Under Construction

Achtung Baby

We are moving our fantastic little spot here on the web to our new home this weekend and that will include some high tech geeky wizardry with changing name servers and other web related stuff.

It may be a little bit bumpy and some elements may cause some disruption in our quality of service but I am sure you will support us in these times of change.

Off course we will keep you posted and up to speed, both here and on all our social platforms we tend to hang out.

Me2

PS. Maybe good to bookmark all of them, just in case :)

The one and only www.stuckinplastic.com

Our new home.
Our old home (thank you blogger for the good times)
Our Facebook Page
Our G+ spot on the Web
Our official Twitter account

And last but not least, our IG feeds: Me2 xxSJC Avanaut ...

Getting Ready

Uploading my significant twelve ...

This weekend I spent most of the time in my digital light room doing some fun post processing, taking a trip down to memory lane and not being behind the viewfinder shooting new existing stuff. 

I was working on my significant twelve for our Stuck In Plastic book exchange and getting my booklet out to Blurb (yes, I managed).

While I was planning to write a longer post on using Lightroom to create booklets (pretty impressed), and adding some of my findings and musings on creating my significant twelve (yes, I managed to upload and order last night my booklet), Big Inc. has been calling in some favors today and my deep dive into Lightroom books will have to wait a little.

One thing I did want to share with all of you now, is that you still have time to make your own photo book as a perfect Xmas gift for your friends and family (you don't have to share it with us).

In the below calendar (special kudos to Blurb for the screenshot) you can see your average photo book provider will need your book by mid next week in order to get it delivered under your Xmas tree.

Blurb delivery dates, check your local provider for details ...

So, you still have time to create that very personal gift for your loved ones, collect some of your twelve significant moments from your iPhone or DSLR collection, and get them printed in a little (or larger) booklet and surprise the ones you care about with a look back at last years memories.

Use the power of now, and get that booklet created.

Me2

This post is not sponsored by Blurb, nor are we affiliated with them. I just like them and had a very good experience with them. Shelly highligted some other alternatives in this post here.

Did you know that I revealed my camera of choice in the above image ? I didn't, but dornyika pointed it out on my last post on IG.  

Did you know that you can have a sneak in the dungeons of Stuck In Plastic and have a peak at the new look and feel ?

Dungeons

Curious what one may find in the dungeons of Stuck In Plastic

Busy days here on Stuck In Plastic.

While Shelly shared the big news with you all on Friday about the very first Stuck In Plastic exhibition in March in Seattle (yes, I am even more stoked as her and very proud to be showing our work in her hometown) some of us have been working in the dungeons of Stuck In Plastic to make this little spot on the web that little bit more interactive and interesting for you.

A better blog with nicer visuals, more interaction and the possibility for you to interact with your own facebook or google account.

A spot where we can continue our blog, and explore the ins and outs of toy photography as an art. Explore what drives us in the why we shoot what shoot.

Continue to engage with artists, toy enthusiasts, collectors and connoisseurs of the fine art of shooting all things stuck in plastic.

Taking Stuck In Plastic to the next level.

Are you interested in taking a sneak peak at the next release of our blog and give some good feedback and poke some holes in the design ?

Go ahead and head over to our beta site at stuckinplastic.net and let us know what you think ?

Me2


This is a beta site, so we are still testing a lot of the features, and may have to do a clean install before we move officially next weekend to our new home.

#stuckinplastic: The Exhibition

Our very first picture we posted here on Stuck In Plastic.

 
One of our goals here at Stuck In Plastic (#stuckinplastic) is to create opportunities to show toy photography away from a computer or hand held device and place it squarely on the walls of fellow fans, board rooms, coffee shops and galleries alike.

To that end I am pleased to announce the very first Stuck In Plastic exhibition which we just branded for now #stuckinplastic: The Exhibition.

My friends +Me2, Avanaut and I will be showing our collective works - large, and we mean large- at the Bryan Ohno Gallery in Seattle, USA, Planet Earth for five weeks starting March 5th, 2015.

And yes we want YOU to come and celebrate our very first art exhibition in my hometown with us.

In fact if you are able to make the opening we will all three be in attendance (yes, these two Nordic dudes are coming over to this side of the pond).

