With a couple of Open Call exhibitions coming up in 2019 (with shorter notice deadlines than we'd been expecting) we both ended up focusing on existing projects for autumn 2018 rather than shooting newer ideas. In my (Ben's) case, that meant the ongoing "Observe to Preserve" project. Being as weekdays I only have public transport as an option, whatever I shot needed to be compact and easily transportable, but I'd had issues with the Artist Figure, with scaling the miniature in the real world. Works easily enough on a beach where sand and rocks can make for an easily scaled set, but less well inland where we live, where grass and trees tower over the model. The solution was to try an idea that I'd toyed around with in the summer, and to build a miniature set on which to shoot the figure.
This was going to be quite experimental; I didn't want to waste time and budget on something that might not work, so I decided to build it from whatever was lying around, just to test the idea out.
I wanted an atmospheric way of framing the shot, and dug out this broken old Hornby overbridge, which last saw use as a background item in a Steampunk miniatures shoot. It's not to the right scale, but compact enough to provide the effect I was going for.
It needed some modification though; it wasn't tall enough for the 1/32nd figure, so I cut the parapet walls off and mounted them on the base. Scrap cardboard gave a basis for the ground, and the whole lot was glued onto a piece of scrap MDF, cut to the size of a Really Useful Box for secure transport to the shoot. Actually the box decided the whole size of the project, being of a size which could easily fit in a rucksack for transport to a shoot.
A quick mock-up of the effect I was looking for.
I wanted to create some interest in the ground cover, so after laying sandpaper to give the impression of tarmac, I cut some holes to become puddles.
Grass was hanging basket liner, the puddles were filled with hot glue (as I didn't have time to wait for multiple coats of varnish to dry), set dressings were odds and ends from the Britannia Model Village leftover props, and the whole lot was hit with a couple of coats of spray gloss to give a glistening, after-rain effect.
For the first test shoot, I decided to return to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Shipley, only to find that the planned spot alongside the towpath had been cleared and dug-out for some sort of redevelopment...
The rest of the canal was looking nicely autumnal though.
Back to a previous location from the shoot, the rusted girder bridge from the old Esholt Works Railway, which gives a nicely post-apocalyptic backdrop.
A bit more set dressing visible in this shot, a poster from the Happygoth project, which slightly ties the Observe to Preserve series into some of my earlier work...
Another bit of planned location lost though; when I was here earlier in the year, there was a graffiti-covered metal container/office here which I planned on incorporating into the project, but it had been replaced by the time of this visit...
I was quite pleased with the result though; the backdrop was reasonable, though the lighting was a bit dull, so I planned on at least one more shoot with a more dramatic sky, if possible, to test the idea a bit further...
A short while later saw me in Utley, at one of my regular railway photography locations; not much to photograph in the autumn/winter anyway on the main line, but the overgrown lane could provide a suitable backdrop on a sunny winters morning with the sun low.
Again, not too bad; I prefer the lighting, but it still isn't quite what I was after.
Things to redo? The hanging basket liner used to represent the grass needs to be a bit greener to match the trees and things, unless I manage a nice frosty morning, and the bricks are perhaps a bit on the small side, though I think I'd struggle finding a suitably detailed model bridge in the right scale to the right dimensions. Some minor rebuilding of the set might be needed if the idea is to progress, but it's proved the idea of building the miniature set for the shoots with the smaller models.
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