Trigger came home with me!

[John Kasaian]

Thats the name I gave to a 7-1/2" long giant seahorse specimen I recently acquired, who is going to be the subject of a still life 1:1 on 8x10 film. I'll be contact printing the finished print on warm tone graded fiber paper, likely Slavich or Emaks(or perhaps I'll break out the AZO?) Being dry and brittle I don't want to use my hot lights and risk catching him/her/it on fire, so I'll likely rely on old Sol and reflectors for lighting. Trigger's details are pretty intense so I'm thinking of using either TMY or FP-4+. I do need to find some non destructive way of getting trigger to stick to a back ground---perhaps a small velcro coin? For a lens figure I can use either a 10" WF Ektar or 240mm G Claron and still have enough bellows on the 'dorff---if not then the 159mm Wolly.
I was wondering if anyone here has played with this sort of subject and might have any advise or suggestions?

[John Kasaian]

Well, I've settled on ortho film for this project. I think it will work nicely for the look I'm after. I'm attempting to design and build a little "set" with a changeable backdrop with a 30 degree angle for Trigger to rest upon without breaking his/her/its brittle tail, and also allow for plenty of reflected sunlight.
It's an amusing exercise!

[Vaughn]

Sounds like a fun project, John.

Shadows thrown onto the back ground will be challenging to control. I know that jewelery, etc are often raised up above the surface on "stilts", but might be difficult to do.

Another idea is to make a cone of translucent material with a hole in the apex to stick the lens through. The bottom end of the cone goes over Trigger. Then shine your lights (or sun + reflectors) through the sides of the cone --mellows out the shadows.

Vaughn

[Scott Davis]

You could put a little velcro dot on the back of Trigger, then put the other half of the velcro dot on the end of a clear plastic dowel, and then use that to mount Trigger in front of a backdrop, at an angle. The other option would be to make a little pedestal out of a clear plastic dowel, a larger plastic circle, and a large base that can be placed under your backdrop material, then shoot straight down at Trigger (wish I could draw e-diagrams to post something like this).