The Autumn King
This is the first official photo of King Autumnus "Pepo" Cucurbita. It has always been the tradition that the first official image of the new king or queen of autumn is a painting but "Pepo" I. wants to be a modern king so he asked for a photograph, and who am I to refuse a king's request? For the photo, Pepo I. proudly wore his super comfortable, velvety-soft coronation mantle that was exclusively designed for him by Kale Lagerfeld.
Since Pepo is such a modern ornamental gourd, pardon, king, he also spends much of his free time searching the internet. Most recently, he developed a keen interest in body enhancements. As a first step, he requested a second eye. Born a cyclops (he's always been fine with it and it has never impaired him whatsoever), he for once wanted to have the "stereo view" experience "just like everybody else." So I made him a second eye from modeling clay, not expecting much of a "stereo view" experience for Pepo but he's delighted about it and keeps assuring me that he "sees like I have never seen before. By the way, Silke, when was the last time you dusted that corner, if I may ask?"
Originally, I wanted to use a tiny chestnut that I had picked up in front of my house (it's a tradition to pick one up and keep it as a good luck charm) but then I saw these small ornamental gourds at the supermarket the other day and took a closer look. One of the colourful little gourds had a tiny head with one "eye" and a huge pug nose and I kind of fell in love with it. Since there also was the first kale at the Whole Foods Market, an idea formed and I decided to stick to it and try to make it work: the birth and coronation of King Pepo I.
So the autumn traditions here are quite obvious: collecting leaves, and cooking with pumpkin and kale (the latter I didn't like too much as a child because back then it was the fashion to almost cook it to oblivion). Even the modeling clay eye represents a typical at-home autumn activity: crafting.
In-camera focus stacking yielded the best results, and combining the 15 ORF files in Helicon Focus yielded a better result than the in-camera stacked final JPG which had some artifacts. Illumination: natural light from above, yellowish light from the right, and indirect, reflected light from the left.
Size info: The width of the frame is a little less than 7 cm/2, 75 inches. I went as close as possible and measured the scene before taking the photo to make sure it didn't exceed our size limit. And you've seen the tiny crown before, it is 2 cm/0,78 inches "tall".
HMM, Everyone! (I will catch up with you a little later.)
The Autumn King
This is the first official photo of King Autumnus "Pepo" Cucurbita. It has always been the tradition that the first official image of the new king or queen of autumn is a painting but "Pepo" I. wants to be a modern king so he asked for a photograph, and who am I to refuse a king's request? For the photo, Pepo I. proudly wore his super comfortable, velvety-soft coronation mantle that was exclusively designed for him by Kale Lagerfeld.
Since Pepo is such a modern ornamental gourd, pardon, king, he also spends much of his free time searching the internet. Most recently, he developed a keen interest in body enhancements. As a first step, he requested a second eye. Born a cyclops (he's always been fine with it and it has never impaired him whatsoever), he for once wanted to have the "stereo view" experience "just like everybody else." So I made him a second eye from modeling clay, not expecting much of a "stereo view" experience for Pepo but he's delighted about it and keeps assuring me that he "sees like I have never seen before. By the way, Silke, when was the last time you dusted that corner, if I may ask?"
Originally, I wanted to use a tiny chestnut that I had picked up in front of my house (it's a tradition to pick one up and keep it as a good luck charm) but then I saw these small ornamental gourds at the supermarket the other day and took a closer look. One of the colourful little gourds had a tiny head with one "eye" and a huge pug nose and I kind of fell in love with it. Since there also was the first kale at the Whole Foods Market, an idea formed and I decided to stick to it and try to make it work: the birth and coronation of King Pepo I.
So the autumn traditions here are quite obvious: collecting leaves, and cooking with pumpkin and kale (the latter I didn't like too much as a child because back then it was the fashion to almost cook it to oblivion). Even the modeling clay eye represents a typical at-home autumn activity: crafting.
In-camera focus stacking yielded the best results, and combining the 15 ORF files in Helicon Focus yielded a better result than the in-camera stacked final JPG which had some artifacts. Illumination: natural light from above, yellowish light from the right, and indirect, reflected light from the left.
Size info: The width of the frame is a little less than 7 cm/2, 75 inches. I went as close as possible and measured the scene before taking the photo to make sure it didn't exceed our size limit. And you've seen the tiny crown before, it is 2 cm/0,78 inches "tall".
HMM, Everyone! (I will catch up with you a little later.)