One of two big projects shot in Wales over Easter was a development of a work from last year, "Pretty Vacant"...
The story so far; last year, for an open call for a gallery in South Yorkshire, I (Ben) produced an experimental sculpture piece, with transparent laser-cut figures based off design sketches I made for some of my fashion-type shoots. The idea was inspired by the mood-lights we were doing at work (transparent laser-cut shapes lit from below by colour changing LED bulbs, mounted in self-contained units). The idea with the sculpture was to have 'traditional' fashion photography type set-ups, only without models, and with multi-layered backdrops to give a sense of distance.
Having made a test piece using a scrap of spare acrylic at work, I bought a sheet of 3mil clear acrylic and stayed late at work after hours to get the figures cut out, producing eight figures (based off the design sketches I'd produced for projects like "Happygoth").
The piece didn't really work though for a number of reasons, but mainly because it was something of a rush job. Which meant that I ended up with eight laser-cut figures. I still wanted to do something with the idea though, and eventually decided to pursue the concept of a fashion shoot without models, just the design sketches, shot with the laser-cut figures but out on location. I'd also be shooting in the twilight or locations with ambient artificial light, to both make the figure stand out but also to have something in the background.
One problem was that after several months in storage the figures themselves had acquired some scratches and scrapes, though testing revealed actually these textures added a bit of visual interest.
The base unit was one I'd experimentally designed for the work project, a kind of box to hold a cheap LED push-light, with a circular opening that matched the circular base of the model (meaning it could be easily turned for a better angle on location, without having to reposition the whole base box). The pic above shots the base buried, before being covered in sand to cut-down some of the excess light.
I'd planned on two shoots at night whilst shooting another project, and had been scouting locations accordingly. Llanbedrog beach (above) was the main planned location for several pics...
...and indeed the location for the test snap, above, showing the concept would work. However the backdrop was a bit plain , needing more lights and reflections. As things turned out I spent all night shooting the other project anyway and was too knackered to do any pics for Pretty Vacant, so planned another nights shooting a couple of days later...
Up in the hills above Aberdunant, near Porthmadog, I have a location which has been used for various shoots, such as "The Home Is..." and the "Britannia Model Village". I returned up there, and after shooting the tests with the tower block miniature (a few weeks ago on the blog) I started taking pics for Pretty Vacant. Some experiment was needed with exposure times. Too long and the scene was too bright...
...and two short meant the figure looked great but the background too dull.
The glowing dot by the way was a rescue helicopter training on the side of Mount Cnicht in the background.
It was then off to reshoot the seaside-themed pics somewhere with a bit more ambient light, this time Criccieth a little way along the coast.
The location offered the positive of having lots of lights reflected in a calm sea....
...and the negative of being a town, which was the ever-present drunken teenage morons. Part of me was definitely feeling that in my early 30's I really ought to not be bothered by yelled abuse from gangs of Hooded Yoofs swinging vodka bottles, but then another part of me didn't want to get the shite kicked out of me, have me camera nicked, and be left in the sand bruised and battered, so it would be a somewhat curtailed shoot.
The above shot showed why the base needed covering to cut-down the light a bit...
...which worked better here. At this point I was getting a bit rattled by Team Teenage Idiot lining up behind me, so gave up as a bad job and decided to have another try.
The second night of shooting was confined to being on foot within range of where we were staying (on the basis of poor planning- the one night where the rain stopped happened to coincide with me having had a couple of glasses of wine with tea, meaning I would be sans-car). First stop was the Glasyn flood plane near Pont Croeser, which gave a good sky and hills as a backdrop.
Then the idea was for a shot of a figure waiting on a railway station. Happily there was a station here, but without any lights... and it was too far to a mainline station (as opposed to the heritage railway station above), so it didn't work. Interestingly, out here in the middle of nowhere I ran into another two photographers out doing night-shoots, this time looking for places to shoot star scapes from when the weather cleared... more of us oddball photographer-types about than I might have assumed.
Back up the lane to the site, and some floodlit trees offered another couple of locations...
Then it was up into the woods for a shot near the waterfalls.
The above being my personal favourite from the entire shoot.
We were nearing the end of the holiday and this was likely to be the last night where I could shoot pics (both for weather reasons, and also because there are only a finite number of times you can abandon your wife to look after The Childs whilst you swan around taking pictures). But I wanted to have a crack at shooting the second seaside picture, and thought the caravans might make a good backdrop.
Not entirely successfully. Ah well.
So, summing up, as a project it still feels like I'm scrabbling around the edges of the concept a bit. I think these figures are on their last legs now with all the scratches and smudges, but I'd still like to do more, maybe with larger figures when I can get access to a laser cutter again, and shoot in the planned locations. Nothing will be moving with this project for a few months anyway, as the nights are so short. In any case I got a few nice standalone images from the set, which I can use here and there for open calls, so it isn't too bad.
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