This week we’re off to Hollywood! Well, I wish I was! My first thought for a shot was to get some holly and a nice piece of wood and use them in a photo but as a couple of other photographers had already done this I wanted to try something different.

So I turned my thoughts to the opening credits of films and the big film studio logos of Warner Brothers, MGM, Columbia, Paramount and Universal. I decided to try recreating the Paramount opening film credit of the mountain with a ring of stars. I also wanted to do as much of the scene as I could in camera which meant having to work out how to get the stars in the background. This was done by illuminating a ring of holes in the background from behind while using a star shaped “bokeh” filter on the front of the lens. This makes the out of focus highlights take on the shape of the star.

The mountain was made from card and the scene was lit by gelled flashes. The only thing that was added after the shot was the clouds.

The final result is an image that I am very pleased with. Given more time I would have polished up a few little snags but on the whole I think I have a pretty close likeness to the original.

(click the image for a larger version)