Annie Are You Okay?

As y'all probably know by now, I love action figures and toys.  I've always had an action figure in my hand since I was a little kid.  I'm a bit of a pop-culture junkie, and when I was in college, I started photographing some of my toys as portraits, and over the years I've done a few series' and lots of individual images.

toys hanging on studio wall and displayed on shelf

For Christmas, Sara got me a few figures that had me really excited.  One was a Michael Jackson figure dressed in his "Smooth Criminal" video outfit, and the second was a Freddie Mercury figure, both by Japanese toy makers BanDai & Tamashii Nations, who also made the totally awesome Daft Punk figures I got years ago.

I spent a little time with Michael Jackson at the studio one afternoon.  It also gave me a chance to try out a can of Atmosphere Aerosol.  I've been using and having terrible luck with Fog Machines for years.  I've bought three different brands of fog machine and every time I've tried to follow the directions exactly as listed in the manuals and these machines would always bind or gunk up after my very first use.  It got so frustrating when these stupid things wouldn't work any longer.

I was poking around the Interwebz and saw a wedding photographer using this Atmosphere Aerosol for a portrait in a barn.  It was small and portable, unlike those big fog machines, and you could use it over and over without it gunking up.  Cool.

So I ordered a can from B&H and it arrived and I sat down with Micheal and we started taking some images.  For the record, I also had MJ playing on the stereo at the studio.  Just 'cuz.

Michael comes with a bunch of extra hands in different poses, a 2nd face with a different expression, and he also comes with a second torso (seen in the photo above) in his "Michael-Jackson-arms-stretched-straight-up" pose. Totally awesome.

Eventually I got him posed in the image above and the lighting looked good and I set the timer on my camera, locked in focus and then sprayed a few sprays of the aerosol as the shutter clicked - and I was totally in love with the result.  The aerosol is so awesome and works amazing with small-scale figures; you hardly need any of the spray at all, and it is so much easier to use and store and have on hand.  It's a tad expensive for a can, but I think it's worth it in the end for simplicity and it should last me a good amount of time since I've only been using it for toy photography.

Here is a behind-the-scenes shot of the image up above:

I had three lights set up: one directly above him, like a stage-light, with a grid on it to control the beam and to create a circle of light at his feet.  I had two gridded strobes off to his left and right; gridded yellow and blue, to give some accent colors.  I had him standing on a clear piece of plastic with a piece of black backdrop paper underneath that, to make it look like a glossy stage floor. Not shown is the Atmosphere Aerosol, but I just sprayed it directly down from over his head at the right moment.

I like photographing toys because they don't really take up a ton of space and you can mostly shoot them anywhere. If I ever had to just work out of my house and not have a studio, I could continue to shoot toys with no issues, as long as I had enough space for lighting and grip.

I've spent my whole life appreciating figures and little tiny human-being models.  It allows me to still connect to my childhood joys while being able to create and totally art-direct the action and situations of the toys - exactly the same way I work with real-life clients; in controlled settings where I'm setting up lights and directing them for the sessions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!  I love sharing the stuff that I'm passionate about.

Toys rule! :D

Flashback: Sara, Blimps & Pinhole Photography

While going through some really old cd's of images, I came across some shots of Sara photographing a blimp outside of a blimp factory in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  I think this must have been around 2005-ish.  We were visiting my parents, who lived down there for a few years.

Here is her image of the blimp that she was taking at this exact moment:

This albumen print taken with a pinhole camera, hangs at her parents house.  I love watching Sara photograph.

That blimp factory was dismantled years later.  It used to be right down the road from where my folks lived.  It was really impressive.  I'm sad that it's gone.

Sara’s website: saraceaser.com

The Dead Equine

A while back I had posted some images I created of The Blind Cowboy; a fantastic 1/6th scale figure by ThreeA Toys.  He was originally what got me thinking non-stop about ThreeA figures.  He usually comes packaged with the Dead Equine; a giant 2o-pound horse sculpted out of polystone, and it was only available for an extremely limited time and a very expensive price.  Some people, however, like to buy ThreeA items, split up the contents, and then resell them; this was how I ended up purchasing the Blind Cowboy.  I didn't think I'd ever be able to purchase a Dead Equine, but the image of that horse was burned in my brain. A short while ago, I actually found someone that was selling just the Dead Equine without the Blind Cowboy.

...and now my Blind Cowboy/Dead Equine set is complete.

It was actually fortuitous, as the Dead Equine I purchased was literally everything that comes with the retail version *except* the Blind Cowboy.  So it's a complete set!  How awesome!

The box that the Equine comes in is HUGE.  You can't see it by this picture, but it's massively large.  I bet Sara could sit inside the box it comes it.  It also comes with a gorgeous fold-out poster featuring the artwork from the cover.

I'll be doing more formal photographs once it gets warmer outside, but right after I got him I broke out the fog machine and played around a little bit.

This is the one toy/collectible where Sara supported my purchase 100%.  When it finally arrived, she said "This is a work of art.  This is a sculpture."

It's so amazing.  Prints of my Blind Cowboy portraits are available on my Society6 page starting at $20.

