Setting Up a Studio Space

 This past week I spent setting up the studio space and gathering supplies for the mars landscape photography. The color dark room I'm using needed a bit of clean up before I could use it, so I spent the first part of the week cleaning it. There were two enlargers that I had to move out of there to make space for the aquarium. The room was used previous spring semester as a screen print room, so I had to clear out the supplies that were left from that and find previous owners since there were large materials left behind. Once the room was cleared out, I was able to start bringing supplies in.

Friday night I brought up the aquarium. I got measurements for how large of a hose I need to fill water from the sink, as well as the diameter to fit over the faucet nozzle. After a quick trip to Home Depot, I did a test run to make sure I could fill the tank with water and siphon water out of the tank. Test was successful.

While I had the tank partially filled with water, I went ahead and put an object I had in the tank to get test shots to determine what lens I will be using.  My 18-55mm, 3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens yielded the best results.

I also made a trip to Hobby Lobby to get supplies for the mars landscape. I got foam, foam glue and tools to sculpt as a base for the landscape. I also got foam board (one side white and one side black), as well as cotton and craft glue for sky background. This probably won't be used for Mars landscape, but I needed the white background to block the wall out. In addition I got plaster and rock molds to make the canyon look. I couldn't find the right color to paint the molds with, so I'll be stopping by hobby town after work on Tuesday and hopefully will have better luck. Also I came across a silver dust base that would work great for the future Jupiter or Neptune landscapes.

 Doing some test runs, I realized I needed some supplies that I didn't prepare for such as towels, newspaper, bowls, and possibly an extra table for more counter space which was a great run through to prep for the project. For my mars landscape I'll also be using reddish dirt clay from the Brazos river banks, so I'll be heading out Monday after class/work to go collect it. I hope Monday night to prep the rock plaster molds as well after collecting the dirt. I hope for next week to have a good portion of the mars landscape built with some test photography done to start prepping atmospheric looks and lighting.