Eight Bags of Candy Hearts, a Hot Glue Gun and an Idea...
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Well, two finger burns with blisters later, me thinks a lot. lol
The Idea
So, the thought behind this project was to create an image that would appear as if my Havenese were in a pile of candy hearts with just their noses poking through. Since I wasn't actually going to be burying them in candy hearts, I had to think of a way to make it look like I had.
The old smoke and mirrors things.
Except hot gluing candy conversation hearts and making it look like a helter skelter pile of candy was a bit harder -- and much more time consuming - than I had anticipated.
2 Hours In and Conversation Hearts Getting Closer to Completion
How the Heck Do I Photograph This?
Four hours of gluing later, I had a respectable pile of conversation hearts (almost four pounds) glued to a foam core board.
Now, how in the world to shoot this???
Attempt #1
I placed the candy board across two chairs so that the Havis could be lured to poke their noses up through the hole.
Fail #1 -- Havis said the high value treat was NOT high value enough for this tom foolery!!!
Attempt #2
We placed the board parallel to the ground and lured their noses through, again with a high value treat.
Fail #2 -- It was obvious that the treat we had selected was no longer considered a high value item. We also discovered that not all the hearts were glued well enough to the board.
Attempt #3
Switched to a higher value treat, now to figure out the lighting. I love my strobes but since I was right on top of candy heart board AND I was using one hand to lure with a treat, and one holding a rather heavy camera, I couldn't squeaze in a soft directional light. So, natural light it would be. We then moved the "set" -- the board braced up against two outdoor chairs on our pool deck -- into "open shade" where we were getting nice directional, soft light.
Fail #3 -- Trying to shoot and lure the dogs with a high value treat proved hard to get a sharp focus on the puppers' noses and the hearts and I wanted all their fluffy muzzle hair protruding past the hearts, which would involve a third hand to fluff their hair while they were trying to get their treat. I don't have three hands.
Attempt #4
The candy board went back into the house as did the Havis, of course. I let the project sit for a couple of weeks, waiting for another delivery of more conversation hearts, and then glued an even larger portion of the board. And yes, I burned a couple fingertips again...
I also decided that in post production, it would be really cool to change what was imprinted on the hearts to dog love sayings.
Finally, I was ready.
Candy board secured to two chairs perpendicular to the ground.
Nice directional soft light.
Camera on tripod.
Two Havis eager for highest value treats ever.
SUCCESS!!
0 Comments