Press Button To Blog - The Bat & The Bug

I'm always on the lookout for unique inspiration for my photoshoots. The last thing I want to do is take a picture of a pretty person in front of a pretty background. It's dull, it's uninspired, it's a waste of film that I'm not actually shooting with. There's a billion of pictures just like it, many likely of the same types of people in the same exact places. What's the point, I ask no one rhetorically.

A decade ago I had taken a trip to Asia after college. I had never been outside of the country of Canada other than to New York City. A few of my neighbors were from the Philippines, and they had consistantly recommended it as a place to get away, talking about how much they missed the culture. I was looking for something "exotic", while allowing for some of the more modern conviences that I've grown accustomed to in big city life. So I took a two week vacation all by my lonesome, visiting Cebu City and of course Bangkok, Thailand. It was in the hustle and bustle of the latter's streets that I came across a roadside vender selling knick knacks to tourists. In one wooden glass display box were some preserved animals that caught my eye. Suffice to say Toronto, Canada doesn't have boxes of bats to be purchased on the street corner, and I knew they would make great souvenirs to bring back home. So I got a bat and some insects for myself, and a large scorpion for my "Little Brother".

As I started to look around my apartment for inspiration in the now, I realized that I had accumulated quite a collection of photography props without even realizing it. One of them of course was the affirmentioned display. What was the point of having these bitching objects if I couldn't do anything with it other than stick it on the wall? With me, once I get an idea in my head it's hard to deviate from the path. So to shake things up and get over my photographer's block, I decided I needed to lose the integrity to some of my momentos, which is the police way to say I mildly mutilated them. It was hard at first as I popped open those sealed glass displays, as each one held special memories from my trips, but I knew it was necessary to fulfill the creative vision that had spur of the moment crept into my mind.

My overall inspiration was fake cryptids, a la Barnum & Bailey's circus and their many, many sham mythical creatures they put on display for the public such as their unicorns, mermaids and half-man-half-money hybrids. Ever since I was a kid, sifting through books of mythology at the library about long dead cultures and civiliazations, I've always loved the idea of their fantastical creatures lost to time and wanted to find a way to incorporate them into my photography. Outside of chartering an expedition boat to the Amazon or going hunting for the Loch Ness Monster myself, mashing together my own beast is as close as I'm going to get to naming something after myself. The Squee Humananimalsicus. Really rolls off the tongue. If nothing else, it was a refreshing change of pace at the time to not have to wrangle live animals as well.

A problem that arose was that dehydrated insects that had died at least ten years ago if not longer, aren't the most sturdy objects to roll around in my rough man hands. I'm not what you would call delicate to begin with. It only took a few repositions of the selected beetle I pried off of the display before the poor bug's head started snapping clean off. Not a whole lot of fresh muscle and tissue holding that thing togeater it seemed. It was a tad sad for it to fall apart, as it was still a souvenir from one of my only vacations EVER, but the photos came first. For the cause and all that jazz. In the least, the bat that was also from the display managed to hold it together. For the moment anyway, as I've certainly had some thoughts of what else I could do creatively with a dead bat and I'm going to hazard a guess that his corpse isn't long for this world either. If you're not desecrating a body once in a while, what are you even doing with your free time?

I was thrilled with the results of my photoshoot. Of course there were elements that I'd improve if I could, but for a project that was very much off the cuff, I was more than happy with how the few pictures came out. They were some of the most unique and inspired images I had ever created at the time, even if it was only positioning two bodies of things I didn't kill beside each other. While the deforming of my souvenirs was difficult on a personal level, it opened up a new future world of possibilities for me, because now I have a whole opened display full of similar creatures to play around with that have yet to fall apart. Even when they do, that's just further options for me to explore. So I'm looking forward to seeing what other peculiar combinations I can create out of my other treasured memories. And I'm partially glad my grandfather wasn't taxidermied when he died, because oh boy would those be some awkward photosgraphs.

Press Button To Blog - Shellfish Coin Hoarders

Recently during a summer gardening kick, my wife started herself a compost bin, meant to better nourish her green younglings that had yet to sprout. Like with all of her personal projects, whether I'd like to or not I end up learning a bit about her hobbies by proxy. For what little it might be relatively, I now know more about yarn and foreign languages than I'd ever practically need. The only context for either of those things are my hastily sewn together holey socks I can't force myself to throw away and in my teenage years an over appreciation of 1990's late night erotic films with poorly written subtitles blocking my view of nipples.

