Swordwhale Walking: illustration, webcomic, stories, photojourneys, videos
  • launch here
  • art & stories
    • black horses
    • Sea Ponies of Chincoteague
    • Just Animals
    • playing with water
    • Tradigital illustration
    • environmental education >
      • Christmas Magic Mural 2020
      • animal alphabet and counting murals
      • Assateague ponies
      • the salamander room
      • more touch room ocean
      • more: touch room forest
      • wetland
      • wetland art
      • greenleaf
      • reptile week murals: Nixon Park
    • just animals: photography
    • Tales of the E.L.F. >
      • That Darn Elf, a musing or two
      • cast and crew
      • I dreamed of black horses
      • fanfiction: If Wishes Were Elves...
      • Skyfire
      • Leyover and Bardic Circle
      • Following Raven
      • The Merrow's Cap >
        • Merrows Cap credits
      • Manannan's Horses
      • Fins
      • fandom >
        • Radagast's Rabbit Ride
        • the Lone Ranger >
          • LOLs and Trolls
          • but wait, there's Moore, and Silverheels
          • Hi Yo Silver
        • black panthers and night furies
        • tales of Middle Earth >
          • Mirthwood
          • Loth-LOL-ien >
            • Im-LOL-dris
            • Smirkwood
            • well, that coulda' been worse
        • Sherlocked
        • catz and doges on fandom
        • Faithful Sidekicks
    • murals
    • scribblings
    • coloring pages
  • mermaid tales
    • Gramma Swordwhale's Mermaid Blog >
      • how to mermaid
      • merfolk on the Chesapeake
      • my life as a mermaid
    • privateers and pumpkins and ponies oh my!
    • stupid gravity (the adventures of a mermaid on Eastern Neck Is.) >
      • stupid gravity credits
    • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass >
      • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass: credits
    • Stupid Gravity: Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy Augh! >
      • Misty Stormy credits
    • Stupid Gravity: the search for mermaids
    • mermaids, Moana and Maui, beached on Christmas Eve
    • horseshoe crabs forever
    • stupid gravity: hot hot hot >
      • hot hot hot credits
  • Chincoteague
    • back to the islands 2021 >
      • Ponies 2021
    • identify that pony
    • chincoteague pony art
    • Fall Roundup Oct 2019
    • Chincoteague 2019
    • pookas pumpkins and swamp ponies
    • Chincoteague Carousel
    • Chincoteague November 2018
    • the 3rd Sea Voyage of Makenuk's Fin
    • wild horses and kayaks 2017
    • wild ponies in camp
    • North Beach
    • on island time
    • saltwater cowboys
    • Chincoteague
    • Christmas by the Sea
    • island ponies
    • Ace and Unci revolt
    • beached
    • running water in between
    • Assateague Light
    • the Haunted Lagoon
  • crafty stuff
    • photo your toys >
      • how to photograph Breyers in the wild
      • Lokigator and Throg's Epic Adventure
      • Sam and Bucky's Excellent Adventure
      • Mando and Grogu
      • paint and wet snow pants
      • Legolas and Hwin, snow
      • derps (or how not to photograph Breyers and others)
      • Wonder Horse repaint
      • wild Breyers >
        • printable prints and downloads
        • water horses
        • beach Breyers
        • Lotus Legolas and Arod
        • teeny tiny Breyers
        • backyard Breyers and Schleichs
        • vintage breyers
        • Hartland Horses
        • Black Horses
      • educational display
      • Schleich and Safari Faeries
      • North beached
      • more model horses
      • beach party
      • advenatureData
      • Finding Hank
      • Otterlock and Hedgejawn >
        • Hounded in Baskerville
      • how to photograph your dragon
    • Rich Toy hobby horse rehab
    • ModPodge rules
    • paint pours
    • flour salt clay
    • chalk paint
    • rock it: paint rocks and use or lose them
    • faerie gardens >
      • more faerie gardens
      • faerie festival at Spoutwood Farm
    • sea this tutu (and make)
    • I found Dory
    • knit me a mermaid, or chicken, or Hei Hei
    • sea treasures
    • sea glass
    • sea horses
    • rehabbing horse epic fail >
      • do you wanna build a snow pony?
      • do you wanna build a sand pony?
      • Barbie horse gets a makeover
    • mermaid saddles
    • Yule Laugh, Yule Cry... >
      • a Brandywine Christmas
    • Uncle Bob's Toys >
