Tyrannosaurus Rex

Alpha Whiskey Photography · Mar 12, 2020

It was probably inevitable that someone would ask for some dinosaur posters for their child. A certain movie franchise made sure kids all over the world would be enamoured with the prehistoric behemoths.

But the model tyrannosaurus they gave me had a fixed pose and no articulation, except for the jaw opening. Which meant this project required some variety in composition and camera angles to milk any images from it. Luckily, the model had a good sculpt and decent details that lent themselves to realistic images.

The 1/36 white Land Rover was something I had left over from a previous job and seemed a good relative size to the dinosaur.

I’ve included some of the ‘pre-op’ images to show how such simple set-ups could lead to the finished shots. Obviously the rain and blood effects were added in post, as was the background from the Cloud Forest taken during my trip to Costa Rica a few years ago.

The first two images were accepted by the client (they look much better blown up large). The rest was just me having some fun with it using some archive photos of myself, taken from my project posing with model cars.

Perhaps this project demonstrates the importance of composition and framing, not just for toy photography but also for any inanimate subject with a fixed position. Whereas I could move the whole dinosaur in front of the camera, when shooting a statue, building, vehicle etc., moving the camera around it and using a variety of focal lengths can produce some very different images of a single subject.

Anyway, enjoy some T-rex action. I kept the gore to a minimum