Showing my work with these two gentleman is a sincere honor, and the additional opportunity to meet them...well lets just say 2015 is looking very bright indeed.

We will be talking about this exhibition periodically between now and March 5th as our plans take shape and offcourse we are interested in your views, so stay tuned !

I hope you will take time out of your busy schedule and meet up with us for the opening reception on the 5th (or at least help us spread the word). It would be wonderful to turn this into a mini meet up and show the world and beyond (or at least Seattle for now) that we are a force to be reckoned with.

My sincere hope is that this is a grand success so that we can travel #stuckinplastic: The Exhibition to a town near you, add a few more members, and continue to grow this movement.

~ xxsjc

If you would like more information about this, or future exhibitions, please let us know. 
Have you signed up for the Best of 2014 Photographic Challenge? If not, sign up here!

Explicit Lipstick Inside

Only yesterday we wondered if LEGO was crippling our future generations of Astronauts, Scientists and Female Pirates alike and we got some great reactions on all our social platforms.

Most (if not all) of you were pretty conviced the future of Planet Earth was not at risk, and we could count on the wisdom and imagination of our younger generation to take the dollhouses and spaceships into the future, regardless of gender.

One post went a few steps further and actually gave a very thorough walk-through of gender diversification throughout the history of this little brick we call minifig.

A post I could not let be hidden in the comments, and really needs it place here on the main page for all of you to enjoy.

A post by Serhat aka telefonfotografcisi:

" ... I believe that the Lego Group are also dealing with the same concern everyday, from a commercial point of view since their target sales heavily relies on the answer(s) to this question.

Since Lego produced the ancestors of today’s modern minifigures back in 1978, they used almost no features to distinguish the characters, rather than those basic hats for the stereotype male and ponytail hair for his female counterpart. They had identically smiling faces with black button eyes, and their skin color was chosen yellow on purpose so that it does not reflect any racial difference. (Note that only a decade back, the people were being killed on streets of US depending on their skin color. –maybe not very different than today..) This may be considered a very clever move for the company for many coming years.

But things started to change with the first Pirates theme (one of my all time favorites) released back in 1989. The figs were still those yellow guys (and a few gals) but since you could not think of any pirates without eye-patches and long beards (mascular reference, again), the faces began to change. The expression on their face was still that same euphoric smile, but now the men had beards and mustaches while the first female fig with lipsticks came into ranks. In a few years, they would start to differ in terms of facial expressions and this would spread in nearly all Lego themes, Castle and Town to just name a few.

But the female population were still short in number according to men. Think of all those knights, henchmen, cavalry, pirates and soldiers.. This was not a world for cute ladies! Except of course, the unmistakable “Maiden” of Castle series, the female forest ranger and the female pirate. You will see that these are still amongst the highest priced figs on the web if you can find them in good shape.

Even the Western series did not attempt to change the iconic yellow skin color in 1996 when they introduced the Indians (natives of America, not that of India) But in time, another iconic property of all figs would start to differ: Their age! Those tiny people were ageless for a long time, and now they started to show their experience of life with white hair and likes, while we were about to see the first children characters with shorter and unmovable leg parts in the coming years.

Yet, as always, what changed the game was again the commercial concerns. In 2003, Lego Group decided to release the NBA star players theme, an officially licensed one. Now we had figs that resembled the real players, and they had to introduce new skin colors to manage that. (Btw, need one of those heads to make my Bob Marley fig!) After that, Lego Group spread into many officially licenced themes ranging from Super Heroes to the Lord of the Rings, and inevitably new tones of colors spread amongst the figs, reflecting the variety of humanbeings in real life.

However, the subject was the gender inequality of minifigs, wasn’t it? The introduction of Collectable Series, which took many of us AFOLs back in the game, used the opportunity to fix the problem quite successfully. I did not personally count them but I’d guess at least 1/3 of them or more are females in each series. Add to that the female characters from licenced series (ah, the Wonder Woman!) and dedicated series such as Friends, now it seems a little more balanced, doesn’t it?

So, let’s go back to the original question and finally finish this unlikely history lesson: Is Lego trying to stereotype the minifig nation and favoring the macho male against the outnumbered females? I believe not. Because I really do not think of them as male or female characters when I shuffle up in my collection. I see them as representatives of real people, and just like in real life, they are humanbeings for me first... 

