"Barn Mouse"

Here's how we did it.
First we built a miniature set within a cardboard box with backdrop paper. We tried to isolate the surroundings so the mouse wouldn't freak out and do something unexpected and we didn't want to scare the little guy. We positioned lighting through holes cut in the box, and camera through a hole in the front.

Then we took an egg and a dremel mototool and cut an opening in the back of the egg and drained and washed it. We sprayed matte lacquer on the egg to cut down on the reflection. Then we contact cemented the egg down to the base and placed a few eggshell chips around.

Later we made a trip to the pet store. We picked a white mouse who was a little over inquisitive (there's always one in the cage with nose to the glass). We brought him into the studio and let him roam a bit to get used to his surroundings. The we needed to turn him yellow.

First we mixed a little yellow food coloring in water and gave him a bath. Well, I had never given a mouse a bath and I soon realized his oily fur was water repellent. The color wouldn't stick as much as I'd hoped. So in the process of blow-drying him(with an airbrush at a low psi) I sprayed yellow photographic dye on his fur. It worked like a charm, funny how well he like it!

Once he was yellow and fluffy we let him crawl into the back of the egg. Then I put a small piece of tape to keep him in, cracked the front of the egg to get him started, then let him chew his way out.

Within about 5 minutes I shot a 36 exposure roll of VPS100 in a Nikon F3 with a 105mm lens. We used a 3 light system on a 400 watt second pack with a Soffbox, a silver reflectasol and a snoot. The final photographs were only spotted for dust.

The result I was looking for came through in this timid little creature. Inquisitive of the great big world, once he's seen the outside, he wonders, should I come out or not, am I a mouse or.... well.

This idea, put into tangible form of expression was heavily copyrighted for future variations and later publication. But that's another feature story...