Chicagoist: Made in Chicago: James Spicer

Mo

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:29:22 -0600

Lensbabies....cooooool.

jamesspicer

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:25:43 -0600

Mo, Some things I make, some things I buy assembled, and some things I buy as kits that need to be assembled and painted. Search on eBay for "doll house miniatures" and you should find plenty of stuff. My defense about tilt-shift was actually directed at the person that suggested that it is over done. I love the real and fake ones too, but I think the fake ones are the best! A tilt-shift lens costs thousands of dollars, and sounds like a pain to use. When I try tilt-shift I will certainly use photoshop and a Lensbaby 3. Look up "lensbabies" and your obsession may get even bigger!

Mo

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:44:53 -0600

jamesspicer, Thanks for the explanation. Do you make the plastic model components, or do you buy the pieces? And if you buy the pieces, where do you get them? Great website; I love your etsy shop. To clarify what I was talking about, though... the tilt-shift *fake* is fake because it's a Photoshop technique to mimic the *real* camera technique. But I think both versions are very cool! But I have a weird obsession with miniatures...

jamesspicer

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:03:59 -0600

Hi everyone, Thanks for looking! These photos are real miniatures from plastic models. The people are less than an inch tall, and the buildings are a few inches. You can follow the link in the article to my website where you will be able to see that the subjects are plastic. Soon I'll post some pictures of me holding the models and putting them together. As for Tilt-shift fakes, I haven't tried them yet but I think they look great and I will try the technique soon. Even though I haven't done tilt-shift yet, I will defend it by pointing out that it is probably the least over done style compared to nudes, floral, macro, portraits, landscape, action, abstract, etc. If you think you can find something new, it would probably just be new to you. Real or not real is irrelevant because a photo is never real and never fake. If you're hungry, angry, lonely, and tired, have a meal and take a nap. Enjoy!

A

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:19:53 -0600

who's seen enough of tilt-shifts? oh, jenniferexacto has. apparently she speaks for many.

jenniferexacto

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:09:58 -0600

no more tilt shift! we've seen enough. bah!

Mo

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:32:24 -0600

Whoa, are those real miniatures, or tilt-shift fakes? (I just learned about tilt-shift fakes and am kind of obsessed right now.) They look like pictures of real miniatures, though. Does he make each component, then take the picture? These make me very happy.