 Before being male or female, old or young, even hero or villain ..."



Thank you telefonfotografcisi for sharing this rich history with us, I really enjoyed it.


I did a quick count at the latest series 13 and I count actually 9 female species on first observation out of 15.  How many did you count ?

Parental Advice: LEGO inside.

Photo Credit: Fryd_Lego

The last few days my social network was buzzing with this great Parental Advice picture, popping up from all sides with a little thumbs up, big smile or just a simple so true ... focusing on the true positive message of creativity and imagination (at least that is how I read it) when we talk about doll houses and space ships alike.

When Fryd posted the image on red.it I am not sure he wanted to start the whole controversy about gender, just launched a hoax or genuinely wanted to share a picture from the 70's.

The buzz got quickly picked up in some other articles like this one here on IFL where the focus shifted really to the gender focus of the latest LEGO Friends series and includes a full featured video of Anita Sarkeesian giving a pink colored overview of the LEGO history since the early 70's including some great sets like Paradisa, Scala and Belleville.

If you have a few minutes to spare, the two video feeds are really worth while watching and reveals a world conspiracy of male domination in the sequel of the series (or just great selective editing skills of Anita ?) and turns LEGO into a dominating evil Big Inc. responsible for male domination.

I am not going to argue with Anita that LEGO has a male, testosterone filled side in some areas and there is a good amount of macho in some of the material shown (now who is the true heroine in The LEGO Movie ?) yet I never felt like LEGO was giving me an unbalanced world view dominated by male supremacy, merely giving me the opportunity to build spaceships and doll house alike.

Now, I may be biased, given that my gender is off the wrong side, but there are so many fantastic great female "legographers" out there that I am curious in your view points ?

Is it worth the discussion ?

Is LEGO crippling our future generation of scientists, astronauts and pirates alike ?

Have you ever considered not to purchase a LEGO set because the amount of male and female characters were not equal ?

Is LEGO stereotyping a whole generation, and we all should stop shooting with the bricks and move on to others like Hello Kitty to safeguard the next generations ?

Your Thoughts ?  

Green

Green™

I am just returning to The Studio after a full week of intergalactic travel for Big Inc.

The third week of intergalactic travel, discoveries and planning ahead for next year with Darth and Co, all wrapped up under non disclosure agreements  and other legal mumbo jumbo, a great deep dive with corporate Inc and C types alike.

Three weeks of limited activity in The Studio shooting new, yet sufficient time to prepare for my most significant twelve on the intergalactic carriers I have explored the last few weeks.

I am really getting ready to put the finishing touch to this little booklet of 2014 epicness and share with you.

Twelve hand picked pictures of this year, wrapped up in one shiny booklet to be there as a lifetime memory to look back on 2014.

It is not to late for you to join into the fun and sign up here or read everything about it here if you are new to this exclusive 2014 photo exchange here on Stuck In Plastic.

I have a few more questions that I want to ask you, but first things first.

Getting my 12 most significant ones selected.

Would you like to see Green or Curtiz included in my twelve ones ?

Me2


Looking for more adult content with a twist ? 
Have a look at the latest post of Shelly here, as she introduces us to a company that takes the performing arts of bricks to the next level.

Curtiz

Bacon is good for me !

Another roller-coaster week it has been here on Stuck In Plastic.

A roller-coaster of great posts, great feedback, great emotions, and some other awesomeness around the corners.

We grew this week a fantastic 200 new friends on facebook. Thank You.

We grew to an average of plus 200 reads a day here on Stuck In Plastic in the last few weeks. Thank You.

We launched a fantastic book exchange program for your Xmas tree and you guys and gals are selecting you epic twelve. Thank You.

We outed ourselves and a few more in being Stuck In Plastic Photographers, and you all got very engaged. Thank You.

We looked back at our own Stuart and what responsibilities come with being Stuck In Plastic.

And some more ...

A roller-coaster week of great epicness, awesomeness and a little bit of bacon along the lines.

A week of exploring our boundaries and getting ready for the Xmas season.

Another week of being with You, exploring with You, sharing with You ...

Thank You !



You can still sign up for our epic twelve book exchange here.

