Inflate-Deflate... up in the Hills

Back in May, I (Ben) and Elder Child did a shoot where we were basically chucking beachballs around with a mountain backdrop, for an open call, and several of the shots were chosen for publication.  Anyway, another summer-themed call came about right at the end of the summer hols, and I thought I'd get some new shots (to avoid re-using the earlier pics, which are still technically in a running show).

There's quite the backlash in some circles against inflatables for the whole plastic-waste in the sea issue  (and I do get that); but whilst I use a lot of beach toys in my shoots, far from considering them disposable tat, there are toys in our props box which are older than The Childs.  Case in point, the selection for the shoots this holiday; Amy's lilo at the front is from 2003, the striped ball from 2002, the transparent ball for this shoot is from 2005...

When we tried this location last time, high in the hills above Prenteg, we had to abort as it was a bank holiday evening, and there were various teenagers heading up here to drink.  By contrast, this time was the end of the summer hols, lots of schools were back in, and consequently there was hardly anybody about.  At least, when we started...  Nice view over towards Cnicht.

Of course, people appeared as soon as we started inflating the toys, but more of the 'car full of farmers slows-down to glower suspiciously at the strange folks with inflatables' variety.

Slightly 70's looking shot, in the odd lighting.

This was the shot I wanted back in May; the combination of the reflection of the mountains, and the overlapping transparent colours, exactly what I was after.  With the benefit of hindsight, after getting the shot on the first go, we should have headed off at this point.

Bird of prey circling us, probably also wondering what the hell we were up to.

Attempt at a portrait shot, but the landscape ones work best.

These really are nice, photogenic props; courtesy of a nice chap in the US who trades as D&L Toys, I think he had these commissioned about 3 decades back.  I suspect I've bought the last of his stock.

For reasons mentioned a bit further down, we ended up breaking out the back-up toy, a more 'traditional' ball, not quite as big, also acquired from D&L (because it's very hard to buy toys in the UK that aren't covered in warning labels or cartoon characters).

''

Bit of greyscale, why not.

The only downside with the location, it was a little breezy, and also the ground was surprisingly slippy in places, as Elder Child discovered when she slid not very graciously down the hill after loosing her footing, and pasted herself with moss and mud.

And yeah, it turned out that of all the plants on the hillside, the beachballs would always end up blowing into the worst possible places.

hisssss....

A bit of a shame, but nothing a bit of sticky tape wouldn't fix.  That said, we didn't have any with us, but I reckoned I'd got enough shots for the open call.  A little annoying that we'd popped both beachballs, but we had the pictures I needed in the can, so we headed off after what will probably be the last 'summery' shoot of 2023.