Dawn Execution

A few years ago we visited my daughter’s family in Montreal, and I came back to Brussels with a life size, anatomically correct plastic skeleton. Later that year, a photo shoot at our local medieval castle in Beersel, south of Brussels, inspired me to do a collab with my new found skinny friend.

I had a shot of the torture chamber (which wasn't easy to find in the myriad of stairways and turret rooms) that looked like it would suit as a background. I then did some shots of my skeleton outside on the patio at home and in the bedroom in different positions so I’d have options for positioning him in the montage. He was pretty cooperative but got a bit pissy when I told him he wouldn’t get paid. I just told him there was no budget and that seemed to shut him up…

At first I didn’t have a clear idea of what the finished image would be, though the scenario started to evolved as I tried different set ups. Fact is, when I visited that spooky chamber, it was hard not to imagine and actually feel the anguish of torture and executions that happened there in ages past. So I went with that and added some extra elements (like the sword and bondage rings on the walls) to reinforce the story line.

But there was something missing… maybe bats flying round overhead? Of course they needed to be skeletal too, so I searched Google for royalty free bat skeleton images and was totally blown away to find so many to choose from !!
It took an obscene amount of time to isolate all the bones (and that goes for my friend’s as well) from the background images and to position everything and balance the lighting of all the elements. But in the end, and in my own distorted and characteristically bent way, I believe it was worth the pain.

All elements, aside from bats, shot with Canon EOS 5D MkI with EF 100mm fixed focal lens.

BAT SKELETON CREDITS

Yup, first time I ever used other than my own photos…

“Halfanesey":http://www.flickr.com/photos/35071522@N00/ at Flickr (cheers mate, you make bat bone attitude rock!)

“Bre Pettis":http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre at Flickr

“Ryan McJunkin":http://ryanmcjunkin.com/ at ryanmacjunkin.com

“Markus Nolf":http://www.thinkoholic.com/about/ at thinkaholic.com

“Jack Of Nothing":http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuhorvath/ at Flickr

“iwouldificould":http://www.flickr.com/photos/99411713@N00/ at Flickr