Photographer Brian McCarty (www.mccartyphotoworks.com) has been working closely with us at Hi-Fructose from before Volume 1. He's captured a galavanting Furilla as it traipsed across the desert sands; submerged himself in a freezing pool to photograph elusive laughing squids; scientifically measured out camera distances for our 3-D View-Master insert in Volume 3; created one of his best images, Friends With You "Wish Come True", where the uber-friendly FWY forms literally bounced amidst a sea of rubber-balled compadres; and captured Volume 1 cover girl Axtrx in her natural state—devouring a carton of Little Debbie snack cakes.

McCarty brings inert plastic to life, and his photographs are never static product shots, but coated in story and artful context. Each issue we work with Brian to premiere at least one exclusive image of his work in our pages. We're pleased to have Brian do a behind-the-scenes guest blog with photos of a piece by artist Ashley Wood (popbot/Tank Girl) that he's preparing for premiere in Volume 8. -Atta

On March 27th, I set out from Los Angeles with a prototype of artist Ashley Wood's new toy "Bertie the Pipebomb." The destination was five hours away, past Barstow and Baker, on the southern edge of Death Valley. This piece deserved nothing less than to be photographed in its natural setting.

Dumont Dunes lies down a dirt road far off the main highway. With massive sand dunes towering 1200 feet tall, the location feels more like Northern Africa than Southern California. My assistant and I pushed a Honda CRV farther than we probably should have, around the northern edge. Before completely bottoming the car out, we grabbed the gear and hiked up into the dunes.

I'm not sure who's shooting who here. This is the first setup with Bertie. He can be posed in a zillion different ways, but there were only so many positions he could hold with the prototype, super heavy rocket launcher. Usually, I'd use a tacky wax to allow for more options, but the heat made that impossible. It melted almost immediately. There were a few false starts with Bertie deciding to throw down his weapons before we were ready to shoot.

Unseen behind the reflector is my car, now below us, very far in the distance. Having been to this location a few times, I came prepared for the worst...although another gallon of water wouldn't have hurt. The weather forecast called for 25mph winds, but we thankfully didn't have to pull out the goggles and dust masks. The camera did stay wrapped in plastic. If the tons of camera-clogging sand weren't enough to explain why, the next shot should do it.

My assistant Michael is generally having a good time while manning the dust gun. I wanted to bring in some of the atmosphere Ashley Wood uses in his work without obscuring the background too much. I feel that the effect added a lot to the photo, making Bertie seem all the move alive and massive.

If you look closely, you can see some small specks on top of a dune in the distance. Because it was spring break for most Southern California schools that week, there were a bunch of kids on dirt bikes and dune buggies. It felt a little bit like Road Warrior, that is if Lord Humongous had a squeakier voice and few more pimples. Most of the dirt bike bandits were cool enough to stay away from the set, but you'll see tire tracks in the next shot from a few that weren't.

Bertie is seen here still posed on a brass tube from the first setup. It'll get touched out in Photoshop. Call it cheating if you wanna, but the production version of the toy is going to live on a base plate. I don't want to turn this into a review of the figure, but everyone involved in its creation should be commended. Bigshot Toyworks and Threezero managed to translate Ashley's brilliant vision into 3-D with astonishing detail.

Ok, not all of the tire tracks are from the teenagers. I chose to set him up in the rippled tracks of a dune buggy that passed by in the morning. The texture read very well at ground level.

I left my assistant at the first setup while I hiked up the dunes to find another angle and spot to setup. It got very treacherous the farther up, and I almost lost Michael over the far edge as he carried up a C-stand.

Bertie is a patient one. It took fourteen hours roundtrip to get two shots done that day. I feel that it was well worth the time, dust, heat, and miles for the opportunity to photograph Bertie in this way. I hope you enjoy the results when Hi Fructose Vol. 8 hits stands!!