This is the Wheel…
and this is the Wettlaufer. Mr. Brent Wettlaufer, intrepid photographer, Senior Interpreter-Education at THEMUSEUM and clearly a hardcore maker. He built this 7-foot ferris wheel over many dozens of hours out of K’NEX pieces rumoured to number somewhere around 8000!
DW here, again, all the time. We, the MEEPs, had been hoping for some coverage in The Record for a while and when the call came in last Thursday, they wanted something substantial to photograph, but of course most of the stuff arrives at Maker Expo on the day of the event. So Cam Turner proposed shooting Brent’s ferris wheel at THEMUSEUM. Only problem when we got there was: no Brent. He was off that day. We went ahead with the shoot, but I felt an unsettling disturbance in the make-o-sphere by not getting a photo of Brent with the wheel he made. Hopefully with this post, I am marginally righting the cosmic maker karma. I just happen to have several dozen photos of Brent because we always seem to be shooting at the same event and I’m a freak for meta-photography.
Before I go on: great job, Brent! And see you at City Hall on Saturday with the wheel. Here’s the story in The Record (thank you!) More pics…
I arrived to find the giant doors open. Thought maybe the wheel had been wheeled out.
But no! There it was upstairs.
Glorious in its intricacy and size.
Teacher-in-residence Vanessa Moniz carefully evaluating the possible outcomes of us moving this thing to a more photogenic setting.
It needed more breathing room for a good photo and ideally some of the very distinct features of THEMUSEUM in the background. So…
Into the elevator…
it went. Aside: Cam is very low-key.
I call this shot: Vanessa very responsibly caring for the wheel. In the elevator.
Giant dinosaur heads and a 7-foot ferris wheel photo shoot. This is my jam.
Let me tell you, this is a rare shot with no people around the wheel because it was like a magnet for everyone who was walking by. Questions! Oh, the questions. All you curious folk will have to come to the Expo and hear from the maker himself.
Who should The Record send over but photo-ninja Mat McCarthy. Meta!
This is how…
you get good photos…
in The Record. Go back and look at Mat’s photo with the article and how he got nice reflections off the floor by simply doing some yoga before pulling the trigger. Total pro. I watch and I learn.
Mat, what are you doing on Saturday? Stop by City Hall for some great photo ops. And bring a few thousand of your friends.
We are all makers. This is Waterloo Region.
DW