Waited until the last day to enter this and was feeling tired and pretty cruddy. But really wanted to try this. Went to Lowe's to get something in which to put a mouse hole. Thought I had marvelous ideas, thought I knew what I was looking for. Stared at the stuff at Lowes for way too long. Fell in love with something, does it look like the inside of a wall? No. Does this? No. Drywall is white, I said, that's not going to look right -- I don't want white. Finally just bought something. Feeling quite discouraged.
Husband has a really bad cold, feeling cruddy too, but offers to cut a mousehole. I need to mock it up first and figure out lighting. Cut a hole in cardboard, Try a flash, try wrangling a cat by myself. A definitely lesson in futility.
Ready to quit.
Husband said, don't be silly. Cuts out mouse hole. We set the wall up in the kitchen instead of the front hall, since front hall didn't have nearly enough ambient light with which to focus.
Everything is different. Didn't bother with the umbrella sitting on the front with the flash sitting on top shooting through, just a plastic diffuser instead. Kitchen floor was pretty new since it was replaced after a problem after a hurricane, cool reflections!! Very, very kind husband did very very difficult cat wrangling. The problem was that Cinders was too big and fluffy -- I had measured on Moriarty, even though I had planned on using Cinders. Mo still moves way too much -- and a black cat with severe side lighting I knew wasn't the smartest idea.
We tried many things, hoping that the laser pointer would be our best bet. Surprisingly enough, little pieces of Mo food worked the best. Which is really bizarre, because normally that's not that big of a deal.
Jeff would put a piece just inside the hole, and Mo would go after it. The problem is -- he's just way too fast!! He would go around the front of the wall. He would position himself in front of the flash instead of across from the flash. Half the time he'd knock the flash, and we wouldn't know until after a shot or two. About a 1/3 of the time he'd actually get his head and part of his body through the hole to get the food. Which was a hoot -- but I couldn't even get a picture, because the flash was behind the wall!!
I had the flash in way too close, so the side of his face was overexposed and I had to play in RAW and do a bit of burning to recover it. I really want to reshoot it some day to see if I can do the lighting right. I think I understand the principle of the light fall off and what I need to do. I probably would learn a lot by trying it again. But you really get a stiff neck laying flat on the floor, camera on floor, and trying to look through the view finder with the camera that low!
It wasn't until after we were done shooting until I realized just how much dust was showing up on the floor, on Mo, everywhere! It was so perfect!! It would be dusty inside the wall! Ummm... but it wouldn't be shiny would floors... I forgot to put down a fake floor. It was just going to be cardboard or something, but there was going to be a difference... Sorry, Don!! But the reflection was kinda cool... :)
So it's really not that interesting of a story, this time. But it was funny watching Mo do everything except what we were hoping he'd do. And it was all thanks to a wonderful husband who cut me a mouse hole. :)
Thanks for all the comments!!
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Congrats on getting this idea to ribbon again! (I tried in the Deja Vu II Challenge ) And here is the original . I like your jagged mousehole, it's far more realistic.
The idea for this was great but the effort that went into this shot is why your images always do so well, once again congratulations and thanks for the story of how you got the shot.
BRILLANT... OMG and the story, well I should've given it a 20 if I'd seen the story first... Getting that much cooperation from MO, well I dub you offical Squirrel and CAT trainer!!!!! The dust, may not have been your idea but oh so made the whole shot!!!! Total believeable!!! I acutally thought the mouse had taken the shot!
At the Mousehole
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