Here is a still-life photo series of…teddy bears.
Why teddy bears?
Well, when I was learning about how to use basic functions like aperture, shutter speed, ISO and exposure, they served as very useful and cooperative models. They wouldn’t complain if I was spending a long time adjusting settings. They would just sit there waiting patiently and silently.
The photos with the plain white backgrounds were done when I was testing out lighting equipment (the set up was for a shot of cosmetics products for a mock video advertisement). The bears are sitting on reflective white paper and they are lit from behind, the front and one of the sides with softbox lights.
Where are they from?
At the school where I work, I manage a small multimedia studio. A student brought two teddy bears in as props for a promotional video she was working on and then, in one of those sad Toy-Story moments, decided she didn’t want to bring them back home. Therefore, she donated them to the studio.
They now live in the school’s English Corner.
The bear in the uniform is a souvenir from Hong Kong’s MTR (Mass Transit Railway). I don’t know anything about the smaller bear.
Video
Many of the earlier photos in this series were used as visuals for in the video for my song: Almost a Love Story.
More Bears
There are a couple of larger bears in the English Corner now. These ones are from Ikea.
Portrait
The following portrait used as the video thumbnail was created by Maggie Lai.
Technical Information
Most of the photos in this series were taken with SONY NEX-7 camera, while a couple of the later ones were shot with a FUJIFILM X100T.
To get the larger teddy bear to stand, there are pens supporting his legs. In some of the shots, if you look closely you can one of the pens.
Complete Albums
To see the entire series of 69 photos at a higher resolution (e.g., 2048 x 1365), you can go to:
- Flickr Album
- Album on Google Photos
Text and photos by longzijun
Longzijun 