Building our Duck Pond – Easter 2014
This year for our Easter sessions, held the weekend of March 22, 2014, we built an actual duck pond – something I’ve wanted to do forever but this year we finally bit the bullet and made it happen. Here is a series of pictures on how we built it and a couple of pictures once we were done. The frame for the pond and the dock we built ourselves (I have access to a couple of very handy guys), the greenery has been purchased over the years and the background is a great, ‘Springy’ one that I have also had for years, it was perfect for this particular set.
Step 1 – we built the frame for the pond. It took us a while to figure out the exact dimensions (turned out to be approximately 7′ x 8′) and the placement of the dock in relation to the background and the camera.
Step 2 – we added the pond liner. We had to spend some time getting it as flat as possible, ‘ironing out’ the wrinkles, and then folding the ends over and under the frame to hold it in place.
Step 3 – we filled the pond with water. As with all projects we ran into a problem with the connection between the hose and the faucet, but it was just a small challenge for our engineer Bob. While it was filling we kept our fingers crossed that there were no pinhole leaks! We filled it with around 3-4 inches of water, and expected that it would take hours to fill since the water pressure in the studio is sketchy at best. But surprisingly it filled up pretty quickly. We then decorated all around the pond with our greenery and rocks and in the pond we placed some underwater greenery and a lot of small pebbles.
The step I missed was my late-night run to AC Moore to pick up a few extra supplies. Got there 10 minutes before closing thank goodness!
Step 4 – the finished product, complete with a couple of props that we used during the sessions.
Below I’ve included a couple of images from the sessions done on March 22 and 23, including the last pictures taken of those hard little workers – the bunnies and the ducks. A great time was had by all. All the sessions went well and we were really happy at how impressed everyone was that we actually managed to build a pond right in the camera room!