Miniatures in the real world Photobook.

 For a long time I have enjoyed taking photos of miniature figures in the real world. 

It plays with perception of scale and I enjoy the idea of a smaller world existing along side ours. 

I took some of these photos and put them into a little photobook. 

You should be able to buy the book from here. 

Below are some photos from the book. 

"Cornetto Trilogy"

A trilogy jam jar dioramas inspired by the cornetto movies. 

Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The Worlds End. 

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"Strawberry Cornetto"

'There's a girl in the garden ...'

A jam jar diorama inspired by the movie Shaun Of The Dead. 

This jam jar shows Shaun and Ed taking on the (were not saying the Z word.) 

with their shovel and cricket bat. 

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"Classic Cornetto"

'Its just the one swan actually ...'

A jam jar inspired by the movie Hot Fuzz.

This jam jar shows PC Angel and PC Butterman trying to wrangle Mr P.I Staker's loose swan. 

Just the one swan though! 

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"Mint Cornetto"

'I hate this fucking town! ... '

A jam jar inspired by the movie The Worlds End.

This jam jar shows Gary King Trying to get a drink while Andy Knightley attacks a black with a bar stool while Oliver 'o-man' Chamberlain loses his head.

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My Fathers Collection.

A photographic archive of my fathers handwritten record sleeves.

My parents always played music as I was growing up, and they still do. They had a large collection of music on Vinyl, CD and even MiniDiscs (when they were a thing) and now digital. 

I was gifted my parents record collection when they moved. 

As I listened my way randomly through the collection, I noticed that some of the records had some notes on the inner sleeves. 

My father had replace the inner sleeves of his records with blank or generic ones and made some notes on timings and band members and years of release, even some remarks on the record quality and scratches. 

As I listened to more of the records with my own son, I found more of these annotated sleeves. 

Each time I did it felt like I was connecting to the young version of my father and his beloved record collection. 

As I found more and more I felt that I wanted to document them, so the idea of a photo book formed. 

I collected all the records that had the annotated sleeves and started designing. 

 I sketched out what i would like the layouts to look like. I came up with a few different page designs, some with the focus on a single album sleeve, gate-fold sleeves and other layout options. 

Using the layouts as a starting point I made myself a shooting list for which photos I needed to take for the book. 

The cover Design.

Using the hand written names from the sleeves I created a blank cover with just the artists names and put them on the front and back of the cover to make the book feel like a annotated record sleeve.

 

Half the names are on the front and half on the back. 

        

Page Layouts. 

I used the layouts I had designed as a base, because as the as I started working on the pages the layouts needed to evolve to show the sleeves of correctly. 

Each page has a large picture of the sleeve and a smaller image of the actual cover, no stock photos used, all of the pictures are high quality photos of the real items, with all the wear and tear that the years have provided.  The pages also had a notes section that lists some info that I observed about the sleeves, such as notes on scratches, surface noise, years of release, and purchase year and so on.  

On the odd page there are some short reviews from my son. 

I had the book printed using an online company.

It was printed as a 11inch square photo book, the aim was to mimic a vinyl record. 

The result worked very well, I know it is smaller than an actual record but it works really well. 

 

Seafood Automata.

I have always loved Automata, from little paper kits from books to wooden kits of flapping pterodactyls, I have always enjoyed making them. 

So I thought I would have a try at making some small fun little automata.  

Fresh Portuguese Sardines. 

Polvo em Conserva. 

Calmars en Conserve. 

Grebbestad Ansjovis

Crab Claws.

The idea for the seafood came from trying to think of a small form factor that would look fun on a shelf and make people intrigued by it.

 

The planning was the first step, I wanted to keep the form factor the same size as the tins we had in the cupboard, so that was the first design constraint that I had given myself. 

The 'Fresh Sardines' was the first seafood automata that I made. I gave it a Portuguese theme with the tiles and ... well the sardines as they are very well known for their tinned seafood, it is in fact the best tinned seafood that I have ever had. 

Once the first one was made, I decided I wanted to do some more, and these were to be more realistic than the tiled sardines of the first one. 

The Octopus was the next animal that I wanted to recreate. 

Getting the tentacles too look correct and function was a challenge. 

Also I decided that there would only be 4 of them, not the full set as that would have looked too busy.  

Painting these tins and the seafood is very fun.  

Next I made two at the same time. Anchovies and Squid were the next targets. 

I could fit more fish than the sardines as the anchovies were smaller. 

All the automata have been painted and clear coated to give them a little protection. 

I wanted them to have traditional feeling designs on the tins. Albeit not very realistic as it is unlikely that all of the relevant information to be on the unopened section.  

Crab claws were the next challenge as the movement is in a different direction, as the first ones flip up the claws need to open and close sideways. 

 

Videos of all the automata should show below.