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Not so long ago, in the Pirate Seas, Koas (A Dark Portal Master) was plotting to summon a nuclear reactor from the earth world. Evil Smolderdash (working for Kaos) used the portal to transport the nuclear reactor to earth. Luckily Ninjini, a heroic Skylander and her artillery arrived in the nick of time to stop Smolderdash before it was too late. Ninjini then finds a treasure chest which would only reveal itself to the most worthy of heros as a mystical reward for her heroism. She decides to use the treasure to rebuild the villages that Kaos had destroyed in his quest to rule Skylands.

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Evil Smolderdash in the Pirate Seas

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Evil Smolderdash extracting the reactor

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Nuclear reactor is brought to the earth

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Massive wave of energy starts to settle

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A mysterious treasure chest appears

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The disturbance is sensed by Ninjini

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Ninjini emerges from the ship

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Evil Smolderdash tries to fight Ninjini

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Ninjini fights back

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Ninjini defeats Evil Smolderdash

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01 Evil Smolderdash in the Pirate Seas

.ARW RAW file | camera mode: manual | 2.5 sec @ f 4.0 | ISO 500 | focal length: 27 mm

02 Evil Smolderdash extracting the reactor�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: shutter priority | 1.6 sec @ f 4.0 | ISO 400 | focal length: 27 mm

03 Nuclear reactor is brought to the earth�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: shutter priority | 0.6 sec @ f 4.0 | ISO 2000 | focal length: 27 mm

04 Massive wave of energy starts to settle�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: aperture priority | 1.0 sec @ f 4.0 | ISO 900 | focal length: 27 mm

05 A mysterious treasure chest appears�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: shutter priority | 5.0 sec @ f 4.0 | ISO 400 | focal length: 27 mm

06 The disturbance is sensed by Ninjini�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: manual | 1.6 sec @ f 4.5 | ISO 200| focal length: 32mm

07 Ninjini emerges from the ship�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: manual | 3.0 sec @ f 8.0 | ISO 200| focal length: 29 mm

08 Evil Smolderdash tries to fight Ninjini�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: shutter priority | 30.0 sec @ f 7.1 | ISO 200 | focal length: 27 mm

09 Ninjini fights back�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: shutter priority | 1.6 sec @ f 18| ISO 400| focal length: 30mm

10 Ninjini defeats Evil Smolderdash�.ARW RAW file | camera mode: shutter priority | 6.0 sec @ f 4.0 | ISO 500 | focal length: 27 mm

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Reflective Closing Statement�

With this assignment, I tried taking photos of some Skylanders in different settings around my house. I had a lot of fun doing it, but I am really bad at organizing. So, I definitely struggled there. But Skylanders are nostalgic for me, so it was also quite personal. This course was quite foreign to me as I have no photography experience, I picked up the camera for the first time this year. It was quite hard getting all the technical stuff down, so it was a learning curve and a steep one. But I am really happy with the amount of progress I have made in a small amount of time.

I am not a great photographer by any means, but now I know how it is done, and I know enough to take good photos for myself. After I picked up a camera for the course, I realized that I liked it. It was a lot of fun to try capturing things around me, it was amazing to see how the light affects the mood of an image, and how colourful a day really is.

Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to capture them outside because of better lighting. But it made them look like scattered toys, so I tried taking the photos in my house. Halfway through the shoot, I had an idea to take their photos in front of my fireplace, and I liked the way it looked, so I went with it. I had access to some Skylanders that glow when you put them on the portal, and the effect gave me some pretty good images. I wanted to try taking photos where the figures would light up without the portal, so I hovered the portal beneath the platform. It took a lot of patience, and both my arms were sore after that, but the idea worked. So, I'm pretty happy about this project.

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I edited the images in Lightroom and PhotoShop, and I am quite happy with the way they turned out. Using a tripod for the shoot was also a huge help, it gave me some really nice shots. After I had enough images, I came up with the narrative for the essay. It is loosely based on the actual story of Skylanders, but the actual narrative is just something I came up with after looking at the images I had.

This assignment kind of awakened a distant memory, and I'm going to play Skylanders after I'm done with school :)