Last weekend I enjoyed the freedom of a temporary bachelor and used it to spend some great time with three friends of mine. Bernhard, Holger, Heinz and me met at Bernhard's and arranged a photography session with an incredible crowd of 28mm miniatures most of them from Bernhard's collection. Even though it was a bit exhausting it was a great evening... night... day... whatever.
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| That's me in the middle of my nearly prehistoric computing equipment. However it worked... :-) |
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On Friday evening my three fellows played a Napolenic Blackpowder Game which was set around the battle of Plancenoit in June 1815. About two dozens of Prussians battalions stormed the churchyard of Plancenoit which was held by the fearsome Old Guard. Unfortunately I wasn't able to join this event but on Saturday when we met to take some shots I had a look on the board and it was just awesome.
Therefore let me begin with a snapshot of the advancing Prussian forces:
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| An awesome force of Prussians storming Plancenoit... |
And the steady defenders:
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| ...and some grumpy Grenadiers defending it. |
Afterwards we cleaned up the table and set some pictures we found interesting. During the next hours I took about 100 pictures of different units, of different scenes, from different angles and with different shutter speeds and different apertures. It was a great chance to have a crack at miniature photography and although I am a bloody amateur some of the shots look promising. Here are some examples:
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| But finally the Prussians stormed the village and encountered the defenders in grim close combat. |
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| Some Prussian re-enforcements advancing through the woods near Plancenoit. |
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| After the victory Field Marshal Blücher greets his victorious subordinates... |
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| ...and the French took a little break. |
After one and a half days of photography, a lot of nice chatting, some great Asian food and a short but very comfortable night on Bernhard's spare bed, I turned home on Sunday afternoon. Although I returned to Mrs Monty and Viktoria full of joy this time was one of those magic moments of the hobby for me.
Thank you, friends !
Last but not least one shot with some of my English troops: Charge of the Guard Cavalry at the British squares at Waterloo:
Beautiful minis and photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteNearly all of the miniatures are from Bernhard's collection but it was great fun to take photos of them.
Cheers
Monty
Beautiful photots there Monty and lovely painted troops too. You have brought the best out in them
ReplyDeleteThanks mate!
DeleteI wanted to get at least one good shot of every set and it worked more or less. One of the fellows made some snapshots from the hip and some of them are at least the same quality as mine with tripod and manually adjusted shutter speed... Strange...
Wow, Monty! That looks great!
ReplyDeleteDouble Wow! Brilliant looking game. Almost on the same level as a diorama!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rosbif!
DeleteActually we set up some scenes we wanted to photograph. So it wasn't a real game when I took the pictures but I sorted them a bit narrativ.
Cheers
Monty
Fantastic! Fabulous figures, terrain and photography! Better than in most museums and rulebooks! Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteToo much praise for a humble amateur like me. Most of the shots were kind of trial and error.
DeleteBut Bernhard's collection of miniatures and terrain is just awesome and it was real fun to work with them.
Cheers
Monty
Top notch work Monty, well done!
ReplyDeleteThese are brilliant pictures Monty. Can you say a bit about your camera settings? We're you shooting on manual? Using a macro lens?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I don't own a macro lense and have been shying away from its costs.
DeleteI used my old Canon EOS 400D digital SLR camera with different objective lenses. Altogether I experimented a lot with shutter speed and aperture and took about half a dozen photos of every set.
The only image editing I did was to change the white balance a bit because the pictures looked too yellowish.
I hope that helps a bit. When I collected some more experience I could write a short article about it later this year. But currently I'm not satisfied with the sharpness of some pictures (not those above of course)...
Cheers
Monty
Oh you lucky one! Not only being a temporary bachelor (we all need these days every once in a while), but having such a beautiful arrangement!
ReplyDeleteBest thing of temporary bachelor is that it feeds the pleasant anticipation of reunion with the dear.
Delete:-)
Cheers
Monty
Those photos look positively professional! Nice scenery and minis too.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, mate!
DeleteOur host has a really awesome pool of miniatures and terrain. It was a pleasure to take photos of such great scenes.
Cheers
Monty
Na da haengen die Mesieurs die Latte aber richtig hoch.
ReplyDeleteHier stimmt einfach alles, nur ein paar Westfaliaminiaturen fehlen noch. :--)
LG,
Kawe
Danke für das große Lob. Vielleicht schaffen wir demnächst mal 'was mit Russland 1812. Da werdet Ihr vertreten sein.
Delete:-)
Viele Grüße
Monty
Superb figures and terrain and the photography shows it off wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Pat.
Great camera work and lovely minis!
ReplyDeleteWow, wow, wow. Great photos as well. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteFabulous pictures here, a fantastic work!
ReplyDeletePhil.
Magnificient!!!!!
ReplyDeleteJames
Thanks for the great support!
ReplyDeleteIt was great fun to take photos of those figures and it was a great time with the fellows.
Highly recommended :-)
Cheers
Monty
Simply magnificent!
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