Ratkey Designs

Digital Illustrator and Photographer, discovering the world through the camera lens and attempting to capture it with a pencil. https://linktr.ee/ratkeydesigns

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Took a trip to Tilles park and I stumbled across this concrete turtle that just so happens to look like a knockoff of the ones in Turtle park.

I didn’t think there were any other surviving Bob Cassilly statues outside of Forest Park and the City Museum. There wasn’t a plaque, and this poor turtle looked like he could use some tlc. I’m not sure who made it but it was cool looking.



The turtle also didn’t seem too out of place with the surrounding building and the playground that was lacking kids mostly due to the heat wave we are under. Though this ment it was a very short trip to the park.

Maybe there are more concrete animals hiding at Tilles Park that I’ve just never seen. 

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Ever since I watched Frog and Toad when I was little I always wanted to get my hands on some of the armatures, the animators were using so I could make my own stop motion animations.

I was appeased for a bit in high school with Lego and Mega Bloks figures. Storing the photos onto countless floppy disks to make brick videos using micromedia flash, but it just wasn’t the same.

Now with the advancement of 3D printing and the designer of the Dummy 13 model, Soozafone (lucky 13), I have gotten my hands on something very similar to those early stop animation armatures.

I sadly don’t have the programming or storage space to do any stop animation projects at the moment. But for now just setting up these cinematographic snapshots are good enough. Like a peak into another world of robots and bones

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Trees?

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So they do exist!

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But you just have to wonder sometimes what really is a tree..

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Keep forgetting there’s an image limit. Here’s some more Mega Bloks figure photos only this time with a dinosaur! All from my iPhone 12 Pro.

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Getting all my old cameras out allowed me to unearth some of my stop animation stuff from high school. Including some old Mega Bloks figures. Which then got me to wondering.

With more experience does really come improvement? And how do these old cameras compare to each other or the newer knock off of the old?

Only one way to find out.

Sony Digital Mavica:

Pentax Optio H90:

Kodak Charmera:

iPhone 12 Pro:

I probably won’t be jumping back into any brick-films anytime soon, but the tempting world of toy photography beckons me. Well to the point of taking the photos and maybe getting some larger figures to photograph. I don’t really want to do any SPFX toy shoots right now, but who knows.

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My current camera kit for this summer. Granted some are getting more love than others.

Starting from the front smallest camera and moving towards the back are as follows: Kodak Charmera, Pentax Optio H90, Sony alpha A6000, Sony Digital Mavica FD-88.

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I pulled the families Sony Digital Mavica FD88 out of storage and was shocked to discover that it still works. And takes better photos than my Pentax Optio H90. Which isn’t too much of a surprise since I can’t hold that Pentax still enough to take a clear shot even when it’s in a tripod and has the anti shake feature turned on.

Though the Sony Mavica FD88 only has 1.3 megapixels to shoot with , but the photos look amazing when viewed digitally. Printing them might yield worse results. I was also impressed with the micro focus capabilities from a camera that is almost 25 years old. It has me questioning what was I doing with the camera when it was new.

I was given a harsh and somewhat rude reminder about film capacity while I was wondering around our back yard. Even though I’ve tweaked the file size settings I can still only get 12 shots per 3.5 floppy disk. But it’s better than the four to six I used to get when I was trying to print these photos out years ago. Just have to relearn to be more picky with what shots I want, something my phone and Sony alpha camera has trained me away from with all the storage space available.

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So Amazon is terrible at suggesting impulse purchases and I couldn’t say no to the Kodak Charmera. It may just be a toy camera and a passing fad, but if it’s fun and gets me making art that I want to share then it’s worth it.

I guess I’ve been bit by the retro camera bug as well by playing with this little gimmick camera. So I may have to bust out some what would be considered antique digital cameras now.

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Spent the weekend watching old Dino documentaries which of course lead to more sketches, only this time in blue crayon. I’m going to have to find my old sharpener soon if I want more details. Or just buy a new one if they are still making those.

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Sometimes the best medicine is a night in with dinosaur documentaries and some purple crayon sketches.

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