War Stories

Sometimes, I just want to keep it simple and quick. The veterans showing how to get it done.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVY1hpZzVNZ1cxV2M

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

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! This is going up early since I'm going to be too busy or too lazy to work on stuff the next couple of days.

I'm not a huge fan of of the Michael Bay movies, but find them to be mostly a fun if sometimes nonsensical romp. If nothing else, these movies have put Transformers back into the public mainstream. They didn't spur me back into collecting (that was the High Moon games), but made me remember my favorite childhood toys.

Movie Masterpiece Bumblebee is a pretty aesthetically pleasing figure, despite some design flaws. I put some color overlays on him and the Memorial to reflect the colors of the fireworks.

The fireworks are photos I took from last year's Independence Day show. The Lincoln Memorial picture was taken on a recent trip to Washington DC.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVaEJ6QkcxN2xaeGM

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

Get off me, you junkyard reject!

This scene was from the episode "Changing Gears".

Mastermind Creations Jaguar is a really nice figure. I understand why Takara couldn't do him in this size. The fan rage would have caused aneurysms if tape mode wouldn't fit inside MP Soundwave. I spent a little time cleaning up the seam lines on his neck.

Masterpiece Bumblebee is orange, but the character is yellow in the cartoon so I used the Hue slider in ACR to do the shift.

The pylon in the back is Mastermind Creations Anarchus' shoulder. I added the lightning by creating a Difference Cloud off a gradient layer.

The background is from an area at Manoa Falls in Hawaii, run through a Cutout Filter Gallery.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVeVlWX1R6V3hIRU0

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

Masterpiece Wheeljack, Mastermind Creations Sphinx, and Masterpiece Bumblebee

Unfortunately, the figures aren't balanced enough to have one foot in the air so this is the best running stride I could manage. The shoulder cannons on Wheeljack and Sphinx don't articulate any further upwards. I find putting the figures on the "ground", is far easier than trying to blend them into it in Photoshop.

The ground is several desert sand tiles from ToyStages. The sky was shot with a Hoya FLW filter. The background mountains are of a rock formation shot at Coyote Hills Park. I finished it with a purplish soft light layer.

I only needed to clean up a couple of screw holes on Wheeljack and Sphinx and to add the eye glow.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVV0lSRXFNbjFlaHM/view?usp=sharing

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