What topic would you like to see addressed before Xmas ?
What do you feel is missing here on Stuck In Plastic ?
What do you really like and want to see and hear more of ?

How long does it take you ?

Awesome. Lets have some FUN™

While some of us seem to have a challenge with coming out of the closet and openly share their passion for being stuck in plastic, I have a complete different question for you to kickstart the weekend.

How long does it take you ?

How long does it take you between getting a great idea and putting it out there for all of us to enjoy ?

Avanaut just shared recently it can take him years to get it all right but I am more interested in the idea to first edition question.

In the past, it took me between a few minutes (time to take a selfie) to maximum a few hours to get it all right, shot, edited and out there in the big pool of instant gratification, ready to receive likes.

Today it takes days or even weeks (dare I say months) before an idea is put into a creative shoot and published as a first edition.

I would not be capable of running a 365 project at all.

Is it age, maturity, lack of time or just plain rebellion against the here and now instant gratification.
I dont know but it is for sure not a writers block or an artistic lack of ideas.

It is just ... it takes more time.
It needs more thought.
It needs planning.
It needs lightening, stagehands, and the full Me2 Crew
It needs to be pixel perfect on FX mode.
It needs more time ...

So, how long does it take you ?

 
Have you ever went to great lengths to take a shot and then eventually decide to NOT publish it ?
Have you ever taken a piece of paper and drawn out the complete scenery ?
Have you ever considered getting a smoke machine into your scenery ?
Have you ever considered renting additional glass (read lenses) because the once you have dont support the right idea ?

Are you ?

Exploring Stone Mountain, GA, USA.

One cannot sneak away on a secret mission for 11 days without expecting some creative mischief from Shelly here on Stuck In Plastic.

What started as a simple quote from Sir Adams on your 12 significant ones is turning into a full fledged artistic exchange program for the friends of Stuck In Plastic to celebrate the best of 2014.

Cool.

Count me in.

It is not to feed The Beauty Shelly has just discovered in her latest book, it is just I genuinely love these little books, I have been pushing it forward because of lack of time and focus. 

And I do love the exchange of crazy adventures as some of you may remember.

So, no more excuses.

The power of now.

I am in.

In order to help us getting this epic photo exchange better organized, I created a simple form where you can leave your name, adress, email and if you want to exchange with Shelly, me or with both of us and get double awesomeness in your mailbox to enjoy.

So here is a simple recap:

We all create our best 12 pictures of 2014 book (full details available in this post and this one).

You sign up in this form here 

You select with whom you want to exchange.

We sent you the adress details where to sent your book to.

We (Shelly, me or both of us) sent you our respective books by December 15th.

We keep you all updated here in our blog.

I am in.

Are you ?

Happy Inc.

Visiting the American Dream

 

We are not shy from asking difficult questions to our inner selves here on Stuck In Plastic, and both Shelly and me touched upon our influences with Big Inc. in a variety of posts, including this latest one where I wondered if having a boardroom exposition at Shell would be off limits.

 

This weekend I had the pleasure to visit the history of another Big Inc. in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. One that turns universal happiness into a bottle of fizzing pleasure, and while my European roots sometimes got an overdose of too much sweet and happiness, it was an awesome journey through The Coca Cola Company history.

 

An history that started with an artist pharmacist called John Pemberton and a fantastic marketeer listening to the name of Asa Candler.

 

A story that may have had a hidden reference to Van Gogh but given that I was so overwhelmed with the happiness inside, this only dawned on me once I was outside again.



Howard Finster at the World Of Coca Cola

The Coca Cola Company is for sure part of Big Inc. yet it plays its role in the art scene.

From being a major pop culture sponsor today over art projects like the 1996 Olympics when more than 70 artists around the world, including Howard Finster turned their cow bottle into art to using advertising artists of the highest level with people like Haddon Sundblom to create a complete generation of pop art culture (or should I say pin up) around the American Dream.

I am still very much fascinated by the influence of Big Inc. on the Art scene.

An influence that goes far beyond sponsering an exhibition or endorsing an artist on a new product release.

Big Inc.

To be continued.

Me2.

Fast and Furious ...

 

 

I know I posted this shot of Teddy before.

 

Both here and on good old IG a while back.



