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What do I bring for SiPgoesDenmark safari?

eatmybones - 2 Comments

OK everyone! I’m giggling with excitement this week because on Thursday I will fly to Billund in Denmark to meet some crazy toy photographers for the SiPgoesDenmark toy photography safari!

As I didn’t take a lot of pictures this year, I’m looking forward to spending a long weekend shooting my little skeletons and talk about toys and photography with friendly people.

Unexpectedly, I managed to make my bag and my selection of toys this weekend. That’s quite a big achievement for me. I’m always doing stuff at the last moment. Hope I will not forget my bag on Thursday morning!

First, the toys

Of course, it’s easy for me, I’m taking all my skeleton family. But as my dog chewed one of them a few months ago and as they wear out quickly, I’ve placed an order to refill my stock. So I’m bringing a “fresh” family with me (as fresh as a skeleton can be!).

Continue reading “What do I bring for SiPgoesDenmark safari?”
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What’s In My Bag – Mitchel Wu Photography

mitchelwuphotography - 3 Comments

Prior to toy photography I used to photograph weddings and portraits professionally. I was pretty well-outfitted in terms of gear because of this – with multiple camera bodies, a range of professional lenses, and multiple speedlights and light diffusing/modifying systems. I came into toy photography pretty well set, with the acceptation of a few accessories that are uniquely adapted to my style of toy photography. But the one thing I didn’t have was toys. Toy photography for most is a direct extension and result of their passion for toys. If toys are the chicken and photography is the egg, then for most the chicken came before the egg. But for me the egg came before the chicken. I was drawn to toy photography because I saw the potential to create amazing stories and images. And this reignited my love for toys, the one I had as a kid but somehow lost as I got older. Continue reading “What’s In My Bag – Mitchel Wu Photography”

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What’s in My Bag? by SBPhotographs1

sbphotographs1 - 2 Comments

First off its great to be contributing to SIP again and I’d like to thank Shelly for making that happen. A huge thank you to the community for the warm reception I got to the “Why?” post I had contributed to couple of months back.

This time I’d like to share exactly what goes in my camera bag as well as my basic home studio setup.

For me choice is the hardest thing to cope with. It’s extremely difficult for me to choose what glass (lens) I’d like to carry around with me because I can never manage to say that I will only be shooting Macro or Landscape or Portrait on a given day. So I practically lug around my entire kit wherever I go.

To be honest, looking at other photographer’s bags sometimes brings out the most severe case of self-doubt and the question “Am I doing it wrong?” inevitably comes up. But as I’ve matured (at least I’d like to think so) as a photographer, I’ve come to realize that my way of thinking, and for that matter any photographer’s style and way of thinking, is very different from the next.

When I’m not practicing Toy Photography I’m an avid Landscape photographer and I absolutely love a picturesque shot of nature’s beauty.

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The bag I use is a Lowepro Pro Runner 200 AW DSLR Backpack. The bag is an absolute dream and even comes with a water proof pull over sheet to keep rain water off. The camera I use is the Canon 600D (Rebel T3i) DSLR and has been my ‘go to’ camera for the past four years. While the camera is an APS-C sensor based model, I find that it has kept up extremely well against the test of time.

As for the glass, I have gathered up a fairly decent range to choose from. When it comes to Toy Photography I use a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 VC lens which is what 90% of my photographs have been taken with.

The rest of my kit it includes the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (Kit Lens) and the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM, which is my go to lens for landscape photography.

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My bag always has four memory cards: 2 – 16GB cards and 1 – 8GB and a reserve 2 – GB card. I know I should probably just get one large memory card, but I’m paranoid about trusting one card with all of my images. The next most important thing to have for me personally is  an extra Battery and a lens cleaning kit in case I decide to get the camera out there in the elements. All my lens’ have a UV filter which is of paramount importance to keep the main lens elements safe and sound from any kind of scratches and from bumps and scrapes while outdoors. As for the figures I carry, I always have a mix of Lego and six inch figures. The Lego mini figures I always have are four Stormtroopers, C-3PO, R2-D2, Luke, Han, Chewie and Leia. I also make it a point to have at least one male and one female generic Lego mini figure with a bunch of faces with different expressions. As for the six inch figures I always have my Ashigaru Sandtrooper and/or the Ashigaru Stormtrooper and Ronin Boba Fett from the incredible Tamashii Nations Movie Realization Star Wars series.

