For the 32nd Scavenger Hunt, I had decided (even before the Hunt words were public!) to try to make a series with wooden manikins. My first idea was to use the manikin myself as a prop that would represent the lollipop in a selfie, but it didn’t feel right, somehow. And then I remembered that a lollipop person was a term for the person helping children cross the road – so that’s the interpretation I chose.

But first, I needed a lollipop! I made and printed a small sign. Since I don’t own a color printer, I printed it in black and white – with the idea that I’d add the color in post-processing. Then I used my extraordinary making skills to assemble the lollipop itself – using a pair of bamboo chopsticks and some tape. The lollipop holds on the manikin’s hand with some blu tack.

Camera	Pentax K-1 II
Lens	Sigma 28mm f/1.8 EX Aspherical DG DF Macro
Focal length	28mm
F-Number	F/11
Exposure time	1/60 s
ISO	320

Then I also needed a zebra – turns out, it’s not too much of a problem to find one.

Camera	Pentax K-1 II
Lens	Sigma 28mm f/1.8 EX Aspherical DG DF Macro
Focal length	28mm
F-Number	F/11
Exposure time	1/80 s
ISO	100

I first prepared the manikin – removing the background, added color to the sign, also added color to the torso to simulate a flashy vest. Then I added it to the other image, and I started working on making the composite work somehow. I played around with this: How To Make Realistic Shadows in Photoshop and it took me several attempts before getting the final result.

This is not my finest work – I took care of taking the pictures with the same angles with regards to the sun and so on, but the light on the balcony and the light on the street downstairs is actually quite different, which means that the composite feels wrong. But I’m not unhappy with the work I did on the shadow – and for sure I learnt a lot there. Making the sign was also fun, and worked significantly better than I expected! All in all, this is the picture I consider the weakest I entered for this Hunt, but I’m still happy with what I managed to do. And next time I’ll make the light work better for my purpose 🙂

The complete Scavenger album is available here: the Lollipop album.