      • Uncle Bob's Toys 2016
      • more: Uncle Bob's Crafts
      • the Adventures of Mortimer
  • adventures
    • Go Play Outside
    • Nature Deficit Disorder
    • I heart Nature
    • autumn light
    • cats
    • mushing 101 >
      • dogs on wheels >
        • Autumn Run on Wheels
      • dogsled
      • dogsledding: running on snow! >
        • Groundhog Day
      • kids and dawgs: first sled run
      • Klondike Derby
      • Sled Dogs and Pirate Ships
      • Christmas Day Run: Rail Trail
      • Horses and Huskies: when predator and prey share the trail
      • Schipperke doo dah >
        • Runnin' with the Big Dogs
        • Hobbit Husky
      • women who run with the wolves
      • Play Time
      • wubba wubba
      • New Year's Dog Day
      • Team Swordwhale
    • trains, sleddogs, and horses oh my!
    • butterscotch and sprinkles
    • horses >
      • horse reference for art
      • ponies small but mighty
      • First Horse: Saraf
      • the Wild Black Mare
      • between thunder and lightning
      • Goliath, Nevada Mustang
      • Yataalii
    • Planet Water >
      • Planet fish tank
      • planet toadpool
      • Planet Pond
      • Planet Stream
      • Planet River
      • Planet Marsh
      • Planet Ocean
      • Planet Water Bird >
        • Planet Water Bird: gulls
      • Planet turtle
      • Planet water snake
      • planet amphibian
    • kayak! >
      • blue boat home
      • kayaking 101
      • kayaking Assateague and Chincoteague
      • how to train your dragonfly
      • Chasing Raven
      • the Susquehanna River >
        • the Rock Garden >
          • return to the Rock Garden
        • Conewago Dreamin'
        • the Conejehola Flats
        • Thunderbird Island (petroglyphs on the Susquehanna)
        • to the White Lady and Beyond
      • Calvert Cliffs fossils
      • Sassafras River Lotus Paddle >
        • Return to the Sassafras
        • sassafras river 2015
        • sassafras paddle 20160814
        • Sassafras River 2017
        • Sassafras river 2018
      • Eastern Neck Island >
        • winter marsh, winter beach
        • Eastern Neck Island: under the supermoon
        • more Eastern Neck Island
      • Pinchot Park
      • Lake Marburg >
        • where are the manatees?
        • ...and the dolphins???
        • macros and SAVs
        • Lake Marburg 2018
        • how to be a kayaking Gramma
    • beached
    • dive in! (SCUBA) >
      • Gourd of the Rings
    • mid Atlantic seashells
    • longship company >
      • December sail
      • Sae Hrafn at Oakley
    • pirates and privateers >
      • Sailing 101
      • Schooner Sultana 1768
      • Capt John Smith Shallop
      • Pride of Baltimore II
      • Kalmar Nyckel
      • downrigging 2010 >
        • Chestertown autumn
        • Downrigging Weekend 2014
        • Downrigging 2015
        • Downrigging 2016
        • Downrigging 2017
        • downrigging 2018: pink tardis
        • Downrigging 2019
      • privateer weekend
    • horseshoe crabs and red knots >
      • horseshoe crab spawn 2021
      • slaughter beach
      • horseshoe crabs and semipalmated sandpipers 2019
    • surfboards and watchtowers: Cape Henlopen >
      • beached
      • Watching Whales >
        • Watching Whales...again
    • Seadogs: Newfoundland water trials
    • wind hounds
    • wild things! >
      • baltimore aquarium
      • there's a hummer in the garage...ceiling ...
      • critter cam
      • sky walking
      • leaf-fall
    • The Adventures of the Good Ship Fearaf
    • the incredibly dead blog page
  • art class
    • framing 101
    • watercolor: how to
    • sip n paints
    • acrylic painting 101
    • wildlife art class
    • Santa, You're Doomed
    • (drawing) horses 101 >
      • horse color 101
      • gaits
      • ponies in motion
      • tack
      • Draw: a horse
    • dogs and wolves
    • go ahead, draw a pirate ship
    • anthropomorphism (cartoon animals and stuff)
    • the Little Kids Page of Big Ideas
    • mural: how to >
      • Gabriel's Whale
      • stuff you need
      • drawing (mural)
      • drawing mural 2
      • painting
      • mural jungle
      • mural bat cave
      • mural cats
      • mural ocean
      • mural arctic
      • mural leaf smacking
      • watershed mural
    • crayons and colored pencils
    • palettes
  • wait wait! let me get the camera!
  • who perpetrated all this???
    • swordbroad

