This is a story about how a creative thought, dwelling in the mind of muralist Jolly Ellegeest (aka @jonkmuur), find its way into our perceived reality.
The mural displays the entanglement of two hands casting the shadow of a wolf.
The deeper story expressed by the artist is for you to reflect upon. The interpretation of the unbiased viewer can make art more alive in the mind of the observer, giving it a unique meaning for each individual.
Shooting of the template image
While being honored to create -the image the mural is based of-, I went ahead and set up the studio in order to replicate the shot the artist had in mind. Basically, the image needed to contain a lot of detail in the hands and the occurrence of a hard wolf-like shadow.
An even backdrop was obtained using the diffuser side of a 5 in 1 reflector.
Underneath was a softbox with an orange colored gel in order to evenly illuminate the backdrop while a bald speedlite on camera-left was used as key light, creating the hard shadow play.
(Note: we did swap out the bald speedlite on camera left with a continuous LED in order to have better control of where the shadow is placed.)
The camera was set at 1/25s F5,6 ISO 1000 with a 90mm prime.
The image itself isn’t going to win a photography contest, but it was a good enough template from where the mural could be created.
Behind the scenes of Shadow play
Witnessing the 3-day process of creating the mural was impressive to say the least.
My creative quest was sparked as a side effect of being immersed in this creative endeavor. Images were created, time lapses made and days felt fulfilled.
Images of these moment are key for a walk down memory lane in the future. In my opinion, they are even more unique than an image of the final piece.
The final image
Blue hour must be one of my favorite times to shoot, it declutters the world while I can light-paint the areas of interest back in.
The image was shot maxing out the power of two bald speedlite flashes (obtaining a Guide-Number (GN) of 120) at the mural about 20m away, using an exposure of 0,8s at F4 and ISO 100 with a focal length of 55mm.
For the photography nerds out there: GN = Distance x F-stop. Meaning the maximum distance to obtain an 18% grey exposure for this set up = GN / F-stop or 120 / 4.
This gives me a reach of 30m if the flash head is zoomed in at 200mm.
Using an F4 aperture opens up the amount of flash coming in but limits my depth of field, meaning either the mural is in focus or the church is. Therefore, I took several exposures at different focus distances and focus stacked them in post-production.
Little red riding hood
Few know about the little red riding hood, wandering about behind the corner.
She will remain in secrecy for the general public, only to be occasionally admired by the local inhabitants.
Once again a template image was created in the studio as a guidance for the piece.
A soft-box with orange gel was set on camera right, representing the glow of the lantern while another soft-box was set on camera left, adding an edge light to the arm.
Final thoughts
The alignment of many things are required to get from an idea to a final piece. (sketches, clearances, scaffolding, consumables, photography, logistics and lets not forget -the support of our loved ones-). Therefore gratitude is deserved for everyone involved.
It was an enriching experience as a photographer and even though I can not spray-paint at all, I’ll always get a sense of fulfillment having contributed to this art piece.
There wil most certainly be more collaborations in the future.
The mural can be viewed from the “Hemelstraat” in “Ardooie” (Belgium).
Please consider following –> @jonkmuur <– on Instagram for more creative quests.
Thank you for reading along.
Media gallery
Please forgive my poor time-lapsing skills underneath, it was meant to be a fun extra; Meanwhile, practice is the best teacher.