Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy COmPutEr Barfed Augh
credits
A friend and I decided to go on an "easy day trip" to some of our favorite places on the Chesapeake Bay in October. With climate change, it was quite warm, though it was cloudy, windy, spritzy. Even the water was warmish, though full of detritus and grass and silt from the windy waves.
And maybe some leftovers from the last gazillion hurricanes.
The bluey grey skies made for some neat photography.
The wind...not so much.
Mermaids had some difficulty staying on horses.
But...stupid gravity.
And maybe some tack re-design.
Hank the Septopus (he has seven legs, as Dory noted in the movie Finding Dory) and Toothless the Night Fury (from the How to Train Your Dragon series of films and TV) are always fun to work with. Hank works particularly well with zen gardens, even when the waves wash half of his careful design away.
How to Shoot your Own Mermaid Tail
With both of those, low camera angles are required to make the shots look NOT like aerial drone shots. Like lying on the beach getting soggy in October kind of shots.
Be sure of the tide tables: when is low? High? Is the tide coming in or out? Will those waves come up farther or less far? Is it a gentle cove or bay beach with little rolly waves, or Major Surf that will suck Toothless out to sea? (It happened once... fortunately he came right back on the next wave).
Beaches are great: while water technically DOES have scale (the way it foams, waves break, or ripples form is different in a three inch wave vs a three foot wave), it is less apparent than oversized leaves or grass blades in your picture. Sand and beach pebbles are also nice for tiny models.
Mermaids stick to seahorses with well designed tack. Sometimes. I use some of the original saddles, add foam sheets and shapes, aluminium foil, air dry clay, Sculpey, leather, tule. Tule is light and fluffy and looks great... and blows away. Scotch sticky wall putty sort of works. Dowel rods and fishing line would help. And something sticky enough to hold hands in place but not peel paint off horses. A big plastic bin to hold everything is useful. The big horses travel in one by themselves, it's their horse trailer. I put a towel around them to keep them from scratching or chipping.
They fall off a lot.
And yes, they really get wet. Those are not Photoshopped waves. In fact, the only thing I photoshopped this time was the very last photo where Cove is falling off Kai. That (and the Misty Stormy shot) was shot on Assateague Island VA, where it was even windier. The good shot of Meri ON the blue horse also contained a shot of Cove ON the black horse... the shot where she was falling off had a badly overexposed by flash version of Meri and Genevieve. I photoshopped the Kai/Cove bit I wanted into the Meri Genevieve shot that was good.
Tiny tripods are useful. You can set up your camera and have it not wobble, throw practical effects at your models (like sand or water to make it look like they are galloping). Be careful your camera doesn't get wet or sandy.
Kai and Genevieve are two fabulous thrift shop/yard sale finds: Our Generation horses (much MUCH nicer than the American Girl horses of the same scale), repainted with Rustoleum 2X. Genevieve has the addition of glitter and a shiny ModPodge coat.
The two black ponies are Johnny West horses (Thunderbolt, standing) who originally came with a wagon, and were a particularly hideous shade of matching chestnut with a terrible attempt at flaxen points and countershading. I painted them black with acrylics (black and a deep blue), then threw some glitter and ModPodge at it. After all, sea horses, you can never have too much glitter.
The mermaids are a combination of Auroras, one Douglas (the little blond one), a mystery mermaid from the Baltimore Aquarium (I cannot find her online), and a two legged cloth doll found in the 99 cent bin at a thrift shop. She is unique, fabulous, and had zero clothes. I squashed her into a Barbie top, made underwear and a hula skirt and there you are.
Misty and Stormy came from Chincoteague Island. I got Misty the first time I visited, the last year the real Misty was alive. I repainted her to match photos I found of Misty (Breyer has never got her markings right). Stormy came along later and is not repainted. You can see how the plastic has yellowed over the years. That shot is on Asateague, near the south end, where Tom's Cove comes very close to the beach. Photo is right at the edge of the parking lot looking over Tom's Cove.
The Hippo of Happiness belongs to a friend who has a local cable TV show called Knowledge is Power. He/she/we have no idea appears on her show and her facebook page. The show deals with various social and human rights issues. https://www.facebook.com/knowledgeispoweryorkpa/
The computer had issues throughout, causing me to converse like a mariner and threaten it with Nerf Mjolnir.