play with your toys

Picture
Got this neat raptor plushy a couple decades ago... when the first Jurassic Park film came out. It's a Dakin, not a licensed JP toy, and a nice non-feathered raptor. 

Robert Bakker is a paleontologist who wrote a cool little book called Raptor Red, about a year in the life of Utahraptor (what those oversized "velociraptors" really were). He did a lecture at Millersville one year, and friends and I attended. I got to ask him a question about that big claw, and how it relates to modern raptors (hawks, owls). After the lecture, you could go up on stage and talk to him while he drew dinosaurs in marker on great huge drafting paper (I got a protoceratops). Yeah, so here's this medium aged woman going "would you sign my raptor?"

He did. There it is, many years later.

We also got a closeup look at the tyrannosarus claw that flew past his head when the tyranosaur/raptor attack was filmed in Jurassic Park (he was on set, as one of the advisors). Of course the dinos were added later in CG, but the skeleton that gets wrecked was real, and real wreckage occurred on the set.

If you're confused by the raccoon, that's Rocket, he was one of the stars of Guardians of the Galaxy alongside "Starlord"... played by Chris Pratt, who also plays the raptor wrangler in Jurassic World. Rocket was, of course, CG. Chris Pratt defined cool by riding a motorcycle through the woods at night with a pack of raptors in Jurassic World. It became an internet meme in 2015.
An island trip, and one too many listenings of the Hawaiian Christmas song, in December led to this...
The island happened to be on the Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland: Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge.
​Good thing you can't tell the temperature from photos.
Picture
A higher angle on the horse, combined with a different angle for the beach shot (combined in Photoshop) creates the impression the horse is sitting.

Rocket, Genie and Toothless on Assateague Beach

Sometimes helps to take two pics from the same angle: one will have the foreground (action figure) in focus, the other has the background in focus. Combine on Photoshop. Use a tripod, or shoot by steady hand. It doesn't have to be perfect. Sport continuous mode or any mode that allows you to take multiple pics in one shot is great for action like blowing wind and moving waves.

wild horses couldn't...

an Avengers Yule beach party

It never hurts to have phun with Photoshop later...

greetings from Fiji...

Get down at eye level with your figures... they'll look more awesome and Hulk-like.

dragons at Rock Hall

Scale is a factor in photographing small figures. Water has scale (which is why the famous Loch Ness Monster photo is so obviously fake: the lake ripples are the wrong scale, it is clear the model is small). When the water is foamy and far, it works, when it is splashing close it's clear how tiny Toothless really is.

behind the scenes

2014 saw the loss of Robin Williams, the arrival of Guardians of the Galaxy and How To Train Your Dragon 2. The Avengers are eternal.

The two How To Train Your Dragon films gave us some great characters, and action figures. Toothless seems very familiar to me; all those big black beasts I loved as a kid: Fury, Bagheera, the Black Stallion, Zorro's horse Tornado.

The Misty and Stormy of Chincoteague models are by Breyer, I bought both on the island, Misty the last year she was alive. I repainted Misty from photos to her proper color and pattern. Breyer still makes her in the wrong pattern; based on Wesley Dennis's excellent Misty of Chincoteague cover. Dennis painted her in her foal coat, misty white gold with her darker (palomino) adult coat showing through around her eyes, totally correct. Breyer, usually the icon of awesome horse art, misinterpreted this as a palomino pinto pattern. She's pinto (you can still see her taxidermied self on Chincoteague) but her head, typical tobiano pattern, is solid golden palomino with a white blaze. 

Surfer Dude: On the latest trip to Chincoteague/Assateague, I took the Safari model of the Chincoteague Pony, and the Welsh pony that looks just like Surfer Dude (the most famous Chincoteague Pony since Misty), and the Safari mare that looks like mine. I took some pics, then learned Surfer Dude had died.  So this is sort of a memorial to the chocolate stallion with the silver gene and the blond surfer dude mane. He's left a number of descendants across the islands.

The blue crab was a found object (sadly expired) at Rock Hall MD. He had a second life as an actor in a photoshoot.

A cheap craft store beach chair, painted in Apple Barrel turquoise craft paint, with a bit of stripey sock for a towel, is priceless.





There is a story behind Ariel and Ariel: 
Ariel and Ariel:  https://swordwhale.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/he-probably-swam-to-fiji/

Of course you know the Little Mermaid, one of my icons of Disney fandom. I scuba dived with a buddy once who was wearing an action figure of Ariel’s dad on her BC.

The Ariel Beanie Bear is this: “These Beanie Babies were originally sold in the memory of Ariel Glaser, who died of AIDS at the age of 7. The money raised from the sale of the Ariel Beanie Babies were donated to The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Despite these Beanie Babies not being worth very much today, lot’s of money was raised for the  Foundation. Over the years Ty Warner has donated millions of dollars to charity through the sale of special Beanie Babies.”  http://lovemybeanies.com/ariel-glaser-beanie-babies-value-guide/

I found mine at AC Moore. I don’t collect Beanie Babies, but the story of Ariel connects with a little piece of my life…

One of my favorite TV shows in the late 70s was Starsky and Hutch, a funny, action filled buddy cop show starring Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) and David Soul (Hutch). Opposites make a great buddy team, and this pair was iconic. Also I had a slight crush on Mr. Starsky.

Ariel is Paul Michael Glaser’s kid. Elizabeth Glaser wrote a touching book about their experience with aids: http://www.amazon.com/In-Absence-Angels-Hollywood-Courageous/dp/0399135774

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.