El Dave Photography

A photographer and his toys. Updated weekly.

Zentradi Regult (0)

4:50 PM by , under

Regult (by ElDave)

As a kid growing up in the 80s, I had a choice to make. I could either fall in love with the Transformers, the earlier Gobots, or the imported from Japan Robotech.
I don't think I ever watched an original episode of Transformers (until fairly recently), I owned several Gobots (which I loved and consider buying again), but the series that I just couldn't do without was Robotech.

The basic premise of Robotech is provided by Wikipedia:
The First Robotech War's roots were laid in 1999 when an massive alien spaceship over 1,200 meters (3,940 feet) in length crash landed on the fictional Macross Island in the South Pacific. Throughout the 1990s, the Global War raged across Earth, with entire countries being devastated. The War was fought with conventional weapons for the most part, but by 1999, it appeared that a global nuclear exchange was inevitable. However, the crash of the spaceship and the realization that the threat of an alien invasion was a distinct possibility caused the nations of the world to declare a ceasefire. A supranational entity, the United Earth Government (UEG) was formed and acted quickly to unify the warring factions and rebuild the spacecraft. The United Earth Government took precedence among many facets of life and operations pertaining to military preparation and technological advancement of humanity and new military branches were formed, most notably the Robotech Defense Force (RDF). During the next 10 years, an entire city sprang up on Macross Island as intense efforts were made to rebuilt the spaceship. In 2009, the rebuilting effort was finished and the ship was ready for launch and given the designation SDF-1. Unknown to mankind at the time, the Zentraedi had been searching for the ship for some time and its arrival on Earth would be followed by the arrival of the Zentraedi on the day of the SDF-1's launch.

When the Zentradi invaded Earth, their primary weapon was the Regult Battle Pod. These things came in multiple variations, some, like the one pictured today, carried beam cannons and anti-personnel guns. There was a scout pod that gave up all of its weaponry in exchange for an all out sensor package, while the heavy pods mounted heavy missles.

Basically, they were mostly there to get shot or punched by our heroes in their Veritech fighters.

Today's picture was taken inside of Raceway Woods, aka, Meadowdale International Raceway. As we were exploring the grounds, I saw a section of pulped/mulched trees. I'm not sure what happened there, but all the broken trunks and stems made for a perfect toy-sized scene. Because we were outside, I didn't have any fun lights, no blacklights, no fog machines, just me and the sunshine.

Cleanup in Photoshop was pretty simple. I adjusted the levels to make the blacks pop and add contrast, did the eye glow, then added a gaussian blur to bring it all together.

You can keep your Autobots and Challenge of the Gobots, but I have one question for you.

Do you remember love?

Super Dimension Fortress: EXIF

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 51 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution: 72 dpi
Y-Resolution: 72 dpi
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
Date and Time: 2008:09:20 18:45:49
YCbCr Positioning: Co-Sited
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original): 2008:09:20 15:52:11
Date and Time (Digitized): 2008:09:20 15:52:11
Shutter Speed: 369876/65536
Metering Mode: Pattern
Color Space: sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution: 4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution: 4453.608 dpi
White Balance: Manual
Compression: JPEG
XMP Date and Time (Original): 2008-09-20T15:52:11-06:00
Image Width: 3888 pixels
Image Height: 2592 pixels

Be good,
-Dave



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Patlabor (0)

6:30 AM by , under

Patlabor

Well, the AV-98 Ingram to be exact.
From Wikipedia:

The story takes place in what was, at the time of release, the near future of 1998-2002. Robots called "Labors" are employed in heavy construction work. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has its own arsenal of Patlabors to combat crimes and deal with accidents involving Labors. The story arcs usually revolve around Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2. Noa Izumi is the main protagonist of the series, but all of Division 2 play roles.
The feature films follow separate continuities, referred to as the "movie timeline" and the "TV timeline." The different OVA series follow either the movie or TV timelines.


As I've said before, I enjoy the idea of the Patlabor series, but I tend to fall asleep inbetween the giant robot bits. Normally, I would just give up on the series and walk away, but there is something about the combination of giant robots and the police force that's too compelling. I want to like it.

Just as an aside, I found the Ingram at White Wizard Toys, which I found out is only a 5 minute drive from my office. This could be disastrous for my wallet.

Setup for this shot was extremely simple. I grabbed my light and placed it directly behind his shoulders, pointing at the camera. Open up the exposure and aperture to get that cool halo, then snap the shot. Cleanup in Photoshop involved adding the eye glow and extending the light beams a little more. Pretty simple, but a great payoff.

Halt in the name of the EXIF:

Camera:
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:
8 sec (8)
Aperture:
f/22
Focal Length:
50 mm
ISO Speed:
100
Exposure Bias:
0/3 EV
Flash:
Flash did not fire
Orientation:
Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:
72 dpi
Y-Resolution:
72 dpi
Software:
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:
2008:09:01 20:42:32
YCbCr Positioning:
Co-Sited
Exposure Program:
Manual
Date and Time (Original):
2008:09:01 20:02:54
Date and Time (Digitized):
2008:09:01 20:02:54
Shutter Speed:
-196607/65536
Metering Mode:
Pattern
Color Space:
sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:
4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:
4453.608 dpi
Exposure Mode:
Manual
White Balance:
Manual
Compression:
JPEG
Image Width:
2592 pixels
Image Height:
3888 pixels

Be good,
-Dave



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