The Argonath

The Argonath.

Taken by boat on the river Auduin, as we entered the realm of Gondor, while on vacation in Middle Earth.

The Argonath (also known as The Gates of Argonath or The Pillars of Kings) is a monument comprising two enormous statues carved in the likenesses of Isildur and his father Elendil, standing upon either side of the River Anduin at the northern approach to Nen Hithoel. It marked the northern border of Gondor, as nearby down south were previous outposts, the Amon Hen and the Amon Lhaw.

These two lovely Argonath statues are actually sculpted bookends that came with a deluxe version of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dvd release somewhere around 2002.  I missed the initial release of these because of price, but I went searching on eBay a while back and finally found a set.

These are so fantastic.  One of my favorite scenes from Fellowship is when they pass into the realm of Gondor and see the Argonath.

This shot was taken on my back porch of our apartment; the bookends simply sitting on the railing, and me waiting for the sun to lower enough that I could catch a little bit of a "gleam" off of one of them.

If you dig this image, it's available as a print on my Society6 page starting at $22.00

Street Photography: Grand Theft Auto V

I'm a bit of a video game addict.  I've always been so.  I'm also a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto V.  It's such an incredible open-world, with all this stuff going on that you might miss while playing the actual game.  I like to just walk around and take in-game cell phone images of all the random characters just going about their lives in this virtual world.  It's fantastic.

If you play GTV online, either on Xbox 360 or the Playstation 4, let me know.  Hit me up.  Let's do some online street photography together :)

ThreeA Action Figures

 

have you guys ever heard of ThreeA toys?  Omigod.  Guys.  GUISE.  I have to share this with you because it's amazing.

ThreeA is a toy company co-owned by comic book artist Ashley Wood.  He reminds me of artists Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz.  ThreeA takes the characters that Ashley creates and turns them into 1:6 and 1:12 scale toys.  Well, dolls.  No, toys.  Both.

I'd never seen any in person, but I always would look at the Blind Cowboy figure online and think how awesome it must be, and then see a resale price of $300+ and quickly close the browser because that is crazy.

Then, a little while ago, I walked into my local Newbury Comics and on the counter was a box of the smaller, 1:12th scale Adventure Kartel figures.

It was destiny.  I had to have one.  So I picked up "Colde Merde"

He's crazy.  He's six inches and he has all kinds of fabric clothing and guns and holsters all over him and a big puffy winter jacket and zippers that zip and a little cigarette that is almost impossible to find when it falls out of his mouth and causes all kinds of frustration while trying to find it on the floor.

I kept looking at Merde and saying to myself "Man, if the tiny 1:12th scale look this good, what the hell do the 1:6th scale look like?"

I kept thinking about that - about these silly toys.  Then I started looking at them on eBay.  One that looked kinda cool came up and a somewhat decent price (who am I lying too?  He was expensive.  But he came with a poster and a t-shirt and a cool box) so I took a chance and bought him.

The 1:12 figures were cool.  But the 1:6th figures are BONKERS.  Like, oh-my-GOD bonkers.

1:6th sale is basically doll size.  They are 12 inches.  One foot of super posable toy, with ball joints and joints everywhere.  Super posable. All the clothes are fabric.  The pockets on the cargo pants open.  The laces on the shoes are string.

And the accessories.  Oh My God, the accessories.  Backpacks and satchels and bags and straps and sheaths and swords and belts.  And the bags all open; they all zipper or snap or clasp.  They hold things.

The figure I got, named "KDA" is part of the "TOMORROW KINGS" line of comics/figures.  As the story with Tomorrow Kings goes, the TK's are a race of genetically cloned fighters bred to fight giant robots with swords to prevent the robots from taking over the world.  They chop off robot's heads with swords.  Giant Robots.

Guys, this company makes giant 1:6 scale decapitated robot heads that you can pair them with.

GIANT DECAPITATED ROBOT HEADS.  !!!!!!!!!

KDA is a bodyguard to the leader of the TK's.  He's covered in dirt.  He's got some bandages on his face and arm.  His clothes are stained with dirt.  Everything has been covered with a layer of dust and painted dirt.  It's amazing.

His shoes come off.  He has feet underneath with toes!  Depending on how you turn KDA's head, his expression seems to change, even though it's a molded plastic face.

He's so awesome.  And he also instantly addicted me to the 1:6th scale.  So much so, I got a second guy.  Another Tomorrow King.

His name is Cornelius.

He's got crazy pointy orange hair.  He has a turtleneck that zips up over his mouth and nose and looks like a ninja.  He has pouches out the ass and comes with a messenger bag full of orange hand grenades.  He has three swords.  He has orange cargo capri pants.  He's absolutely beautiful.

The images above were taken shortly after they both arrived and I simply had to photograph them right away.

I've had to stop at two of them.  I was eyeballing a third recently, but I had enough strength to not buy it.  These things could be the end of me.

I can't wait to get these guys outside and set up some little photo shoots with them.  Rusty, dirty environments for them to roam and explore in.

These things are awesome.

Photograph what you love.