic mounting option that didn't look big or bulky, and after doing a little internet searching, I found out that Force FX Lightsaber handles fit perfectly in these mounting brackets made for Maglite flashlights.

They just screw right into the wall and after popping the handles in them, you can hardly see them, and it looks like the lightsabers are floating off the wall a few inches.  The above image was taken a few moments after getting all three installed.  How awesome is that!!

If you are a nutjob like me and have to have lightsabers, these are the classiest, simplistic way of displaying them.  So excellent.  Click the small image above to order them through Amazon.

Sh*t Got Real JC: Part 2

Last week a post about my ThreeA figure "Sh*t Got Real JC" was published.  He rules.  Over the weekend I brought him over to Clough State Park, which I have done with my other ThreeA figures in the past, and spent a lovely afternoon making images with him.

A word of advice to other ThreeA collectors out there that like to take photographs of their figures:  BE CAREFUL WITH THE WRIST PEGS!  While trying to remove that awesomesauce Mad Max jacket I have for him, I pulled on the sleeve too hard and his wrist peg snapped.  This is the second time I've had a wrist peg snap - the first time was back at the start of 2017 when changing hands for my Blind Cowboy and his peg snapped.  Replacements can be found on eBay, but they are stupid expensive.  So be extra careful when doing anything with the hands or wrists.  I've since cut that long leather sleeve off the jacket, so now it's more of a badass leather vest.  Still looks excellent.

You can see a few more example images I made over on my Flickr page.