I've gotten to posting the part of the story where I need to stop to catch up with more photo processing, so decided to share the behind the scenes for the photos posted so far.
We were going to go on a road trip out west in June, to the Pacific and back, and I wanted to finish the story I started back in the spring of 2012. The goal this time was to photograph missing and additional scenes to help fill out the story. Back in 2012 I didn't have any props or horses, so most of the photos were just of the three main adventurers travelling through the spectacular scenery by walking. But this time I wanted to take horses and props, and since I wanted to take photos of their campsites along the way, I made two more tents. I had made the smaller one years ago, and had started, but never finished, the two bigger ones.
I gathered the characters from the story, and posed them with the tents. Back in 2012, my Asa played the role of Byuri's mother, but Asa had been repainted to become Queen of the Night, which meant I couldn't use her, so I dressed Soa in Asa's regalia to be used as a stunt double if needed, and also to become Byuri when she was grown up in one of the Epilogues.
We were going to go on a road trip out west in June, to the Pacific and back, and I wanted to finish the story I started back in the spring of 2012. The goal this time was to photograph missing and additional scenes to help fill out the story. Back in 2012 I didn't have any props or horses, so most of the photos were just of the three main adventurers travelling through the spectacular scenery by walking. But this time I wanted to take horses and props, and since I wanted to take photos of their campsites along the way, I made two more tents. I had made the smaller one years ago, and had started, but never finished, the two bigger ones.
I gathered the characters from the story, and posed them with the tents. Back in 2012, my Asa played the role of Byuri's mother, but Asa had been repainted to become Queen of the Night, which meant I couldn't use her, so I dressed Soa in Asa's regalia to be used as a stunt double if needed, and also to become Byuri when she was grown up in one of the Epilogues.
I decided the group would need extra men to be in charge of all the supplies needed for such an adventure. The only other two guys I had were Narin and Adrian. Adrian has always been a Prince, and was definitely overdressed to become a 'servant', so I had to make him a more suitable costume. And Narin was usually an artist and Lawrence's secretary in another storyline, and was dressed appropriately, but he needed some weapons...
I was going to take three horses to carry all the supplies, so made three sets of saddle bags. I made some padded rolls from the tent fabrics to suggest they were the tents all rolled up for transport. Then I loaded them up with more supplies...
And then, just for fun, I decided to take my dragon family. They were not part of the story, but could be photographed alone, or with Byuri, their new friend....
The entire group of characters, ready to get packed up into the RV. The only character missing was the bald eagle.
Waterton Lakes
One of the places I needed to take photos was at Waterton Lakes National Park, where I wanted to take photos of Kyle and his horse arriving. Unfortunately Waterton Lakes is one of the windiest places in the entire Rockies, and both he and his horse kept blowing over. I managed to get them both to stay upright...
but the wind was totally messing up his hair and cloak. He looked like he was getting strangled..
I did manage one photo that was okay, then after we got home I used Photoshop to remove the cars in the hotel parking lot, as well as the water tower....
Then I wanted to take some photos of Kyle as he was approaching the castle. With the hotel being on a hill, Kyle needed to be photographed hand-held....
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Next, I wanted some photos of Narin and Adrian leaving the castle with their horses. But it was way too windy up on the hill (70 kph gusts) to even attempt that, so we went to one of the picnic areas down by the lake, where I'd try set them up on a picnic table. Again, it was crazy windy and everyone kept blowing over. Jan would try hold onto as many dolls and horses as he could then let go just before I'd take a photo, but it was just too windy. And if a horse blew over, then the guy holding the reins would topple over as well....
Since the two guys were more important that the horses, Jan just crouched down and held onto Narin's and Adrian's bases....
And I proceeded to take a few close up photos, before I just gave up.
Bow Lake
A few days later, we were headed up the Icefields Parkway, and I wanted to take some photos of the entire group together on the shore of Bow Lake. There was a little stream flowing into the lake, which I though would add some interest in the foreground, so I positioned the horses and the five dolls right along the shore of the lake by the stream. Then I sat down on the other side of the stream and directed Jan to make any small changes....
Unfortunately the spot the dolls and horses were standing was right in the shadow of a big tree, so they ended up rather dark against the bright, sunny mountains...
I used my flash to light them up a bit for some closer shots....
Then I figured the little stream would make a good setting for the two guys and their horses. I set them up, and Jan went down to make any final adjustments if needed....
Then I took the photos while sitting on the other side of the stream...
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