El Dave Photography

Whoa. Bit late this week, aren't I? Well, I have a good excuse. On Sunday night I got to see one of my heroes perform live. For those that know me, you know I'm a huge fan of lucha libre, Mexican masked wrestling. Two of the biggest stars are El Santo and Rey Misterio and guess who got to see them both from ringside?
So yeah, I had a little over 500 photos to sort through, but you can see them on my Flickr page!

This week's shot is another fantasy scene. Taking what I learned from Boss Fight, I wanted to expand that out and improve on it as best I could. Where better to take inspiration from than from the Granddaddy of fantasy storytelling, Dungeons & Dragons? I dug through my old books for ideas.
Maybe some vampires and skeletons? Nah.
Goblin hordes? Nah
Displacer Beast? I don't think anyone would know what that is.
Finally it hit me. Why was I trying so hard? The clue's in the name. All I needed was a dungeon and a dragon. And maybe a few poor adventurers seeking to claim the dragon's horde.

For this shot I used:
Cathedral Wall from Armorcast
Water Dragon from McFarlane Toys
Devin Dunhaus, Mercenary from Reaper Miniatures
Dwarven Fighter from Wizards of the Coast

This one fell into place by itself. Hold the desk lamp above and behind, line up the camera, and... Click.

(Click to see larger)

Be good,
-Dave

I can go way back
in my mind

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Remember when we spoke about Hirst Arts molds and I said I wanted to build a small set piece? Well, it's finished!


(Click to see larger)

Now I know, I know. It doesn't look like much now. It looks like some plaster pieces glued together, covered with paint and weathering powder. That's all going to change once we get our subjects on-set and do a little dramatic lighting.

Subject A: Lego Minifigures Spaceman (Series 1)
Subject B: Lego Minifigures Robot (Series 1)

Using a desk lamp, I lit the whole thing from behind so that the light would be spilling out over the Robot and we would get that great reflection off Spaceman's helmet. Make sure the poses are interesting; the Spaceman's gun is slightly elevated and the Robot is "walking". Fiddle with the lights one more time. Argue with assistant over exposure time. Hold your breath...

Click.



Be good,
-Dave

I hope it catched you up

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Aaaaand we're back. Welcome to 2011! Did you enjoy your holiday break? I know I sure did.

One of the things I've been working on and really trying to improve is really opening up my idea of what my "Go To" shot is. As it stands now, I default to this:

(Click to see larger)

What I would like to do is expand that out and explore more of the scene. Bring a little more action, more dynamism. To do that, I'm going to need more that one figure... A quick glance at the shelves yields two fantasy figures that look promising. Benedikt Hellhorn by Reaper Miniatures and Ligori from Anima Tactics should do nicely. As a backdrop, I picked up a bit of resin cathedral wall from Armorcast and lit the whole thing with a table lamp, from above and behind.

I chose Benedikt and Ligori over other models because Ligori is head and shoulders taller. He towers over the smaller Benedikt! And really, how intimidating is a boss fight that you can look in the eye?

So what do you think?

(Click to see larger)

Be good,
-Dave

voices call, they call out my name, (my name, my name)

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