MUTANT - idea blog 3

Note: clicking on the images will show them in a larger size

A few days ago while my chihuahua puppy was sleeping, I did a sketch for an idea for the mutant project. After this week's lecture, my ideas have moved more towards half animal half floral mutants, rather than half human half floral.

My sketch shows my dog lying down. Its main body component is comprised of oyster shells (which I collected the week before for the mutant project). Knowing I wanted to do something with florals for this project, I also collected flowers from my previous floristry classes. I let them die naturally because I liked the idea of doing something with a mutant made of dying/dead flowers and foliage set up in a backdrop of blooming and thriving florals.

So, the "tail" of the mutant in my sketch features dying flowering gum, which I have left to decay since the beginning of uni semester. The red circles are viburnum berries, though in the photoshoot I was unable to get them in time. Around the mutant's neck are circular balls of spikey foliage that I have also let naturally die.

I have replaced my puppy's two back legs and added another set of legs near the stomach with human tongues. My puppy's nose and mouth will also be replaced with a human nose.

I envisaged this mutant to be placed in a forest setting - as if it were its natural habitat. I thought of the rainforest setting because I imagined the mutant lying on a moss log. These following images inspired the background:

 

On Friday I borrowed a tripod and D90 to do a shoot on Sunday because it was forecasted to be sunny.

Yesterday, after Saturday floristry class, I kept some tulips for the shoot because I thought it would bring some colour to the image as well as some different textures to the background in which the mutant lives.

For the background, I chose a creek located at the end of my street.

My mum helped me carry the equipment and props down to the creek and I found a log that I thought was perfect. The lighting was also very soft and beautiful at the log. It was around 9:30am.

I set up the log with moss that I sourced from floristry class and placed the inside-out tulips that I had cut and wired onto the log to make it look like it was naturally blooming from the wood.

For the next hour I shot my dog walking across the log from various camera angles. It was difficult because my chihuahua is a 13 week puppy and he is not yet confident with being away from me or my mum. So he refused to stay on the log by himself. We tricked him by leaving treats along the log.

I knew it would be difficult to shoot my dog in interesting positions since he wouldn't be staying still, but I felt that it would be an exciting challenge.

These are some jpegs of the original files from today's shoot:

I like the following image because it shows the mutant interacting with its environment, which I like because then it connects the mutant with its surrounding - it doesn't look like I created a mutant and just dropped it into a background.

I like this following image because it features the end of the log, which creates interesting "breathing" space in the photograph. Though, the lighting is dark.

Angles like this gave me more variety to choose from after finishing shooting. However, with angles like this you see less of the body.

The following photo is another one of the shots I might possibly use in postproduction, as the lighting is very good in this photograph.

I used white cardboard to reflect the light as some of the shots were a bit dark as we were in a forest environment.

After shooting my dog, I shot the individual items such as the dying plants, my mum's tongue and nose, oyster shells stuck on cardboard and the skin of a pineapple. I saw the pineapple this morning in the kitchen and thought it would be interesting if the mutant had the textural skin of a pineapple - rough, scale-like and spiky.