I love portfolio work for celebrities. Even pseudo-celebrities. The hurried phone calls from their agents, run ragged trying to meet their demands. The awed hush that comes over the studio when they finally arrive.
Or not.
Monev the Gale fell out of the public eye several years ago. I mean, let's face it, Trigun didn't end well for the guy. Sure, he got a cool action figure made and made an appearance in the anime, but publicity is all about the now. So when he came into the studio, I'll be honest, I was surprised.
"Dave, you gotta help me. My career has completely tanked and I can't get anyone to return my phonecalls. I need some shots for my portfolio." He kept looking at the floor while we spoke. A real shame to see a guy broken like that.
Stepping over to the outdoor studio, he seemed to perk up a bit. A little awkward at first, but he fell into his groove pretty quickly.
Fortunately, we only had a single incident. Reflector sometimes forgets that he isn't the boss...
We needed one more; something for him to sign at events. This one had to be a stinger!
BAM!
Be good,
-Dave
Even though you think
I might just set you free
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Have you ever seen a figure that you knew nothing about, but knew you had to have?
Enter: Monev the Gale.
From Wikipedia:
Voiced by: Masuo Amada (Japanese), Peter Spellos (English)
Monev the Gale is the first Gung-Ho Gun to fight Vash. Knives locks him in a cell to train his body for twenty years in order to gain the skill and power required to kill Vash. He wears a powered battle suit and carries two high-powered chain guns on his arms. These guns fire extremely fast due to the pressure chambers located on his back, and have tremendous stopping power, enough to tear through entire buildings. He also carries a wide variety of weapons in a big cloth rucksack, including an enormous minigun, powerful enough to punch through a bank vault. He is defeated by Vash and killed afterward as punishment. His life is spared in the anime, but is then killed by E.G. Mine along with Dominique due to his failure.
While I have never read the manga (I hear it is excellent), I have seen parts of the cartoon, and am familiar enough with Vash the Stampede and the other main characters in Trigun. Monev was actually given to me by my buddy Sid, because I kept hassling him about never opening his toys, especially awesome ones like Monev. Thinking it would get me off his back, Sid handed me the figure, telling me to go take pictures or something and leave him alone.
Clearly I am well regarded within my social circle.
Monev was shot in the forest preserve, in a blatant imitation of this photo by my friend Dr. Beef. Go check her stuff out; it's so much fun!
Photoshopping consisted of Auto Levels and a Lab Color tweak to make the little details pop. I really think I'm getting spoiled with this Lab Color thing. Take the picture, run the action, Save As... and I'm done! Can you imagine how short these blog entries would be if all I had to do was post a Wikipedia link and the picture?
Not that this is much better, mind.
Peace and EXIF!
| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 0.003 sec (1/400) |
| Aperture: | f/4 |
| Focal Length: | 27 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 400 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0/3 EV |
| Flash: | Flash did not fire |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop 7.0 |
| Date and Time: | 2008:12:01 13:30:02 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-Sited |
| Exposure Program: | Aperture priority |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2008:11:27 11:54:54 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2008:11:27 11:54:54 |
| Shutter Speed: | 566484/65536 |
| Metering Mode: | Pattern |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.295 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.608 dpi |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 2592 pixels |
| Image Height: | 3888 pixels |
Be good,
Dave
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