I took this shot last night at around 7pm. It was about 115 degrees outside and I was hunched over some tree limbs that I pruned last Saturday and left stacked specifically for shooting toys.

At around 7pm in the summer the sun in Arizona is just low enough that it’s just barely cresting my brick wall in the backyard and it floods one side of the yard in that beautiful glow of golden hour. When splashed onto dead leaves it creates this warm serene scene.

While kneeling down I did find a couple spiders, lots of ants, and the occasional beetle; but when I’m shooting a toy all those distractions just fade out. The sweat was dripping from my brow and landing on my lens and camera which was slightly annoying. But the heat didn’t bother me too much. Amazingly, when properly hydrated, our bodies have some great mechanisms to cool us down.

While down in the dirt and positioning this little Mouse Guard figure, I found the shed exoskeleton of a Cicada. When the temps hit above 100 degrees the Cicada can be heard throughout Arizona as a constant buzzing. They are quite ugly and creepy looking from far away but up close they are intricate creatures with thick translucent wings. If you’ve ever walked through green grass in the summer a tiny relative to the cicada can be seen hopping to and fro from blades of grass.

I then imagined the Mouse Guard going on hunts to remove the Cicada noise from their neck of the woods...

#mouseguard #desert #az #joecowtoy #toyphotography #toy_photographers #toyoutsiders #staygold #voigtlander #bokeh #bokehlicious

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