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Aethermon: Collect (and cows)

Writer's picture: Lee WinderLee Winder

A shot of Aethermon Collect from UKGE

Aethermon: Collect is the first game from Aethermon Studios, all based around pocket monsters called Aethermon's. I am a massive fan of Pokemon so this was right up my alley and something I was really interested in when I first saw it at UKGE and took what was one of the first photo's I'd take of the game.


A Rolling English Countryside

When I was talking to Sarah and Chris one of the first things I said was that the game always makes me think of rolling hills, warm countryside and blue sky and that would be a great theme to set a shoot in.


I did mention I was based in England, so the blue skies are not that common, but they jumped at the chance to get a shoot done.


Luckily, it was summer so it didn't take to long to get the right conditions to head out and start shooting.


I wanted to capture the game across different times of the day, so set out late afternoon while it was still bright to set up. It was a bit windy, and sticking each card down individually with blu-tac to avoid them flying away did take some time!



It's tricky to get a focused shot of a game looking downwards while also trying to capture the countryside disappearing into the background but I did manage to set up on a hill with a great view of local farmland which kept the landscape a bit more flat so I could capture it off into the distance.



Finally the sun started to set which allowed me to really capture that golden glow on the game, reflecting through and on the components of the game which provided the opportunity for some calming, relaxing shots of the game that highlighted how it can feel playing with others.



A behind the scene photo at night

It gets dark quick in the middle of a field though!


Cows!

I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by farmland and fields where I live so I spent a while scouting for the right location. I was hoping to use a local windmill but at this time of year the crops around there tend to be nearing harvest so are more beige than green so that location was out.


Finally I found a perfect set of fields for the shoot and set out the next day.


What a surprise it was to find the field full of cows! A lot of cows... They certainly hadn't been there the few times I'd scouted, but I'm sure it will be fine I thought...


After texting my wife to say it looked like the cows were starting to flank me (and her reply saying something about cows and advanced military tactics not being something that often goes together), I carried on oblivious to what was going on around me.


Ooops...

A heard of angry cows

The cows were pissed off and wanted me to know about it. I'm pretty sure I have never packed up a shoot as quickly as I packed this one up, especially when another herd came charging over at the same time.


A game table with cow snot on it

I was too busy planning the best way to escape a rampaging horde of cows to get any video or images of just how close and angry they were (not that I had anywhere to go, I was in the middle of a field!).


The lead cow (if that's what she was) decided to take a keen interest in what I hadn't packed and gave it a good shove and snort.


Yes, that is cow snot on my make-shift game table!


With a final angry snort, the game table collapsed, panicking the entire heard which proceeded to absolutely bolt away and skirt past me.


So I carried on, I'd been waiting too long for the right conditions for this shoot to give up, cows be damned.


[Edit: The Guardian has since had a mini-theme on cow attacks and how dangerous the can be. If I'd read those before this shoot, rather than after, I think I would have turned around and come back another day!]


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