And maybe some leftovers from the last gazillion hurricanes.
The bluey grey skies made for some neat photography.
The wind...not so much.
Mermaids had some difficulty staying on horses.
But...stupid gravity.
And maybe some tack re-design.
Hank the Septopus (he has seven legs, as Dory noted in the movie Finding Dory) and Toothless the Night Fury (from the How to Train Your Dragon series of films and TV) are always fun to work with. Hank works particularly well with zen gardens, even when the waves wash half of his careful design away.
How to Shoot your Own Mermaid Tail
With both of those, low camera angles are required to make the shots look NOT like aerial drone shots. Like lying on the beach getting soggy in October kind of shots.
Be sure of the tide tables: when is low? High? Is the tide coming in or out? Will those waves come up farther or less far? Is it a gentle cove or bay beach with little rolly waves, or Major Surf that will suck Toothless out to sea? (It happened once... fortunately he came right back on the next wave).
Beaches are great: while water technically DOES have scale (the way it foams, waves break, or ripples form is different in a three inch wave vs a three foot wave), it is less apparent than oversized leaves or grass blades in your picture. Sand and beach pebbles are also nice for tiny models.
Mermaids stick to seahorses with well designed tack. Sometimes. I use some of the original saddles, add foam sheets and shapes, aluminium foil, air dry clay, Sculpey, leather, tule. Tule is light and fluffy and looks great... and blows away. Scotch sticky wall putty sort of works. Dowel rods and fishing line would help. And something sticky enough to hold hands in place but not peel paint off horses. A big plastic bin to hold everything is useful. The big horses travel in one by themselves, it's their horse trailer. I put a towel around them to keep them from scratching or chipping.
They fall off a lot.
And yes, they really get wet. Those are not Photoshopped waves. In fact, the only thing I photoshopped this time was the very last photo where Cove is falling off Kai. That (and the Misty Stormy shot) was shot on Assateague Island VA, where it was even windier. The good shot of Meri ON the blue horse also contained a shot of Cove ON the black horse... the shot where she was falling off had a badly overexposed by flash version of Meri and Genevieve. I photoshopped the Kai/Cove bit I wanted into the Meri Genevieve shot that was good.
Tiny tripods are useful. You can set up your camera and have it not wobble, throw practical effects at your models (like sand or water to make it look like they are galloping). Be careful your camera doesn't get wet or sandy.
Kai and Genevieve are two fabulous thrift shop/yard sale finds: Our Generation horses (much MUCH nicer than the American Girl horses of the same scale), repainted with Rustoleum 2X. Genevieve has the addition of glitter and a shiny ModPodge coat.
The two black ponies are Johnny West horses (Thunderbolt, standing) who originally came with a wagon, and were a particularly hideous shade of matching chestnut with a terrible attempt at flaxen points and countershading. I painted them black with acrylics (black and a deep blue), then threw some glitter and ModPodge at it. After all, sea horses, you can never have too much glitter.
The mermaids are a combination of Auroras, one Douglas (the little blond one), a mystery mermaid from the Baltimore Aquarium (I cannot find her online), and a two legged cloth doll found in the 99 cent bin at a thrift shop. She is unique, fabulous, and had zero clothes. I squashed her into a Barbie top, made underwear and a hula skirt and there you are.
Misty and Stormy came from Chincoteague Island. I got Misty the first time I visited, the last year the real Misty was alive. I repainted her to match photos I found of Misty (Breyer has never got her markings right). Stormy came along later and is not repainted. You can see how the plastic has yellowed over the years. That shot is on Asateague, near the south end, where Tom's Cove comes very close to the beach. Photo is right at the edge of the parking lot looking over Tom's Cove.
The Hippo of Happiness belongs to a friend who has a local cable TV show called Knowledge is Power. He/she/we have no idea appears on her show and her facebook page. The show deals with various social and human rights issues. https://www.facebook.com/knowledgeispoweryorkpa/
The computer had issues throughout, causing me to converse like a mariner and threaten it with Nerf Mjolnir.
