
Around Here

tobias m. schiel
The light from the desk lamp through a window of one of the miniature façades I use for my miniature toy photography: Glowing moments like these provide for good pictures but I also take them as proof that even with staged photos, there are moments that are unrepeatable (or very hard to reproduce). This is an enty for the lens-artists’ photo challenge #244 – only one ‘glowing moment’ cause this kind of photography is very slow.
This Cadillac is no longer than 6.3 cm (or roughly 2 1/2 inches), and the white wall was cut from a cardboard box. I added a wooden roof and paper flagstones … and the miniature dog.
Continue reading “Lucky Dog”Although I was sure about the sign pointing toward some kind of food joint, and the construction of its lighting, I had no idea what the sign should actually say. Then I remembered a song by Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Chicken, gravy and biscuits – and I had it!
There was Jo’s question about an arrest in the last post, and there was also a prompt to do a noir photo in the toy photographers’ community so I tried my hand at some ‘neo noir’. I wanted to see if noir, which we mostly associate with black-and-white, also works in color. And though this picture was motivated by Jo’s question, I am afraid we’re none the wiser. I chose the mystery.
Balance and joy, peace and entertainment,
both to our friends in the northern hemisphere
and to our friends in the southern hemisphere.
(This year’s last post. See you in 2023?)
This picture was in equal parts inspired by the Blues Brothers’ apartment just opposite the El tracks and by the buildings I see commuting to work. Since the train runs through the picture diagonally (to evoke a dynamic feeling) I hope this might qualify as an entry for the Lens Artists’ Challenge.
If you like black and white photography, check out this blog.
Toy photography and flights of fancy: it almost seems like a defining combination. Wouldn‘t it be nice to just have a huge wall with a couple of tiny windows and a backlit „Tickets“ sign? Then I could show a long line of people waiting to get one. And can I translate the jazz music played at a concert into a picture?
Flights of fancy indeed, and when I build these 1/87 scale dioramas or set up scenes, it often seems like they will remain just that. Other times, things turn out quite well (if not always the way I would have expected). These two pictures are from my jazz series. The titles are Broadway Blues and Jumpin’ at the Woodside, after the respective songs composed by Ornette Coleman and Count Basie.
“Minton’s was just a place for cats to jam. People didn’t pay too much attention to what was going on, I mean the people there that weren’t musicians. So when you went in, you’d see cats half-stewed who weren’t paying much mind to what was happening on stage. But the musicians were.” Carmen McRae