For the past two months I've been trying to bring to "life" a concept I've had in my mind ever since I found some old rubbery dismembered body parts that only qualify as "toys" if you watched Dexter (not the boy genius). As a kid.

Coming up with the concept of "Art equals self-sacrifice" in a graphical manner wasn't difficult, shooting it, however, was a whole other ballpark. My dated Canon Rebelt XTi is good for some closeups and places with decent lighting. Photography with flash is hideous for the most part (the most part is when talking about the camera's built-in flash), and it is especially dated when all you've to work with are the stock lens and a pretty below-than-average macro lens. All these factors, plus the lack of space, good shooting angles and doing this by myself prompted me to have a second shoot because the first one was that awful (see below at the end of the post).

Second time around I had help from my good friend Sofia, providing the severed arm on the right, I could've used my own, like I did in my first shooting, but it was sub-par and awkward as hell. This will be submitted to an international art magazine, let's see if it gets approved.

We all wear masks, others better than others, and those who don't, just can't take theirs off.

It's been a while since I've taken pictures of-- well, just taken pictures in general. I was busy for about a month learning, practicing and finalizing the "documentary" of the short-lived punk rock band I was in, Cheap (A) Oi!, and ever since I've struggled to go out and take pictures.

Tonight was a night out and the sky was pretty clear so I went back home, grabbed my backpack and went off, because if I didn't take the chance, I was going to wait somewhere between a year and an eternity while the "muse" visited me. I have no new equipment, which should be considered a sin, so this was still shot with my Canon Rebel XTi and the Sigma DG 70-300, a nice, cheap, albeit slow lens I've had but not used very much. I used Photoshop to play a bit with the contrast and add the watermark because even using Lightroom after so long is a hassle for me (I'm reaching new heights of procrastination, I know).

I ordered this in the blink of an eye for my birthday because 1) it's a 1989 Batman and 2) it's related to my favorite Batman video game. Everything about the NES version of Tim Burton's Batman film is astonishing, the slightest things just made me stand in awe back then. Things like the barely-noticeable cape movement when resuming from crouching position, to the concept of wall jumps were second place when on top if it all was the catchiest piece of 8-bit music I've had the pleasure to let my ears sweat to.

Here's a video of the Level 1, which showcases everything I've just mentioned:

The color palette used in the few cut scenes as well as the game itself are tastefully carried over to the NECA Batman figure, which is a direct mold from the real life counterpart, including Michael Keaton's likeness. I took the liberty to play with the saturation, so the end result is almost nothing like the figure's original color (shown at the end of this post). It's safe to say that even as a die-hard fan, I prefer this to the original action figures released alongside the movie in 1989, whose entire run consisted of 3 characters, Batman, The Joker and Bob the Goon (Penguin, Riddler, Robin as well as others were re-released from earlier non-movie related runs).