One tidbit I learned about growing shit out of other literal shit, is that there are various brands of bug that help keep the delicate ecosystem of agriculture afloat. Some of the more common ones would be isopods and springtails, who help eat some of the rotten refuse left behind by bigger species and alternative food sources, digesting the organic matter to then poop out what is essentially vitamin packed plant food. People in the know, know that I love playing with virtually all types of animals and insects, and although a strain to both see and catch, these tiny crustaceans with their segmented bodies and delicate antennae are absolutely adorable. Like tiny cockroaches, only these ones aren't complete fucking assholes.

So, with a new found appreciation for all of the hard work the Rolly Pollies do, I dug through more than a found mounds of dirt to collect a few to use as my models in a photoshoot before releasing them into their new home. A hard, complex exoskeleton exterior gives way to a soft tickly underbelly and circulatory system made of gold. A true modelling superstar in the making.

The question was how could I make them more visually interesting than just, you know, an insect on the ground? My first train of thought was dinosaurs. As it usually is of course. I honestly don't think people fathom dinosaurs nearly enough, so whenever a problem presents itself, the first thing I can consider is, what would the dinos do? In this case, the genus of isopods dates back to prehistoric times, just like, wait for it...dinosaurs. Versions of isopods lived among the earliest species on the planet, and even to this day certain breeds replicate some of that old world eras of gigantism, and can manage to grow to be nearly two feet long. Picture this, a colony of pill bugs living in a parasitic relationship with a rogue velociraptor, living on the scruff of the dinosaur's neck as the beast charges into battle against a triceratops. It's got conflict of historic proportions, it's got the everlasting friendship, it's got the Jurassic action for the kid in all of us, it's a photo worth at least a few thousand words. Even if we went with the more realistic bird-like micro raptors and not the blood thirsty ones from the movies, the isopods would probably still make a good bird feed.

Unfortunately I didn't have any of those creatures available at the time of shooting, so an alternate plan was in order. My brain got to percolating, brewing up something else "old" that would be satisfactory. You know what's old, other than my references? Coins! Obviously money can also be new, but nobody likes new money do they. The metal smells weird and lacks that je ne sais quoi of absent fecal residue and the people who come into money are uppity and classless to say the least. Pft.

Again I had to dig, not in the dirt, this time into my closet to find a small baggie of older coins that I had collected from when I was a kid. Most of the money I had saved, I don't even know where they came from. I've certainly never been to Singapore, yet, I've got a handful of coins like I'm out trying to buy myself some curry puffs, but even if there weren't practical in my day to day life, a lot of them are definitely cool looking with their intricate, uncommon (to me and most people) designs. It's a lot cooler to have a seahorse on your giant silver coin than it is to have the Queen of England (don't let Prince Harry know I said that about his dead mother, the little wiener might cry).

The first challenge I faced was capturing these moving insects in detail. With their tiny size I had to use my macro lens to achieve the level of clarity and sharpness I wanted. But with a macro lens, even the slightest movement completely takes your subject out of the frame of focus, meaning now I had to adjust my shot. Isopods move quickly and erratically, making it hard to predict their movements and capture them on camera.

As I started looking through the first images I attempted to take, I realized the lighting could be a bit more consistent then what I had prepared. That's when I decided to bust out my product light box. The box provided a clean, even light that allowed the intricate details of the isopods to come through as they crawled across the coins. It also allowed me to control the background of the shots more effectively, cause at the time my cat was playing detective and was wandering around trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. On the downsides, I also found that sometimes the light could be a bit too bright and uniform, which resulted in some of the shots looking a bit flat that I then needed to spice up in post. And I didn't properly account for the pill bug's shell being reflective, so which in some shots the shine added some flair to the proceedings, in others they gave me less than positive glare to contend with that distracted from my shots.

But, we were on a path, even if we hadn't yet reached our destination. It was here I also decided to add more to the scene to finish making things pop. With the shell reflections now being so prominent, I knew something akin to jewelry would be my best options. But maybe it's because I'm poor, or maybe because I'm a bad husband, but there's not a ton of shiny baubles around my house. I've never been a fan of decorating humans with blood diamonds and whatnot. Personal preference, I just don't care about owning these sorts of things, let alone enjoy buying them for others. It's no thought, pretty looking junk without sentimental value other than the reason they were gifted. Anyway. Despite my tangent, I have bought my wife various pieces of jewelry over the years, mostly from Etsy, of unique "one of a kind" pieces that I thought she'd like, which she did, just not enough to wear and instead she's put them on "display". Like I said, jewelry, not my forte. So I borrowed back a pendant I had given to my wife of a jewel adorned spider, figuring that the insect theming might mesh well. This combination is what finally made the shots truly pop, as now the isopods had something more visually striking to climb all over while adding some glitz and glamour.

