Here’s the latest knitting picture for the Invisible Jumpers project. This time I decided to up the ante and photograph animals, as if matching knitting to real life wasn’t already complicated enough. Nina did a rather intricate cable knit pattern.
The original plan was for me to film Buddy the rat running across the carpet in front of the waiting cat. However Buddy didn’t want to play ball. He was quite happy putting on his knitted coat but as soon as we put him down on the rug, the friction between the wool and the carpet meant that he simply walked out of the sweater and scampered away.
The second time we tried this he turned and gave me a quick glance before running off. Bingo.
In the end we gave him a mini Babybel and he sat there happily munching away while we filmed him.
Just to reassure anyone who’s worried about how this scene played out with the rat and cat, we photographed them separately. The cat could obviously smell that there had been a rat and kept looking around suspiciously which worked perfectly for the picture.
Thanks as ever to Nina, to Rosie for introducing Buddy to stardom, to Stef for the loan of your house and cats and of course to Buddy the rat. Both immortalised in the up-coming Invisible Jumpers book from Hoxton Mini Press, and available to buy in print form here.
La photographie animalière est toujours un peu compliquée, d'autant plus si on rajoute des vêtements. Ce n'était pas la première fois que j'habillais des animaux de vêtements tricotés, j'avais photographié une campagne il y a quelques années avec un chat, un chien et un oiseau tous vêtus de pulls fait à la main... fort de cette expérience je savais qu'il fallait s'assurer que le pull permettrait un mouvement facile à Buddy le rat, mais qu'il ne pourrait pas l'enlever trop facilement.
Buddy avait d'autres idées. Ça ne le dérangeait absolument pas qu'on lui enfile le pull, mais dès qu'on le posait sur le tapis il s'en allait, laissant le pull sur place. Au final nous l'avons amadoué à l'aide d'un Babybel, et il est resté en place le temps de faire quelques images.
Quant au chat, il a bien compris qu'il y avait un rat dans le coin, et il a posé exactement comme on voulait du premier coup.