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In case you plan on shooting through the day you should definitely have a bunch of Gradient, Polaroid and ND Filters for at least one lens in your kit. For me it’s the 10-18 which has these extra lens elements to modify the amount of light I get across the sensor.

While at home I’d either shoot in my home studio or near and around the area of my residence. My home studio is made up of a light table, an Elinchrom D-Lite RX One setup with 2 flashes along with 2 Portalite soft boxes and one 5 way reflector. It’s the best toy photography set up that you could get and it isn’t even that pricey and super reliable.

That’s about it for What’s in My Bag and Studio, should you guys have any question feel free to ask!

Thank you once again Shelly for this opportunity and a big thank you to my parents who’ve helped me to assemble the epic kit that I spoke about above.

Shahzad Bhiwandiwala (@sbphotographs1)

We all have our personal must-have items in our photo bags. What are yours? 

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Broken Workflow

Boris - 1 Comment

I just returned from an epic holiday break full of sun, sea and lots of great raw, unprocessed footage (with and without plastic) that is screaming to be processed. I normally tend to process on the road and share at least one or two updates along the journey, but this time my workflow got so disrupted on day one that I did not come to be making one single post here on SiP during my trip or post any plastic material online on IG, FB or G+ alike. Continue reading “Broken Workflow”

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do we have to narrow it down to only 5?

julochka - 4 Comments

i’ve been perusing all of the “what’s in your bag” and “favorite five” posts here on #stuckinplastic and it got me thinking. i’ve been doing a daily photo project since soon after i got my first dslr (a nikon D60) in 2008, but i do it more for the daily memories and out of mindfulness than because i feel like a Photographer or legographer, so it feels odd to imagine sharing my camera bag. Continue reading “do we have to narrow it down to only 5?”

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What’s in My Bag

Shelly - 1 Comment

I enjoyed Me2’s post the other day about what was in his photography bag. There was just so much photo goodness in that one little bag, it was overwhelming! But just like there are different styles of photographers, there is more than one way to stock a photographer’s bag. Personally, I prescribe to the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method of photography. Continue reading “What’s in My Bag”

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A Photographers Bag

Boris - Leave a reply

So I am the first to kick off our brand new series of what is hiding in our bags. Our bags as toy photographers out in the wild, full of cool gear and little nifty tricks looking for the next adventure, Pulitzer or Proify award … , but before I go there, I want to make two clear upfront statements.

“None of us are sponsored by any of what is in our bags, this is not some kind of sales exercise. It is just openly sharing with all of you what we carry along. One or two trade secrets may be revealed along the way, but we are not brand advocates of Sony, Canon or Nikon and we all pay our fees unless explicitly called out” and the second one is that we are not turning Stuck In Plastic in yet another photo gear site where we talk shop only.

On the contrary …

Continue reading “A Photographers Bag”

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What is in your bag ?

Boris - 2 Comments

We all know that a woman’s purse or handbag can be an adventure on its own. An object most men want to stay away from as it can take you places in this galaxy you may not want to venture, yet nothing beats a photographers bag  and what it carries (and you may really be surprised of the differences we share in our bags).

After asking the question of why are you shooting plastic to a select set of toy photographers, we are now embarking on a new series here on Stuck In Plastic to explore what toy photographers carry along in their bag when they go out and about and shoot some plastic and try to get some behind the scenes and deeper insights into the minds of these folks who carry a complete different type of bag along to a variety of locations.

And we just have one simple question for them.

What is in your bag ?

Before we embark on the deep dive with asking Shelly, Vesa and a few others what they have in their bag, we are curious if you can guess who’s bags we took in the below shot and what is they attribute they have in their bag  ?

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Let us know in the comments below and do add your bonus question we should ask these toy photographers … (we promise we will pass on the questions asked).

Me2