Tag: lens-artists

Fragments of Château de Gratot

Tobias M. Schiel7 Comments

Cotentin, France, May 2023. – At first it did not seem like there was much to see, or photograph. But then we started reconstructing this castle in our minds, trying to figure what it originally was meant to be: a fortification built to defend its inhabitants, then a monument to their wealth. Until the roof came tumbling down on a table already set for a wedding dinner.

As for the photography, I remembered I used to like these bright, cloudy skies because they allow me to work with negative space. So I investigated the interaction of architecture and picture plane a bit, which for me is always a very satisfying way of connecting with the ‘spacial meaning’ of built structures.

Lens-Artists’ Photo Challenge #253 – Fragments

Old Mill, New Museum

Tobias M. Schiel12 Comments

Küppersmühle, an industrial mill in the port of Duisburg, Germany, has been converted into a museum. It now displays a great collection of modern and contemporary art. But I never really get to enjoy the art in full because the museum now features two beautiful staircases which are themselves works of art – and they are very distracting!

With some of the old silos still standing, you get a strong industrial vibe while the building also frames the art nicely.

But I compulsively return to the stairs…

The architecture just lends itself to this kind of abstract photography I so much like – using built space for compositions within the rectangualr space of the picture. And I think the pictures lend themselves to contributing to Anne’s wonderful lens artists challenge #251: Buildings and Other Structures. Oh, and here’s one other structure, a work of art nicely interacting with the architecture.

Downtown

Tobias M. Schiel8 Comments

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.

Flights of Fancy

Tobias M. Schiel10 Comments

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.

Treasure Hunt?

Tobias M. Schiel6 Comments

This week’s contribution for the Lens-Artists’s Challenge #219: Treasure Hunt: two reflections. Originally hunting for a picture that would somewhat illustrate the Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds and be photographed through things (for yet another challenge), I first tried what I could do with this figure and a glass vase. The pictures turned out to be nothing like what I’d had in mind. However, I came to like these ‘test’ pictures better than the one actually showing “the girl with kaleidoscope eyes” through a piece of cellophane. So always hold on to your test shots! They may turn out to be treasures you found without immediately realizing.

Urban Environments

Tobias M. Schiel13 Comments
Take The ‘A’ Train (Billy Strayhorn)

As I go through my pictures of miniature scenes, I find one commen denominator: urban environments. I obviously find myself drawn to urban settings, to the world of alleys, bars, theaters, and public transportatiou. Here’s a retrospective celebrating the city and its lights (and shadows) in H0 scale.

While the vehicles and figures (and the phone booth) come from the toy store, the buildings are custom made, mostly from scratch.

Boats … and Automobiles

Tobias M. Schiel4 Comments

The Alster Fleet in Hamburg – these boats are waiting to take tourists around on the river Alster, as I was surprised to find out when we visited a couple of years ago. Because I remember that when I was a boy, we used to hop on these boats to get from A to B, with this very fleet servicing the waterways like any other public transportation. For us kids, it was great fun to take the boat when we went visiting relatives.

However, since this week’s Lens Artists’ Challenge specifically asked for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, here’s a picture with autos…

April in Paris

Tobias M. Schiel3 Comments

The picture above, named after a song by Vernon Duke, is part of my Jazz series. I asked myself if the situation was too surreal, but then I saw the Lens Artists’ challenge, which is Surrealism. And I decided this amount of surrealism was all right. After all, the fun of working with toys is that you can push everything towards Surrealism as much as you like.

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