Any Last Words?

Optimus Prime and Megatron fighting in the Los Altos mountains overlooking the Silicon Valley. This is my fourth picture of Optimus Prime losing to Megatron. I wonder what that says about me.

I haven't figured out a decent way of replicating believable dirt terrain for indoor shooting so just cropped out where Megatron's feet would be touching the ground. 

I composited separate shots of Maketoys Striker Manus and Rioter Despotron against a sunrise shot taken at Black Mountain in Los Altos. Two hours of hiking to get that backdrop and a few more. I used a Flourescent color temperature to change the warm orange sunrise to purple and blue. Craquelure Filter Gallery give both a battle-worn and damaged look. The smoke is drawn in with my custom brush. Some of the debris from Optimus Prime are cut-outs while others are brushed in. Megatron's fusion blast is just a normal brush with Inner/Outer layer glow styles and multiple Field Blurs applied. I also drew in Megatron's smile.

I got the inspiration from a picture that Dane Dougherty had posted.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVU1FPSWdtOWhwMEk

https://www.facebook.com/lapstransformersphotos/
https://www.instagram.com/laptutran/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/19429167@N02/albums

Fallen Friend

The background is from a shot taken from a two hour hike at Black Mountain in Los Altos, starting at 5 am to beat the sunrise. It was amazing to watch the sun set the sky on fire as it crested over the mountains on the opposite side of the valley. I love the look of the orange glow reflecting off the clouds above and the fog layer below so just had to use it in a scene.

Planet X Jupiter is a great figure. Unfortunately, I couldn't get him into the same kneeling position as the inspiration picture for this scene. Fall of Cybertron Bumblebee isn't the greatest of figures, but he serves well enough here. I used a Craquelure Filter Gallery to give both figures their battleworn appearance and cranked up the clarity slider to reduce that plastic look. I also blended in wounds from the source picture onto both. The smoke is from my shots of candle smoke.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVNDFsRmkwY2hxYm8

https://www.facebook.com/lapstransformersphotos/
https://www.instagram.com/laptutran/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/19429167@N02/albums

Sunset by the Lake

I figured the Autobot most likely to join you to see a sunset would be Bumblebee. Fortunately, his backside is fairly clean compared to most other figures and he could scale well next to a person without blocking out the whole sky. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to bring him along when I took the family to Shoreline Lake to get this shot. Using an off-camera flash with orange gel, I tried to replicate that natural glow that you can see on my daughter. The reflection of the sky and sun in the lake was completely unexpected. If only there had been a waterbird on that raft.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVaDA1ZVptMi1LSDA

https://www.facebook.com/lapstransformersphotos/
https://www.instagram.com/laptutran/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/19429167@N02/albums