Year of the Fire Dragon Serpent - a photo on Flickriver

             #MacroMondays
 #Fictitious

A snake? A dragon? Both, I'd say. In a fantasy world, where a year has 13 months, the Dragon Serpent is the 13th zodiac sign, and the element of fire reigns every 13th year. 

This Schleich mini figurine came to my rescue when I couldn't make my original idea work. I had ventured out to a nearby toy shop replete with checkout negotiation dramas (boy, about 4: "Look, Dad, look, I absolutely still need this set, it has these special parts. I need it!" Dad, while paying for the baby doll for the boy's toddler sister who was wailing at the top of her voice because the evil lady at the register had "taken away" her new toy: "I. Won't. Buy. You. This. Today. You've. Had. Enough.") and returned home with two (too) large Schleich figures – a huge black T-Rex with an articulating mouth (and a very impressive set of teeth), and a "stone monster" troll figure with arms (and hands) bigger than Hulk's and an articulating mouth as well. With the latter, I had the idea of doing a "stone, paper, scissor" type of image, because paper beats stone ("How to shut up a Troll"). But (not surprisingly) it didn't work within the 3-inch limit even though the stone monster has a fairly small head (compared to its body) that probably contains a brain the size of a speck of dust. 

So in the end I used what I already had in one of my many MM boxes. A few years or so ago, I bought a set of these "Schleich Minis", as usual with a possible MM use in mind. They are most likely part of Schleich's "Eldrador" fantasy world that is inhabited by all kinds of gruesome monsters and dragons. Just my type of thing ;) 

For this small scene, I put the "dragon serpent" figurine (which is 4,5 cm/1,77 inches long) in front of a necklace that I have already used for two other MM themes ("Copper" from May 2019 and "Pouch" from September 2020, both images are in the first comment), so I knew it would yield some nice background bokeh. I wanted to create something reminiscent of traditional Chinese zodiac design. I made the pendant stand up with the help of a small piece of modeling clay. The first idea was to also drape the serpent in gold chains, but that looked too busy. So I used only the pendant and its chain which I laid out in three straight lines for a harmonious-looking background. The dragon serpent sits on a gold-coloured piece of cardboard that once was part of food packaging. Its uneven surface looks like soft ripples of water which I think looks nice in this setup and adds depth to the image. The final image is a focus stack made of 15 images which I've combined in Helicon Focus (method C, smoothing 5).  

HMM, Everyone!

Taken on: October 16, 2023

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OM-D E-M1 Mark III

M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm 1:2.8 Macro

DXO PhotoLab 6

Nik Collection

Color Efex

Analog Efex

Micro Four Thirds

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Sets appears in: • Toys | Spielzeug • Macro Mondays

Groups appears in: • MACRO MONDAYS • ! 90+ Faves (P1,A+F3) more » • ! ! Flickr Active’s TOP photos – Level 1, P1/F+A3 • The New Focus 1a « less

Camera: Olympus E-M1MarkIII, f/2.8, 1/200 sec, 60mm (=120mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Olympus E-M1MarkIII
Lens:	OLYMPUS M.60mm F2.8 Macro
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	60mm (35mm equivalent: 120mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	-1 EV
Flash:	On, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.0.1 (Windows)
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