I am sure some of you may remember it, but it feels like it was ages ago.
When Shelly only yesterday posted her view on the amount of digital noise we produce in this fast moving age of digital information, where images are yet another language to tell a quick story to friends and strangers alike (one picture says more than a thousand words) it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the normal conversation we produce with our imagery (a selfie here, a foodie there, ...) and the significant ones you want to treat like a good book you want to take aside, enjoy when reading and foster in your library.

My dear good old IG is mostly about conversation in the here and now.
When @brickcentral announced their latest photo contest on teddy bears, they made it clear that only new pictures were allowed in the conversation.

For sure my blurry shot of Teddy disqualified as it was shot 17 days prior to the contest(*).
17 days.
Old News. ´
A lightyear in our digital conversation.

I could reshoot Teddy and get actually a better composition, a more intriguing look and resubmit it for the bear competition (I still have two days) and actually gain more likes and engagement on that shot because it is part of the conversation, but that would be partly fooling me as I would be recomposing a closed shoot.
It would be a remake of a significant moment that happend 17 days earlier.

Just like with a 365 day project (more on that later) competitions like this force you to take your creativity to the next level, reinvent and dont dwell on the past.
Practice and improve your skills and crafts and engage in the digital conversation.

It is a fantastic learning school, it is an enabler, it is the instant feedback loop of likes from the audience we all crave, and Avanaut explored in his first post here on Stuck In Plastic.

We are moving so fast and furious in our digital conversations we dont always take the time to look back and select the 12 most significant photos that will make it into our portfolio like Ansel said.

But now is a good time to stop and start looking back.

We are fast approaching the end of the year where we will all look back and start posting our best 12 photos of the year. Do think twice and not just select those that created the most conversation and likes, but look for those moments and images that stood out, that were significant and important for you, even if they drowned in the digital noise around you.

The ones you would print and stick to your wall.

The ones that may have been shot 17 days too early in the digital conversation we are constantly engaging in.

Your 12 significant ones.

Me2

(*) I am not grumpy I could not enter with Teddy, I luv the great folks over at @brickcentral and if you dont follow them on IG yet, go ahead and tag along as they bring great new features of talented photographers to you on a regular basis. I just thought it was a perfect example of the fast and furious speed we live in when we produce images as part of our conversation.

Fun

Awesome !

Every Sunday the Crew gathers together on the roof of The Studio™ and we discuss the week ahead, the one that has gone by, take a dip in the pool, grill some burgers and enjoy each other company.

Today we had a feature guest passing by for some fun and awesome pizza, beer and burgers.

Benny™  wanted to get all the gear out and extend the fun into the bubble pool, which we did.

We took some great snapshots, played with the strobes and had fun.

Among all the questions we ask ourselves here on SiP, we should not forget it is about having fun.

Exploring the awesome unknown.

Having fun.

Todays shoot is not gallery material and will not make it to the wall of an exclusive Stuck In Plastic collector, yet it was great fun with Benny™.

We enjoyed the moment and had some fun when shooting bubbles, regardless if they are considered art or just a snapshot of the moment (and the above pictures goes into my snapshot book).

This is what Stuck In Plastic all about.

From having Fun™ to Art™ collector material sticking high resolution full sized pictures to the wall of corporate board rooms and private bed rooms alike.

In the coming weeks we will take a deeper dive on why we are Stuck In Plastic and what we want to achieve together with you, but whatever road we take it is all about having fun, one way or the other while we take a deep dive into our artistic self.

Me2.

 

Shot at location in a Nordic Bubble Pool at an undisclosed location midst alien unidentified underwater objects.  

My original royal post has been delayed since Benny crashed the party.

Misty Mountains

Shelly's post touched me.

" ... One day we will all become dust or random particles. Depending on your beliefs you may return as another life form, you will pass on to another plane of existence or simply stop existing. What ever your beliefs, our time on earth is short and mostly inconsequential ... I am also arrogant enough to want to leave my mark on this earth; sort of like my initials carved into a tree or a painting in a cave..."

Leaving a personal legacy behind and trying to create my personal rock painting is for sure one of my personal drivers.

I really hope some of my pictures will once adorn my great grand children walls and they will inspire them to go places, meet bricks, and remember this great grand father who took pictures and inspired them to travel the world and beyond and connect ...

