A Miniature Fascination

I don't know what it is about things that come in miniature but I find it just so freaking cool. Not many people physically make things to add to their photos like I do myself and that's probably why I admire Kristen's work most of all. It takes me forever just to make one wire flower so I definitely understand the time she puts in to all those pieces. Plus you can tell she loves what she does just by the way she speaks about each piece. There's just something about physically making an object that brings about such pride. What I love most is the fact that she puts so much detail into these landscapes that it fools your eye into thinking it's real. . . aside from the cars of course. I would love to see her work with water in her mini sets, I think it would be a cool challenge.
I also love the horse series she's done. There is such a dreamy, childlike quality about them that just makes me feel nostalgic.
I'm sure that like me she enjoys making the sets more than shooting them.

Bad Influence

My neighbors were playing football behind me and I could not keep a straight face. Meanwhile my fiance is telling me where I might attach the cables and my younger brother is laughing at me. I might be a bad influence on him. Overall I know I'll have to re shoot and it freaks me out. I think it was worth it. Those cables are heavy though. They might need to be repositioned.

The Details

This is the idea I have so far, as you can see. I like the idea of licking the spoon of the "Drano" filled batter. It keeps with the humor of my project. It's playful. I also burnt the muffins, which was quite funny but I would think the spoon thing fits better. I would like to add an apron to the ensemble but I need to find one with just the right pattern on it.

In the meantime, the second idea brewing involves several books of matches and a gas stove. The failure to light the match and the pile on the floor is where the humor seeps in. . . . unless I can think of something better. I must find the perfect tee-shirt for this image.

It's these details that are killing me. Everything in these images has to fit in somehow or else they are just distractions. I also can't have too many little things or they will become too cluttered. The little details are sometimes the best things in these images though.

A Breakthrough

It's about damn time I came up with a solid idea; a couple in fact. The first, which is in the making, I took from a movie I had recently watched for the first time. You would think I would have thought of The Virgin Suicides sooner but I guess I'm just slow. There is a part in the movie where this girl is telling a story about how she had planned to kill herself by baking some sort of toxic liquid into a pie and then eating it. I thought that was hilarious so I decided to do my own rendition of it. Instead of pie I am trying muffins . . . . lemon poppyseed muffins. I had thought of bread but the round muffin pan seemed more appealing to me. My toxic liquid is Draino, courtesy of my roommate. I am unsure of what shot would look best but I am trying a couple of me baking the muffins(pouring the milk in), licking the spoon, and eating the muffins when they are done. All of these have the Draino bottle in the front of the shot with the cap off.
I am feeding these to my roommates . . . . just don't tell them I licked the spoon!

Sound Lecture

Oops forgot to post!

Anyways about the lecture; I thought it was somewhat interesting. It could have been better if there had been more time for her to go into more detail about her work. It felt like there was so much she wanted to touch on but couldn't because of time restraints. I wish I could have heard more about what she contributed to each movie, especially the David Lynch films. She talked a bit about Dune but definitely not enough.
It was interesting to hear how she got into the business of sound. I guess most people figure out what they love to do kind of haphazardly. It's the same way with how she finds her sounds I guess. She didn't talk much about how she finds all these sounds that end up in these Hollywood blockbusters and that was a bit disappointing. Star Wars wasn't talked about at all, neither was LOTR. Overall the lecture came up short in many places. It's an interesting field and I would have liked to have heard a lot more about it but. . . . .
She mentioned the fact that sound can save a bad film and I disagree; heartily. The sounds that came out of the last Star Wars film blew my mind, such as with the creature that Obi Wan rode, but the movie itself (i.e. the writing) was utter trash. I believe that sound came improve a bad film to to say that it can save it is going a bit too far.
Other than all this it was a good lecture.

I haven't been able to be very funny for the past six days. Being around the whole family is exhausting. Every time they talked to me they had tears in their eyes. I just got back into town and didn't have time to shoot much of anything but some pictures around my grandpa's house and at the funeral. Why anyone would want a picture with their dead mother is beyond me but I swear I took plenty.
I've been racking my brain to come up with a great idea for a photo but I have come up short so far. Perhaps I am thinking too hard. It's been known to happen. I guess I might be afraid that I can't follow up the last series with even better images. It might just take me a little while to get into the swing of things.
I know I can shake this; I just need something to knock me in the right direction.

Home Sweet Mar

It's the night before my grandmother's funeral. Didn't think I'd have to say that until after my wedding. Ever since I've been back it's been a weird experience; feeling sad only when I see my grandfather. She went in her sleep, which was best but my mother tells me that she was found without her oxygen in. It's assumed that she knocked it loose in her sleep but my mum suspects that she might have pulled it out on purpose. I can see why she might have but it's still hard to believe. After hearing this it's all I can think of when I see her; and I've seen her a lot today. I want to use this in my work but it's hard when I can't really shoot in my grandpa's house. I'd love to take pictures in her bedroom but I don't want to upset anyone. My family isn't bound to understand why I do what I do, especially with this series. It's a shame because this is a great way for me to deal with this loss. I keep getting a picture of my head beneath her mattress but I'm not sure how I can swing that one.