As I sit here listening to my Futureheads channel on Pandora, I'm thinking how nice it is to share news with you on a more regular basis. Despite having a killer cold and sinus issues, I managed to add another image to my new photo series today. It definitely took a little more experimentation and trial and error compared to the first two, but I'm pretty pleased with it.
I'm sure people thought I was nuts. I went out to a field by my house with 2 toys - this one and my Hungarian Holdraketa Rocket. The rocket is actually a really cool toy - it has this nifty piece of engineering that is activated when the nose of the rocket hits something. At that moment, it has wheels that come down, pushing the rocket to a vertical position…and then a little ramp with an astronaut opens up. But after a bunch of images with it, it became clear that object wasn't going to work. As I'm switching to the Apollo 12 toy you see in the final image, a guy comes up to me asking for directions. Then a guy comes by and gives me a weird look while walking his dog. I see cars slow down near the entrance, the drivers looking over and then pulling away with mystified looks on their faces. Move along people, nothing to see here!
The main issue with this shot was getting the perspective right. I did a whole bunch very, very close-up…basically macro. But, they just didn't feel right. I had some showing sky, but those didn't have the eerie factor I was looking for. Most of the shoot I was laying in the dirt on my stomach trying to get the light and angle exactly just so. But soon it became clear that the way to accomplish this was to shoot slightly down on it - getting that rocky moonscape feel all around it. The horizon line was eliminated on purpose so it gets yanked from its original context and feels like it's somewhere else. This also allowed me to play with scale a little bit, which is quickly becoming a recurring element in this series. From there, it was a question of composition, saturation/color, and very minor retouching.
Anyway, I hope you like it. I have plans for more very soon, so stay tuned!
-Marc
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