DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

These film photos of wildlife are stunning – but they’re not quite what they seem

Jun 28, 2018 by Dunja Djudjic 3 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Lucus Landers is a film photographer and camera maker. He has recently captured some pretty unique black and white wildlife photos with his Canon 1N. His series shows zebras, buffalos, elephants and many other animals in their natural habitat. But there’s a catch – these photos weren’t made in the wild at all! They were all taken in the Museum of Natural History in New York. Would you ever figure it out?

Lucus tells us that the Museum of Natural History is one of his favorites and he goes there quite often. As you can probably imagine, he would sometimes take photos with whichever camera he was carrying that day. He says its’ usually a Contax G1 or one of his other small point and shoot 35mm cameras. But these occasional visits and taking photos gradually gave him an idea for a project.

“At that point I wasn’t shooting with any project in mind, just taking photos of the things that caught my eye. After a while I gathered quite a few examples that were rather convening and even fooled some of my friends. But the museum is very dark so these casual photos were often underexposed or blurry. I knew I would have to step up my game to get the photos I was now envisioning.”

With the idea in mind, Lucus took his Canon 1N and his fastest lenses, a Canon 50mm f1.4 and 24-70 f2.4 L series lens. The museum is so dark that even with these lenses he had shutter speeds of 1/15 and 1/30 s. He had to be steady as a rock to get these photos and keep them sharp. He was also pushing the film to the max, shooting at ISO 1600 or 3200. This added the grain to the photos (which I personally like a lot), but there was another catch to this approach.

“The idea was to use the physical attributes of the camera and film to hide any hints that the photos were not real. I did whatever it took to make sure the painted backdrops blended perfectly with the physical stuffed animal in front of it. Shooting in color, using a finer film, or even moving one step to the left or right would have revealed the truth.”

Thanks to the grain and to carefully planned compositions, one wouldn’t have realized that the photos were actually taken in a museum. Clever, huh? I think this is a pretty fun idea, and I really love the photos. I’m leaving you now to enjoy some more of them and make sure to check out Lucus’ other projects on his website and Instagram.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Why Computer Generated Effects Seem So Cheap To Us? Bob On The Rock And When Inspiration May Seem Like Copy The Crazy 5D Mark IV Specs Don’t Seem So Crazy Anymore Flickr’s future uncertain as Verizon seem set to buy Yahoo for $5 billion

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Film Photography, Lucus Landers, museum, wildlife

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.net

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« ASA rules that Apple can claim the iPhone X shoots “studio-quality portraits”
How to grow an organic following on Instagram as a landscape photographer »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy