Just yesterday Tobias M. Schiel gave us a glimpse behind the scenes at creating his wonderful noir setting. Last weekend I too made something to accompany a chainsaw toy photo. Actually, it was more about destroying than creating.

Over on the G+ community there’s a plethora of daily challenges. One that I always forget about is #nofigurefriday, a chance to focus on the accessories that come with our toys, and not just the toys.

I’ve had an idea to shoot the chainsaw from my NECA Ash vs Evil Dead for this for some time. Friday usually slips by me. Heck, it’s Friday and there’s beers to be had! But on the rare occasions that the week hasn’t been a complete jerk and thoughts on Friday afternoon shift from beers to toys, I’ve never been happy with the shots I’ve taken of Ash’s chainsaw. Something hasn’t been right? Something has been missing?

Mr. Chainsaw

Mr. Chainsaw

It wasn’t until last weekend that it hit me what was wrong.

Brum-brum-brum-brum-brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I had my lumberjack on, swinging a chainsaw, cutting fire wood. When I stopped for a break and looked over at the wheezing chainsaw sitting in front of a pile of cut wood, it dawned on me. My shot needed a pile of wood for Ash’s chainsaw to sit in front of too!

But how?

I looked through the carnage my chainsaw and I had left, but everything was out of scale. Any attempts to cut Ash sized logs just ended in a pile of oversized sawdust. Yeah, even the sawdust was too big?

I gathered up a bundle of sticks and introduced them to the chainsaw’s distant cousin, the drop saw. The drop saw did what just what I needed, cutting “little logs” for the scene.* It was also kind enough to give me a little baggie of perfectly scaled sawdust.
*Cutting little logs with a drop saw is sketchy. Safety up guys!

Mr. Chainsaw : We're not out of the woods yet!

We’re not out of the woods yet!

Mr. Chainsaw : Shiver me timbers!

Shiver me timbers!

That’s how!

I remember many things I’ve talked with Shelly about (well, most of them). But there’s one thing that always resonates in my head when I look through my camera viewfinder. We once (or twice, or many times?) have spoken about what order we assess our photos as we look through our viewfinders. First, the background. Then the foreground. And lastly, the subject.**
**I’m 97% sure this is what we spoke about. But sometimes I like to embellish my stories.

As we finished our discussion, a magical dragon arrived, and Shelly and I jumped on its back and it flew us into the sun.

Anyway, that’s what those earlier shots of Ash’s chainsaw were missing. A background of freshly cut logs. A foreground of sawdust. And of course, the chainsaw.

Mr. Chainsaw

Mr. Chainsaw, Branch Manager

My little lumberjack additions are nowhere near as intricate, complex or creative as Tobias’ le bar miniscule. But sometimes all a photo needs is a little extra to add a lot.

– Brett

Do you create objects or settings for your toy photography? We’d love to hear about it, and maybe squeeze a blog post out of you about it!

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