PHOTOSHOPPING FAIRIES

My first fortean-photoshop was simple enough... oddly reminiscent of some other fairy pictures don't you think?
The girl in the picture is a friend of mine, she's actually sitting by a bonfire in the dark, watching fire-works, but the expression was just what I needed.
The fairy is composited from a free-stock-photo of a dragonfly, and a picture I stole from the internet. (I can admit to stealing the photo, because I've altered it enough that it's no longer covered by copyright law, and I've never made any money from the picture.)
The tree background was donated by a friend.
The original version (which has long since disappeared into my archives) had a larger fairy with butterfly wings, but she just didn't look right. The halo around the fairy has also been added, since several people didn't notice the fairy at all.
If you look very closely you will see the girl's eyes have reflections of the fairy in them.

The Cottingley Style pictures have since become quite popular.

[Thanks again to the two little girls, and their mums for giving me permission to use their photos in my demo pics, and to the nice lady who let me have a picture of her pond too.]

Using various re-coloring techniques and playing with the opacity and blur tools, I was able to produce the fluttering effect on the wings, and the reflections in the water.

This is the kind of stuff that you'll see all over the net, it takes a matter of minutes and can look really nice if you play about with the lighting effects.

This is a very simple way to do a fairy picture, but it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.

I'm not trying to perpetrate a fairy hoax... but there are plenty of folks that have.

Here's a recent one, which has been doing the rounds on cryptozoology websites.

I've seen it re-hashed with half a dozen different stories, most of which claim the photo has been examined by experts and they have agreed it's authentic.

That's "authentic" as in it hasn't been tampered with, it's not a double exposure or a Photoshop job. It doesn't mean it's definately a picture of a fairy.

To me it looks more like some kind of long legged water-bird.

The super-blurry pictures are always hard to deal with because they tend to show us what we want to see -like ink-blots. The subject of WHY people want it to be a fairy rather than a bird is one which could go on for hours... I'm not going to go into it in detail here.

There have also been quite a lot of pictures doing the rounds which are actually photos of sculptures, my favorites are Tessa Farmer's "little savages" [ see www.tessafarmer.com ] but the most popular seem to be Juan Caban's pieces [ see www.thefeejeemermaid.com ]

I get really annoyed about people claiming these images as their own, and using them to perpetrate hoaxes, not least because in doing so they take away from the artist, not allowing them any credit for the time, money, effort and skill that has gone into making the creatures.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{PLEASE NOTE: the following advice is given on the assumption that fairies are real, since I've never seen one, and have never seen any convincing evidence of them, I cannot make any claim as to their existance/non-existance. I present this information for entertainment purposes only}

To get real fairy photos, one must deal with all the same problems as a wildlife photographer shooting insects, only the subjects are very clever, and clearly not keen on the paparatzi.

Add magical powers and malevolent humor to this, and it's no wonder that the only man ever to have made a habit of it (Charles Castle, who's story was told in the film "Photographing Fairies") went completly mad.

The first major problem is one of location.

Fairy populations are reputedly related to human belief in fairies; and thus have been in decline since the industrial revolution. They are supposed to be attracted to stone circles and other pre-christian monuments, as well as woodlands.

A source of clean fresh water seems to be a must as well, preferably a stream or brook, but a pond will do.

One would assume that, like most wildlife, they are not keen on humans messing about with their environment, and so they will steer clear of towns and cities; but might be spotted occasionally in an unkempt wildlife garden.

As well as a camera with a very fast shutter speed, and the patience of a saint, I would recommend the following equiptment:

-No camoflage.

Fairies are intelligent, if you try to hide from them, they will see you, and they will have great fun mocking you; instead wear bright friendly colours, (they're reputedly big fans of pink and yellow) and announce yourself and why you are there, this shows respect, and offers them more chance to leave discreetly of they don't want to be photographed, while also sparking their curiosity.

-Lots of cake.

Maybe the fairy folk want proof of your respect for them, maybe they just have sweet teeth, either way they're supposed to go mad for cake. (The Cottingley girls used Victoria sponge.) They seem to have adapted their tastes with the times, so whatever you can pick up at the supermarket should be fine, but I get the feeling they'd prefer for someone to make them their own special cake, even if it tastes rancid: effort and belief seem to be what feed the little folk.

-Ribbons and Bells.

Much like the cake, this is all about showing respect for the fairy folk, any kind of pretty gift that they could use or enjoy should do the trick, all the better if it's something you've made yourself.

A sense of humor. You must expect them to play tricks on you; they might spend an hour posing for you, only for you discover that they've stolen the film from your camera. When they do play a prank you must accept it with grace, and congratulate them on it, just like school kids, this will earn you far more respect than getting angry or upset.

-An iron key or pendant.

Iron is somehow dangerous for fairies. My theory is that people first stopped believing in fairies at the time they discovered iron, so it becomes painful by association. A horseshoe is a bit obvious, and quite hefty, a key or pendant is far less blatant a weapon against them, and therefore far less likely to cause offence. You might want to make a point of leaving this item a short distance from your eventual shooting position, as a gesture of trust.

NEVER GIVE FAIRIES CLOTHES

There all kinds of explanations about why giving fairies clothes makes them angry, it doesn't matter why, all you need to know is- it really ticks them off.

NEVER ACCEPT FOOD OR DRINK FROM FAIRIES

This effectivly gives them permission to spirit you away to fairyland, and when (or if) you come back, you won't be the same.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whether real or not, I've always been fascinated by fairies. From Enid Blyton and Hans Christian Anderson, to Bill Willingham and Niel Gaiman, I have poured and pondered over every fairy story I could lay hands on.

Fairies are rarely good, except when they have been re-written.

They are rarely evil either, but they have the capacity to be really, really nasty.

More than anything they make me think of ten-year-old children, with no manners or sense of discipline. The kind you see roaming the streets in packs, with skateboards or scooters, looking for something to do. They are not particularly creative, or destructive, but a tiny push, even a single word, can whip them into a frenzy of excited activity; they might spend a whole day building a treehouse with a collective skill that amazes the adults who see, the next day they might spend throwing bricks from a bridge into the traffic below.

Whatever they do they do with enthusiasm and cunning.

I'm quite glad that there is no conclusive proof that they DO exist, but I'd also hate to see proof that they don't.