September 2018 Favorite Toy Photos

Well that's a wrap on September. I had a pretty nice burst of creative energy this month and ended up created 23 new images. And these aren't images that I just feel lukewarm about...these are images I challenged myself on creatively as well as technically and had a really fun time creating. That's a good month if, like me, you've been doing this for a few years. When you first start photographing toys you have a million ideas, or maybe you don't but just shoot toys for the sake of shooting toys. Shooting one or more images a day isn't unheard of when you first start, and one can learn a lot during this period. What you lack in quality you make up for in quantity. Part of my productivity this month can probably be tied to my getting a couple new toys, which always helps stoke the creativity. I clearly had a lot of fun with the Little Green Men from Toy Story, as I did with my new Adventure Kermit (who is suspiciously similar to Indiana Jones!). So if you're feeling uninspired, change it up. New toys, new locations, new challenges, new thought processes, new techniques, new gear...anything that gets you out of your usual routine. Let's see if I can keep the momentum going in October!

Here's some favorites from September. Thanks for reading!

The Demogorgon is such a cool looking demon. But am I the only one who thinks it was inspired by an orchid? Just when you think world domination is yours, your plans are foiled by bees trying to pollinate you (how embarrassing!).

Stormtroopers rarely catch a break in my images. I like the depth and sense of motion captured in this image.

I love the Little Green Men from Toy Story. The bucket of aliens I bought from Disneyland actually came with more aliens than you see here. BUT, I only had one cowboy hat. So there was a little more work that went into this image than meets the eye (as usual haha!).

I really wanted to try something different with this image - to capture more of a state of mind. I was happy with how it turned out and it's probably a technique I will revisit again in the future.

Adventure Kermit! On the back of his package it says, "Worms, why did it have to be worms?" So clearly it's more than coincidence that he looks like Indiana Jones. I see many more adventures in this guy's future!

Okay, I will be honest and admit that the movie Cars is by far my least favorite Pixar movie. And I consider myself a car guy! But I do love the character designs, and especially how they translate into toys. This Mater is really well done...had to have him!

There was a lot of problem solving involved with this image. There are handful of images from September that I plan to do a BTS post on - this is one of them.

This was just a fun image to create. This Woody figure, by Japanese toy maker Revoltech, remains one of my favorite figures. It's beautifully articulated and fantastic quality. I've used this figure a lot and the articulation joints have held up nicely. Wish I could say that about all my figures.

Speaking of articulation joints and connection points - they are among the worst on this Diamond Select Kermit. The limbs are impossibly thin though so I'm sure that's one of the main reasons. Some of my most frustrating shoots have occurred with this figure because of loose limbs or limbs always falling off. In fact, this was this particular Kermit's last shoot ever because I ended up having to hot glue his limbs into place. But the characters are too fun not to use. I'm on my second set, and will likely get a third when this one gets to be too frustrating to work with.

Haha, what did I tell you about these poor troopers? This was a fun image to shoot. The posing was the thing that took the longest, and it went through several iterations before I landed on this. Would you rather go up against a rancor or a xenomorph? I'll choose the slow, lumbering rancor any day!

This toy came with one bone, and it's quite a bit larger than what you see here. If you're familiar with The Flintstones you may recall that brontosaurus is a main food staple of this modern stone-aged family. So if that's the case these bones would probably be a lot larger! Hmmm, I think I just got an idea for a new image!!

All images were photographed using the Canon 5D Mark III paired with the amazing Canon 135mm f2L.

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