deer photoshoot

Before I had added the fourth leg, I chose to do a photoshoot with the deer in the photography studio. I used several of my other skulls and various backdrops and lighting to experiment more with this piece.

I love the atmosphere of this piece and the way it seems quite touching, the male deer resting his head on the female deer, whilst the two more draconic deer skulls hang around the outside, maybe waiting to feed. I also like the colours which give it quite a warm feeling despite the meaning, its quite conflicting and the composition works well.

This is where the picture above was taken, I was stood on a ladder to take the image. I like the way this image is laid out, with the most light shining on the deers face and spine, and most of the animals are surrounding the deers head. I like the way the background gives it a rather sepia-tone.

These two photos are two silhouette pictures that I took of the deer, using back lighting to make the deer stand out from the background. Im happy with these pieces as they have quite a unique appearance to them, and they are reversed to my other photos. The lighting on the bottom photo also gives it a quite eerie look, as it is directed from below it. 

These photos are similar to the above ones, only reversed, the lightness of the deers bones showing up on a dark background. I also had a light spotlighted on the face for more effect. I was thinking about using these in my final piece, maybe using them as "border" pieces.

Soon after the first photoshoot, The fourth leg of my deer was found. I articulated it rather quickly so I could get more photos taken. The photos below are the next batch from the next photoshoot.

These pictures were all taken on top of a natural coloured cover, which also had very warm colours. Combined with the light it gave the opportunity for some fantastic photos where I could play with the shadows I especially like the last photo as you can see the shadow of the deer very well. The other two Im not as fond of, they seem to be missing the flare that the bottom one has. The top one is too dark and at a weird angle, I couldnt get the entire deer in due to not being high enough,  and the one below it doesnt have enough of a contrast to it to be eye catching.

After the above pictures, I suspended the deer in the air to get some low key shots. This is a picture of the deer in the studio. Originally it was just going to be a journalist picture, but I ended up really liking the atmosphere of the shot, like a photo from a hollywood set, so I chose to include it in the blog.

I like just how dark this picture is, and how the light is behind the deer. The way it highlights the thinner areas of bone makes it really quite eerie. I also like the shine on the neck bones. However, I think this picture could be improved if I removed the light on the right from the picture and made the entire background black.

I really like this picture, the way that the light is shining through the ribs, and the way you can see the shadows of the ribs through the scapula. Even though you can see the poor attempt at glueing the parts together, it doesnt really show up in the picture, as the ribs steal the attention.

I like this one due to the interesting lighting on the nasal bones, I also like the fact that half of the head is in shadow and the other is in rather intense lighting, and the way theres an interesting background going on too, but its dim enough not to steal the attention from the main subject matter. I also like the way that the deer is not exactly central, making the picture more interesting.

These three pictures are my favourite ones from the entire photoshoot, I like the way that the lighting is situated on the deer, and how the background is as dark as it is, drawing attention to nothing at all but the deer. I especially like the last one as it illustrates the entire deer, and the way the ribcage is lit up. The lighting on the first one is extremely intense, theres a large contrast between the white and the black. I also like the way they zoom out from the head to the whole deer.