This week, we’ve spared no expense and are traveling to a land before time, to meet Jon Aiken as he captures toy dinosaurs in their natural habitat.
Okay, so we’re obviously not time-traveling this week, but you sure wouldn’t think that if you took a look at Jon’s work. He strives for what he calls “manufactured realism,” and uses a nature documentary-styled approach to his subjects. With limited to no articulation, Jon has to creatively shoot around his dinosaurs to bring them to life.
Toy Photographs 65 Million Years in the Making…
“Feeding on soft greens found in the marsh, the Parasaurolophus is startled by a predator’s nearby roar.”
Under the username @dinoczars, Jon helped form a little niche community of dinosaur photographers on Instagram, using regular Raptor Pack Days and the #toydinosquad hashtag, which has now been used on over 21,000 photographs.
I talked to Jon about how an abandoned dinosaur comic led him to photographing toy dinos, the early days of the toy photography community, and much more!
Thank you so much for listening! I’ve embedded a few pieces of Jon’s work below. Make sure you check out his work on Instagram, and if you have any toy dinosaurs of your own, help reignite Raptor Pack Days with a photo on the 22nd. I’ll be back next week for the final podcast episode of 2018. It’s a big one you won’t want to miss!
-James
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“The Triceratops warms herself in the last days of the summer season.”
“Speed and ferocity. The core tenets of a good Raptor Pack Day.”
Jon I look at my framed photo of your classic sauropod image every day. It brings me endless joy. It was great to hear that your life is still full of creativity but I miss photographing with you. Maybe you can join us in Moab in April? (Hope springs eternal!)
Also when we met in that bar in Ballard with Paul for the first time, none of us had met in person. And I remember distinctly my outrage that you were participating in a Toy Pop while we where chatting. Once an IG addict, always an IG addict!
Thanks for bringing dinosaurs into my life!