Making a Dragon Fly

So many people have been asking how I made Winston 'fly' in the last two episodes. Easy.  With strings. I strung him up with four strings - one attached to his head, two to his hips, and one to his tail - and tied those to a long wooden rod.

I tried to fit 'little Baron' on his back seated below Winston's wings, but his arms were way too short to hold Winston around his neck, so he had to sit above the wings. I actually stitched 'Baron's hands onto Winston's neck, to help hold him in place so he wouldn't accidentally fall off.

​Then we headed down to the lake....

Jan held the rod out where I instructed, so Winston would be in the right position for the photos....

This was one of my favourite photos, taken over the concrete ruins protruding on the beach....

I removed the strings in Photoshop, and extended the concrete wall. I also shortened one of Winston's horns, so it didn't look like he was poking Baron's eye.....

Here's another of the other original photos still with the strings showing....

We went to the lake a second time, with the two older boys, and that time I wanted to take the photos in the other direction so they'd be different, but when taking photos facing east I always have to be careful to pay attention that the nuclear plant isn't in the background. 

​It wasn't sunny, so the strings barely showed up - although you can see the end of the rod....

I ended up taking the final photo turned a bit so the nuclear plant wasn't showing....

And while we were at the beach that second time, I also took the photos of Baron and Winston  'roasting' marshmallows. I had pre-burned the marshmallow on Baron's stick for the final scene, and Jan lit a match and held it close for the photo, so the flame would have the same background as the marshmallow. I took photos of several lit matches, since it was windy, in hopes that I'd capture at least one nice flame...

allowing me to easily 'clone' it into place afterwards.....