 

Taking about places and connecting worlds ... 

 

This picture was shot at the Oktoberfest amongst 6.3 million bricks who visited the Oktoberfest in 2014. 

6.3 million visitors also brought a lot of hunger and thirst with them which resulted in 112 oxen, 48 calves and 6.4 million liters of beer consumed at the Oktoberfest.

A social gathering of mankind and bricks alike.

170 degrees

This is post 170 since our very first post in February of this year.

The first post featuring Shelly landing on unexplored shores in Nordic countries.
A post quickly followed by our second post where Shelly explained we are an art collective, continued with a rollercoaster of other posts.
An average of 20 posts a month.

A journey of posts exploring our own artistic selves, looking for influences and the reasons why we shoot what we shoot and are what we are.

Stuckinplastic is more than just a hashtag on Instagram or the random ramblings from Shelly and Me2. Stuckinplastic is looking to define an art collective of like minded photographers, digital illustrators, story tellers and visual artists alike who want to take their work beyond the instant gratification of likes on IG, Flickr, FB or any of the social media we all crave once in a while and share a common goal, passion and understanding.

We want to take our plastic work into the printed walls of galleries, board and bedrooms alike and connect with our audience.

Define our bricked photography as the soup cans of our age.

Stuck In Plastic is not an easy or fast road, it is not an instant movement of the next great picture or awesome effect that blasts us all away like a genie in a bottle of soda.

It is not about the gear, the bricks or the tricks of the trade.
It is about all of that and yet it is soo much more.
It is about finding our artistic selves and meeting new people.
 
Sometimes we ask too much questions or dive too deep.

It is a long and windy road and we are just at the beginning of this great journey.

A journey you are all part of.

From being a distant reader who enjoys our posts, to some of you walking along and helping define the soup cans with us here on IG and G+ or giving us guidance by walking ahead and being an inspiration for all of us as a distant legend.

We are extremely proud to welcome our third member of the inner circle of the order of the soup cans here at Stuck In Plastic.

A member who doesn't need any long and windy introductions.

Welcome Avanaut.

Bridges

While Shelly is exploring the mystery fields of Big Inc. and wonders if the neocortex powers of the why are not overestimated and we all just need a daily dose of sugar to keep us motivated, I took a break from all these big questions of life and took a walk in the city.

A city walk I have to thank @legojacker for.
He reminded me on his IG feed of his participation downunder in the Melbourne InstaWalk. A walk to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Instagram (you can find the first pictures that started it all 4 years ago from the founders of IG).

I myself joined IG a year later (3 years ago !!!) and it has taken me on a photographic journey that is just starting.

A journey in the fields of digital lightroom and molded plastic.
A roller coaster from digital selfies (my very first post was a selfie on the ski slopes, taken with an iPhone 3) to epic stories of combined full frame pictures that took just a tad longer than a snapshot.

A voyage across galaxies, meeting new friends in the digital world to making a city walk in Stockholm just last weekend.

From smaller art galleries, long discussions on the Parisian boulevards and the peer recognition in the art scene in the fifties (or was it eighties) to IG, Flickr or 500px anno today.

The scene is shifting, the digital platforms are driving us in our journeys and explorations, yet there is nothing new under the sun.

We still want to connect, meet people, share our creative work and see that smile in the eyes when your image hits home and makes a connection.

And this is what Stuck In Plastic is all about.

Building plastic bridges between dinosaurs and young puppies alike.

Building bridges between a small and instant world full of plastic living in your mobile; taking the creativity to the streets of our cities. Exposing those photos on real walls, in a big format, for all of us to enjoy and connect.

Connecting our worlds, one brick at a time.

Putting Social Back Into Social Media

#wwim10stockholm is the hashtag of choice amongst these fine folks behind me2

Today was the 10th World Wide InstaMeet (try #wwim10 out on Instagram)  with folks around the globe taking their cameras and phones alike out for a group walk and meeting other IG people in real live.  

I have always thought about joining a photowalk like these, but never took the deep dive into the unknown (I am most probably not the most social brick around).

Meeting strangers in real live. 

Shaking hands and exchanging lenses. 

A very nice experience I will for sure explore again.

 

After all, we are a social species. 

