So, how did I take those Crossing Guard photos?
Well, it took some pre-planning at home. I posed the dolls on my kitchen table in such a way that their stands would be hidden behind their legs, then took the bristolboard 'crosswalk' I'd saved from the Beatles Abbey Road photo shoot a few years ago, and positioned the dolls all on it. I marked where the vertical supports for their stands needed to come through the bristolboard, marked them, and cut out little curves, then inserted the stand bases up through the slots.
The bristolboard crosswalk was taped to a piece of wood roughly the same size, with all the stand bases protruding. I needed a three-way intersection in order to place the dolls so they looked like they were actually crossing in the middle of the intersection. That would not be possible in a regular four-way intersection. So we headed over to the foot of ValleyFarm Road, which has a small utilities building with driveway on the fourth side of the intersection.
Jan put together our slide projector stand, so Benny's eyes would be at my eye level, and then placed the stand in the grass opposite the oncoming road....
Well, it took some pre-planning at home. I posed the dolls on my kitchen table in such a way that their stands would be hidden behind their legs, then took the bristolboard 'crosswalk' I'd saved from the Beatles Abbey Road photo shoot a few years ago, and positioned the dolls all on it. I marked where the vertical supports for their stands needed to come through the bristolboard, marked them, and cut out little curves, then inserted the stand bases up through the slots.
The bristolboard crosswalk was taped to a piece of wood roughly the same size, with all the stand bases protruding. I needed a three-way intersection in order to place the dolls so they looked like they were actually crossing in the middle of the intersection. That would not be possible in a regular four-way intersection. So we headed over to the foot of ValleyFarm Road, which has a small utilities building with driveway on the fourth side of the intersection.
Jan put together our slide projector stand, so Benny's eyes would be at my eye level, and then placed the stand in the grass opposite the oncoming road....
Then I started putting all the dolls on their bases which were all protruding from the bristolboard 'crossing', being careful to make sure their stands weren't showing.....
In order for the 'forced perspective' to work, the dolls need to have their eyes at the level a real person's eyes would be.
Jan went across the road to take a 'behind the scene' photo....
I started taking photos, ignoring all the traffic passing by....
..including a city bus, which was a bit too close, so somewhat out of scale....
My favourite photo....
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