Despite the initial challenges, I was pleased with the resulting photos. I wouldn't go as far to say any of the shots are among my personal favourites I ever taken, but I am happier with the final product than most of the projects I've worked on. If I took into account all of the work I had done up until that point, I would give this set an A+ in execution. The isopods made for captivating subjects with their unique shapes and colors. And the old coins I added to the mix provided an interesting contrast with their textures and rusted edges. The spider was the focal point that brought the taste of the soup together.

As I edited the photos, I found myself appreciating even more the beauty and complexity of these tiny creatures as I played around with the settings. Things looked good before post processing, but once I played with the tones and saturation, it was all elevated to a more interesting dimension. I was reminded of how much there is to discover in the world around us, even in the tiny creatures we often overlook. And that's what makes photography such a fascinating and fulfilling pursuit.

Press Button To Blog - Magic Korean Masks

Strolling through a thrift store I stumbled upon a small souvenir display that was hidden away in a box of paintings with small wooden depictions of traditional Korean masks called "tal". The closest I've ever been to either of the Korea's is via scarfing down bulgogi and kimchi at Owl of Minerva's at 3AM with a belly full of booze. Inadventantly, I'd be learning a few things about a fairly obscure-to-me culture while providing myself with a potentially interesting subject.

Korean masks were traditionally used during war, worn by soldiers and horses alike according to Wikipedia. How exactly, I don't know. I'm not pretending to be a historical expert, I'm just telling you what I know about it now. And what I now know is that Korean soldiers went into battle with some obscure as fuck vision and some badass broncos. They were ceremonially worn during burial rites and in shamanistic ceremonies to ward off sinister spirits. Of course in 12th Century, the masks (also known as Hahoetal) were also of course used theatrically during dances and plays, which could be seen every night except for Mondays on Broadway in Pyongyang, which is where historically the theatre term derives from, as the first Tony Award winners were announced by Kim Jong-Il back in September 3rd, 1113. Nowadays the masks are almost exclusively made in miniature sizes by overly compensated fully-abled salt farmers on their mandatory breaktime as tourist souvenirs for yuppies who need to buy good-luck talismans to hang on their $1000 cell phones.

I got some deep cut references in this baby, don't I?

My original intentions were to visit one of the city's Korean food markets to pick up something somewhat traditional that I could use with my newfound prop. I was struggling to find an idea that would actually pan out into something interesting. Do I just place my masks dead center into a bowl of spicy rice cakes? Submerge them into a glass of soju? Then inspiration hit me as I stared into those wooden, doll-like eyes.

I happened to have some "magic mushrooms" on hand from when I had tried micro dosing for therapeutic purposes (and to be honest, sheer curiosity). In my mind's eye, I was imagining a mystical creature in all of it's pagan-very-nude glory, dancing about in it's mask taunting with glee (a la Skull Kid from Majora's Mask). I knew that these mushrooms visually would add another level of depth and intrigue to my photos with the maze-like structure of the fungus, even if the viewer wasn't under the influence of the mushrooms themselves.

Shrooms as they are colloquially known, have a supposed range of positive effects, including reducing anxiety, depression and PTSD symptoms in some users. Again, supposedly they can also increase creativity and open up a new level of introspection and self-awareness to those looking for it. However on the other hand there are significant risks associated with using them, including the potential for bad trips, disorientation and even severe psychological trauma, not to mention the legality (which depends on the province). Personally I've only had one positive experience with them, and that was the first time I tried a few grams.

It's hard to describe how it feels to sense that your understanding of the world shifting, as temporary and artificial as it may be. And even though I don't recall what I spoke about, according to my wife we talked for a few hours as I rambled through the various thoughts whizzing through my head. Unfortunately I've never been able to recreate that experience, even when using the same amount or slightly more than before. Theoretically I could up the dose until there was a new result, but personally I'm not comfortable ever losing my faculties completely. That to me what be an absolute nightmare. At the level I am willing to consume, I only felt nauseous, dizzy, depressed and unable to sleep every time I tried after that first initiation as a psychonaut. After a few more attempts that never recaptured that magic so to speak, I decided to leave my supply to continue to dry out in the cupboard. Now I had a use for them.

There were limited options with what I could actually do with a few dried out shrooms and some mini wooden masks, but with I had on hand I'm actually pleased with how the photoshoot turned out. Using my macro lens I was able to capture the intricate details in both the fungi and the grooves across the tal. Using some of my coloured lights added a bit more of a sinister feel that helps make everything pop. I could picture this being found in the back of a shop in Chinatown next to the Mogwai.

Since I still have the masks in perfect condition, I'm going to have to come up with something even more creative with them in the future. I might even gingerly force myself to swallow some of those mushrooms again for some creative inspiration. If all else fails, I'll have to figure out how to strap some masks to some war horses. That's be a show I'd pay to see on Broadway.