A species designed to connect and exchange creativity ...

Why are these photographers walking in our picture - 50mm lens from another IG'r

People ?!?

Special thanks to:

@iggersstockholm for inviting us to the party, we for sure want to join again ... 

@dasha for being such a great host and patiently herd the troops along ...

@xxsjc for pointing out the obvious ...

Aqua

An Homage - Michael Phelps - Gold Medal Summer Olympics 2004

The last few weeks we have had our fair share of posts here on Stuck In Plastic looking for the why.

A most interesting question and I really enjoyed reading back from Balakov over Avanaut to East Mountain and beyond, including the fantastic positioning of Padawans and Jedi alike by Shelly.

One thing all posts have in common is a love for the métier. 

A passion for telling stories, painting with light and taking it beyond the instant snapshot of images that are flooding our retina devices continuously.

When I returned from a full week in the catacombs of Big Inc, another picture was crossing my retina on the flight back in. A picture I saw a few weeks ago when I was enjoying a video interview on one of those intergalactic flights back and forth. 

A picture of Michael Phelps, US gold medal winner in the Summer Olympics 2004.
A picture by Dave Black.

A picture that forced me to take a deep dive into the pool this weekend and get beyond my comfort zone and get wet.

A refreshing experience, and for sure I felt it was worth doing ! 

Now, would I stick these Speedo's to the wall ?

Not sure, but we did have great fun ...

The Speedo Look

And here is an extra Speedo shot of Julien for the other half of Stuck In Plastic as it is Shelly Birthday week and Shelly has a special relation with water ...

Happy Birthday, Shelly !

Pluto

Pluto Explorations

What better to do on a Sunday afternoon than taking a hitchhike across our Universe and enjoy a brisk walk into the deep snow blizzards of Pluto.

While Pluto is considered a dwarf planet I did not bump into Fredo, his Middle Earth Companions or any of Snow White Seven Friends but was reminded of another Legend when facing the snowflakes.

A Legend that has been exploring the snowy fields of Hoth long before I got suited up and embraced the ice cold planes of Pluto.

A Legend who has many young Padawans out there looking to step in his footsteps and become the Master one day  ...

Was I trying to be one of the young Padawans today when I took this #selfie out in the deep snow ?
Did I seek the glory and fortune some has looked before ?
Was I acting like a copy cat ?
Or did I just took a selfie in the snow ?

Most interesting questions one asks himself when out and about in the ice cold and temperatures are truly below zero (on yet another planet owned by another Big Inc, not the one of the ice cold zero drinks).

A question our Legend himself asked as well not that long ago.

It seems we are all about questions these days ...

Questions on how we are defining us as being stuck in plastic, one snowflake at a time ...

Me2

Old Traditions and Workflows Alike

Dance Floor

This morning I woke up with lots of energy, a boost of coffee and a long list of things to do, you know, the here and now.

Unlocking The Studio, switching on the lights and with a few clicks ready to enter the Lightroom to make some great epic post processing and push some digital awesomeness into the world of bits and bites when my eye was caught with the latest post of Shelly and her sound bite when grumbling over breakfast and bacon with egg tempera;

"That's also to say that usually - but not always - the piece you produce tomorrow will be shaped, purely and simply, by the tools you hold in your hand today."

While Shelly obviously was thinking about her breakfast and having a dip, my mind drifted off from the tasks at hand (taking some new pictures, finish a few other pictures and get our latest stuck in plastic blog post out as I discussed the night before with S. and then distribute it to magnitude of different platforms ...)

The tools at hand ...

The new tools these day are really the digital workflow, from taking the picture to sharing it with our target audience (remember the Sunday family afternoons when grandpa got out his slide projector and we all enjoyed a 36 PowerPoint avant-la-lettre  for an hour walk through ?).

Target Audiences ...

Big names like IG, Flickr, G+, FB, Picasa and even Tumblr and Twitter are flashing by ...

How are we connecting with our audience, what is our audience, why are we doing it ... all these questions flashed along and the question of focus and purpose was added to mix.

Long story short, my original post I was planning to write here will need to wait while I am sorting out my electronic tools of today and get rid of some noise that distracts me of producing the piece of tomorrow ...

Stay tuned ...

Me2