Here are my submissions to the photo portion of the show. The range from pretty straight-forward shots of the figures (the Zag and the Garamon) to more expressionistic interpretations (the Dr. Serizawa and the Gaira).

I had originally planned to print these out in a fairly large and more dramatic size (13 x 19 format), but by the time I figured in the cost of framing, using anti-reflective glass, shipping from the midwest to SF, etc., it didn't take me too long to decide to down-size them (you can see pics of the final framed versions in other people's Flickr postings).

This was a lot of fun and a real learning experience - I had never done any color photo printing before, and found out that to get really nice results it is much more involved than just pressing "print."

What you see on your screen may not what be prints out, particularly if you have not first calibrated your monitor and your printer. I subsequently did the calibration using specialized monitor and printer calibration software with a spectro-colorimeter. This helped tremendously - I found that my screen colors were off quite a bit, and I had my monitor brightness up way too high (resulting in print outs that were too dark).

I used an Epson R2880 printer - seems to be a great printer. The R2880 uses Epson's Ultrachrome K3 pigment based inks that are claimed to be good for over 100 years. The photos were printed on professional archival quality photo paper (luster finish).

The Dr. Serizawa and Zag Head photos were custom framed by a professional. Because I was running out of time, and because of the costs, I had the Garamon and Gaira shots framed using ready-made, off-the-rack frames. All of the photos were framed using anti-reflective “Museum Glass” that really cuts down on the glare and is claimed to provide 99% UV protection.

I would be happy to share my new photo printing experiences with anyone who is interested. Or perhaps others have tips that they learned while getting ready to submit something for the show - feel free to add them here.



"Dr. Serizawa and the Oxygen Destroyer" (ToyGraph)








"Garamon Arrives" (Marmit)








"Gaira Is Cross" (M1Go Gaira) (IMO, the colors and detail in this photo don't show up well on a computer monitor)








"Zag Head" (Gargamel) (this one in particular, I think, would have looked very cool printed out at the 13 x 19 size - which is something I may still do...)

Hey Geo, is the the gaira photo looks like a comic book illustration. When I look at it , its hard to believe this a photo of an actual toy. AMAZING control over your subject.

Here is the original Gaira head shot that I used in the Gaira photo above. I had taken a series of Gaira and Sanda head shots and was thinking about doing their portraits framed in antique style frames to be hung next to each other (sort of Goofus and Galant)... I gave up on that idea before getting a shot that I really liked and just started playing around with the Gaira head shot, and ended up with the one I submitted to the show.

A couple of shots that early on were ideas for the show that I later abandoned...

The OG Gaira headshot is nice as well.
So many great photographers on the board.