Day 23 \\ Reshoot

Assignment: After examining the collection of photos we had created over the month, we were each reassigned our weakest image to reshoot to improve our portfolio. Mine was Day 3 \\ In the Air (I shamefully include the link)

The previous image was, let's admit, a dud. Though the image did not give it credit, the idea was a good one: exploring the relationship of scale, especially small environments set in a larger scene. I researched miniature landscapes knowing I would need to shoot in the morning since it rained all day with snow expected at night. After examining my resources, I decided to create a gingerbread house with a character to live inside and place it in an outside environment that would emphasize the scale.

I happily constructed a house out of chocolate graham crackers using flour paste as glue on a cereal box base. It was a feat of engineering if I do say so myself, especially to prevent the roof from caving in! The trick was to make the paste thick like a dough so it would really stick. It was a very fun and messy experience (especially as I watched a wonderfully witty musical, compliments of my daddy :) I had to decorate it of course, mostly because it looked really bad with flour dripping all over the place. I painted some flour paste on the roof and coated it with crushed Fruity Pebbles cereal and some jellybeans. The walkway was also made with the same cereal. It was difficult deciding on the right character to make, but I knew I wanted to continue the food theme. My neighbors had colorful pipe cleaners, so I began crafting a pipe cleaner girl, but she was very linear and hollow compared to my solidly built house. I remembered my friend had a lot of Coke bottle tops so I decided to use it as a body and give it pipe cleaner legs and arms, with a hat for some flair. He ended up as a fun mixture of an MnM and the Plantar's peanut.

After scoping out some locations at night in the snow, I prepared to take the photo the next morning wherever the light was best. The chosen spot was a fir tree outside the commons. Its green boughs delicately laden with snow were a perfect covering for my little house and its resident, especially with the contrast of the colors against all the white. I tucked the cereal box under the snow and experimented with several different perspectives to emphasize the comparison of a fully built house fitting beneath a grown tree. I was slightly restricted in my composition since I had actually run out of crackers to fully complete the roof (there was a slight gap in the overhang, but my Coke/pipe cleaner buddy would stay dry if it rained...unless the roof disintegrated first). To crop that out, the composition instead was this tighter shot of the scene, but still representative of the scale and bringing the viewer right to the front door of the mini environment.