Little Miss Muffet Shoot

The idea behind my 'Little Miss Muffet' shoot was to replace the original lyrics of the rhyme with alternative or my own to modernise it. Items such as a 'tuffet' and 'curds and whey' are quite old fashioned terms so I aim to replace these with items such as the bench, box or steps and a packed lunch or jam on toast.

I decided to stick with the idea of a white dress but to make it more creative, I used a rockabilly style with a skull print, and fixed an apron to the front of it. Pigtails demonstrate her youth as the original rhyme is about an insect scientist's daughter running away from an escaped spider) but the small heels show her teenage years/woman hood.

I shot these images in a RAW format with my DSLR on location in a park scene, near some trees as an enclosed area and then moved to a set of steps to emphasise how Miss Muffet ran away. Using a slow shutter speed and continuous shooting, I created a series of images (below in black and white) that demonstrates her journey as the spider remains motionless. This movement is quite creative and is extremely effective in sequence, especially in relation to other formats such as a flip book, comic strip or stop motion-animation movie.

My favourite photo is the one above because of both the facial expression and the juxtaposition of significant objects in the scene such as the toast and the spider on her leg. This portrays the modern side of the rhyme as most people don't suffer from arachnophobia and although she looks nervous, she isn't moving or running away.

Overall, I was pleased with the shoot outcome as they turned out more creative than I had first thought and represents my alternative ideas very well.