Conceptual Shoot – The Tales of Edward Hyde…

I know I have spoken a little about some of the Concept Shoots I am working on, I have two I am collaborating with other people, one is my own. My own is simpler, as I have complete control, I can work at my own pace and there is no rush. My Husband is my main model and he is now getting as enthusiastic as me and offer ideas in settings and props. My Concept is The Tales of Edward Hyde.

It started as a dream, a very weird dream about a dapper rabbit, romping through a forest, slightly evil, definitely creepy, but dressed in a suit; looking a complete gentleman to those who didn’t know him. It stayed with me for quite a while, it kept coming back, like a recurring dream and I couldn’t shake it. I eventually decided that this was my next project, almost an off shoot from my Mask Series. I started to map out a concept, then I had to find the rabbit head. Have you ever tried to find a slightly evil rabbit head? It’s not easy. Yes there are the cute rabbits; Bugs Bunny, Easter Bunny, Roger Rabbit, Peter Rabbit and then there are the totally evil rabbits; like Frank Donnie Darko. But mine was only slightly creepy and a little more 19th Century Dapper Rabbit, kind of Jekyll and Hyde rabbit. Bingo! That’s when Edward Hyde joined the party. My Edward is still a gentleman on the outside and slightly evil and sinister on the inside, but perhaps a little more 21st century than 19th.

I finally found my Rabbit Head, just before our trip to Warburton, and my plans really started to take shape. We took him with us on a recent Light Painting trip and we ended doing this to him; now that is really creepy!

My Moth agreed to this insanity, when I first broached the subject, he was going to be Edward Hyde and he was going on this journey of discovery with me.

He doesn’t look quite as creepy or evil here does he? This is at about 5am one Sunday morning in our hotel room, before setting off for our first shoot. Edward was out for a walk, in his finery, doing a little bit of sneaking, a little bit of hiding, scoping out a forest, is he up to no good already?

I will endeavour to record, at least on my phone some of the behind the scenes stuff as well as the finished artwork, above is the Warburton Redwoods were we did our first shoot, not originally where I planned, which was just up the road, but a large tree was down and the road inaccessible, so Plan B it was.

Now we were there early, before 7am in hopes of catching some winter fog and mist, it was cold, real cold (2c), but very little mist and fog 😦 . There were more people about than I expected and we got a few strange glances…….Moth didn’t care, he was completely covered, no one knew who he was! And these days I am beyond caring, especially when I am in the zone. It is really dark in that forest, and I wanted to keep the flash to a minimum, so it was a little tricky. This first image was just on the edge of the forest itself. I am not sure if it is completely finished or not.