May the fourth be with you: Creating a Star Wars photography project

Creating a project, theme or series can be rewarding and lead to a lot of creative ideas. I created a Star Wars photography project for Star Wars day on May 4.

Purchasing Star Wars toys to photograph

I purchased some Star Wars toys. Sometimes, I was able to find a Yoda bank. Other times, the toys were reasonably large toys or action figures. A pawnshop near my house had a 3 foot tall Yoda for $500. It was all I could do to resist purchasing it.

Finding fun locations

Since I do night photography, I decided to do a series of photographs with the Star Wars figures. While photographing in a galaxy far far away sounded enticing, I photographed these closer to home. In fact, some of them were done in my backyard. Other times, I photographed them in the Mojave Desert.

It was humorous stuffing my backpack full of Star Wars figures just before wandering through the rocks of the Alabama Hills to find interesting locations for them to look their best.

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter

I illuminated the luminous beings — the Star Wars figures — with a handheld light after carefully placing them in their best locations. The action figures, such as Darth Vader, toppled due to the wind sometimes! I had to photograph quickly before the Sith Lord face-planted in the Alabama Hills.

Then, from various angles, I shined an LED flashlight on them during the exposure.

For R2-D2, I used El Wire, or electroluminescent wire, to create the look of the fire. And for good measure, I added a blue ray of light seemingly emanating from his top using a small laser pen light.

Working from a project or series

Now, of course you don’t have to do a Star Wars series (although … why not?). The idea here is to create a fun series from something that you love. The project practically generates fun ideas on its own, stoking your creativity.