Mickey Mouse and a Praying Mantis | #stayathome

Am I going crazy or did a Praying Mantis dance with Mickey Mouse? Perhaps not.

I used to own a macro lens when I had Canon equipment (a long time ago), and since then I have been using Nikon equipment and I resorted to borrowing an extension tube from a friend. It can turn any lens into a macro lens, but the downside is that it’s not as quick to use and precise as a macro lens, and also not as sharp…but it does work. These were shot at 12:00am which means the sun is blazing on all cylinders, but my trusty Godox AD200 allows me to shoot using high speed sync, so I can shoot at any shutterspeed I choose. And its powerful enough to balance the sun, and also darken the background. Without the flash, the background would be completely over exposed and I won’t be able to isolate the the subject. It is not as powerful as the bigger Godox flashes, that can completely over power the sun, and in some cases even darken the effect of the sun. I would be able to get this effect if I add another AD200 next to mine and to fire them at the same time with the same power, but I only own one flash. Long story short, this is an amazing piece of equipment. I have seen that Godox is launching their AD300 Pro in SA soon, and it will give a kidney…hey…don’t judge…lockdown has dried up my income…just joking…I like my kidneys…but I would love to own one.

Enjoy the photos. I also sprayed the Praying Mantis with water, and my idea was to catch the spray behind the insect but it didn’t work so well, so I photographed the water droplets on him…which turned out super cool!

I also had some fun with my Lego Mickey Mouse minifigure! I thought it would be cute to make them dance! I used my AD200 with a Magmod grid and blue gel from the right, and my Nikon SB910 flash with orange gel from the left.

Mickey Mouse got hitched | #stayathome

My daughter has this cute little doll Lego, and just knew I wanted her to get married…and the only other Lego I could find with a tuxedo was Mickey Mouse. It’s the Mickey Mouse from the first cartoon Disney made, and I think they make a cute pair!

I used my LED light and flashlight (with a long carton tube, this focused the light) to light the toys, and I used my wedding tricks to photograph them.

My original idea was to photograph Mickey Mouse and Petunia (I am calling her Petunia) in a water droplet, and it turned out it is impossible…I guess I am going it wrong if it is not the case…hehehe. I then improvised by placing the subjects underneath the glass table and I made 2 big droplets on the table and I photographed their faces in these droplets. I also tried suspending them in the air underneath the table, and it resulted in very moody misty photos…which is also a cool effect. I also then improvised by placing the subjects on the glass table with droplets and I then placed color squares underneath to get the color pattern from the squares displayed in the droplets. I got this idea from Jacki Bruniquel a while ago and I have been dying to try this technique. This is magic and I love the results!

For the other photos I went around in my yard to photograph them. I used my LED light to light the subjects and I played around with my flashlight with effects. The carton tube, which focused the light, made for really interesting photos, and I also used a pattern with the photos at the end…if you light into a paper with cut-out stripes…then you get stripes in the shadows. The is easily done with a Magmod system, but I dont have the patterns. (yet)

Enjoy the photos and please comment and share with your friends!