El Dave Photography

I should subtitle this "When in doubt, Photoshop the crap out of it". I had a really great idea for ol' War Ape here, but I don't have any more sparklers (used them all in a shoot that didn't turn out), I don't have a way to safely produce arcs of electricity (haven't built that Jacob's Ladder), and he's so tall (relatively speaking) that any fire I used just didn't work out.

Call it an exercise in creative frustration.

I originally envisioned a scene with lots of sparks, some smoke, a little fire, a glint in the monster's eye; you know, Frankenstein. I wanted something that was as much fun to set up as it would be to shoot. What I settled for is a barely aggressive pose shot against a plain background. After about an hour and a half of heavy Photoshop work, what was originally a boring portrait of a gorilla is a little closer to what I originally intended. The photo looks old, it looks dusty, it looks like something a mad scientist would come up with and, for now, that's good enough. I'll definitely be shooting Mr. War Ape again!

Frankenexif's monster:

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro
Exposure:	0.7 sec (7/10)
Aperture:	f/1.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	1 EV

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:01:10 16:09:45
Tag::TIFF::0x882A:	-6, -6
Exposure Program:	Normal
Date and Time (Original):	2008:01:10 15:47:34
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:01:10 15:47:34
Shutter Speed:	514573/1000000
Brightness:	-133/100
Metering Mode:	Center Weighted Average
Light Source:	Daylight
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	630 dpc
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	630 dpc
Sensing Method:	One-chip colour area sensor
Exposure Mode:	Auto bracket
White Balance:	Manual
Focal Length In 35mm Film:	75
Saturation:	High saturation
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	3024 pixels
Image Height:	2024 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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