Fisherman's blues

[bonniebeth]

Absolutely brilliant! Really great pictures. I would have had a hard time putting any of my playmobil at risk, but the results are amazing.

[Tiermann]

Wonderful photos. I was getting concerned about the boat in those waves and then there it was under water. I agree the shark is the perfect touch, and nicely posed. Great little story

[Duckman]

Hi,

and thanks everyone for your very kind comments.

It didn’t start out as a story just a go at underwater photography, the story just sort of developed but in reverse with the underwater shots being done first, the shortcomings of doing that way became apparent later when we came to do the photos in the sea, in fact to get the whole sequence presented a number of challenges.

1 Sinking the boat; this required removing the polystyrene floatation from the inside the hull, which is where we discovered that Playmobil had done something very unusual, They’d used glue! So although the polystyrene is just slotted in, the cargo hold that keeps it in place is glued in to the hull. To make the boat sink to the bottom we had break up the and remove most of the polystyrene.

[Duckman]

2. Photographing what you can’t see; short of holding your breath and sticking your head underwater for as long as you can, the only way to take the pictures is to point the lens in roughly the right direction press and hope for the best. Even when photographing from above the reflective water and screen make seeing what‘s in frame and in focus impossible. 

[Duckman]

3. Toward the light and in the clear; the camera we use is the camera of a thousand settings, all of them rubbish, that is except for one, bright sunlight in sunlight it works great so you wait and wait for a gap in the clouds and then snap away like a crazy fool, but don’t disturb the water or what you get is!

[Duckman]

[Duckman]

4 The locals; everyone loves having their photo taken and sooner or later the local inhabitants appear and make a grab for the spotlight.

[Duckman]

5. All at sea; turns out it’s really quite tricky to float a very small boat on a very big sea especially if that sea is usually used for hurtling surfers towards the beach and you’ve removed the floatation aid and all the screws that hold the deck to the hull which would at least keep some of the very big sea from endlessly sinking the very small boat. It was a bit like watching Titanic but on fast forward! Boat goes in water, first wave comes, boat fills with water, boat at bottom of sea, empty and repeat…  However with some Blutack, endless repetition of emptying of sea from inside the boat and with only the loss of a silver storage box, a non Playmobil grappling hook, a broken mast support, broken rope holders from top of both masts and a good soaking for me the sea photos were finished.   

[Duckman]

6. Faking it; Only after getting back from holiday and looking at the pics we’d taken we noticed that there was a bit of a narrative especially with the photo where the boat is about to capsize for the millionth time. The only small hurdle to completing the story was that we were now 298 miles from where we’d taken them. So a little subterfuge was called for. We took the pictures of them floating gently out to sea at a local pond and the beach pictures taken at a disused Quarry.





One final photo. Last shot of the evening where the sea photos were taken.

[Raven]

So interesting - 'behind the scenes'.

and with only the loss of a silver storage box, a non Playmobil grappling hook, a broken mast support, broken rope holders from top of both masts and a good soaking for me the sea photos were finished.

'And with only'...!! 

Amazing patience as well as amazing photos.

And I love the seahorse.