Before I get to this week’s View, I want to explain how it came about. All week long the weather forecasts were calling for cold and rain with some wet snow mixed in over the entire weekend. I had been planning a trip to a nearby nature center but the thought of getting soaked and cold did not thrill me. Okay, then, what to do? I went to one of my favorite photography websites and did a one word search: Rain. Of all the returned articles from the search, the one on 5 Photo Projects for a Rainy Day was what I was looking for. Particularly the first option of photographing random objects.
What objects would I photograph? I thought of things I have done on rainy days. When my girls were younger, we would play board games. Now, there’s an idea. I wanted a game which was well known and have good objects to photograph. Upon looking at the stack of old board game boxes in my daughter’s closet, I pulled out one of the classics: Monopoly. Monopoly has got all the elements needed to make a good photograph.
Did you know Monopoly was literally stolen? Really! Charles Darrow who coined the basic rules and copyrighted the game of Monopoly actually got the rules and board from a friend of his. He then produced and marketed the game before selling it to Parker Brothers. It took Parker Brothers a few years to buy out competitors and those challenging the Monopoly ownership. They even paid off a company with $10,000 in 1935 at the height of the Depression. A huge sum in those days and financial times. Source: Monopoly History.
In the game of Monopoly, the two most coveted properties are Park Place and Boardwalk. If you can build houses or a hotel on either of them, you can bankrupt the other players when they land on them. Making them prime real estate indeed.
Prime Real Estate. The player with the horse and rider token owes the owner of Boardwalk with a Hotel a total of $2000 in rent. Nikon D70 with 50mm lens at 1/40s, f/8, ISO 200 and EV +0.6.
This was a pretty simple setup. I put the Monopoly board on a table next to a window and arranged the objects to show a game in progress. The overcast sky provided the main light source similar to firing a strobe through an umbrella in a studio to the right with a white poster board reflecting fill light on the left. I used the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens at f/8 to give enough depth of field to keep most of the game elements in focus with a little bokeh in the near foreground and far background.
Views Infinitum 
At a playwrights workshop we explored the value of putting yourself in a box. Imposing tight conditions on a scenario tends to unleash creativity. It seems it works the same way with photography! Nice condos you have there on Park Place, btw.
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I’m not one to see thinks I am very familiar with and create a photo as some people can. This took a bit of thought and inspiration which cam when I visited Tracy’s blog. As they say it only takes a little spark of the imagination. 🙂
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Rainy days and Mondays don’t always get me down. LOL A time to relax… well, on rainy days sometimes. Very nice shot capturing the essence of the Monopoly board and showing Chance? by the Prime Real Estate. 🙂
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Ah, yes…Chance? is a big part of Monopoly as in life. Next rainy day I want warmer weather so I can go in it and do another kind of project.
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What a fun project. Well lit and I like the depth of field.
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Thanks, Mike. I have others where I did selective focus on the tokens and dice. They didn’t tell the story like this one did. Now, your blog today with the soft bokeh behind your SIL’s puppy is perfect.
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This reminds me of a similar photo I posted a while back… probably close to a year ago? Monopoly is SO boring (in MY opinion anyway) but I love photographing random objects. Nice little boredom buster 🙂
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See…it’s not that boring. 😉
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I just checked out the link, and I’ve done the waterdrops a couple of months ago… which reminds me that I STILL need to edit those photos!
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I love the game of Monopoly! Glad I could have (somewhat) been the inspiration for this set up. Soooo, I guess it’s only fair that you should PAY the rent to ME!!! 🙂
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Oh, that’s rich, Tracy. If I had that kind of money laying around, I would have my D700. 🙂 Thanks for the assist!
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We play all the time, but we don’t follow the rule very well. Monopoly is a great learning tools for kids,and perfect for a rainy day. 🙂
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One never know what a new day of blogging will bring. Today a study about the difference between Monopoly and MATADOR, as we call this game. You are using a square as gametable, we use a circle. We only use cars, not different objects like you do, and the prices are updated at every new edition at Matador. Personal I prefer to keep the prices as they originally were, like you do. A very popular game, but not played so often because of the modern lack of time.
Good idea, to play Matador with a camera instead.
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this reminded me of me playing monopoly in my early days with friends and family.
and a good piece of trivia as well.
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I live in Rain country, and often ponder this very same subject…
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