Our photo club sets new challenges every month with the goal of pushing our skills. Last month it was trying out tabletop or miniature photography, also an excuse to stay inside in nasty weather. I had never done this before nor did I have any knowledge of proper lighting, right shutter speed and a dozen other necessaries for success. Nevertheless, I gamely set about gathering assorted props from around the house and setting up on a table. Here are my first attempts at this specialized art.
I began with a minimalist effort, a small statue with a desk light behind it. I’m hoping it might pass for high art, ha ha.
Next I found a straw figure and decided she was the Fish Goddess worshiped by pair of wooden mannequins. She is suitable pleased about their adoration. Perhaps she will give them her fish.
After the goddess, I tried an old bath towel with a couple of toy gazelles. I slipped an evening sky behind them and called it “Sunset on the Veldt”.
Growing bolder, I found a couple of novelty bird houses the birds would have nothing to do with and tucked a miniature car between them. Add some dark trees behind and presto, a scene from “The Grapes of Wrath”.
These successes occasioned a party. With help of an empty wine bottle and some fuzzy friends, I constructed a more grown up version of the “Teddy Bears’ Picnic”.
To do this right really requires a mini studio complete with studio lights and lots room to move around it. Also lots of imagination and that photographer’s best friend, Photoshop. Then you get to play All Powerful with worlds, okay toys, at your mercy. A very sweet ego boost– so long as you don’t look up.