2 Behind Quest - Fav Photos 2026

Behind the Scenes of the Quest - part 2

Taking more peeks behind the scenes of the Quest story....

Building a Cathedral

I had shot Aeran and Kyle's wedding in August of 2024 with my camera hand-held set on Auto. The intention was for the entire story to be turned into a book, but the original wedding photos were not sharp enough for print. So I had to reshoot everything in January 2026. Which meant setting up the entire set again...
The 'cathedral' set uses the china cabinet in the background to provide architectural detail, as well as depth. I always start with the floor fabric which protects the table....

After covering the table, and clamping the edges, wood shelves are brought up out of storage..

The wood shelves are stacked to create the raised dais at the front, and a carpet is laid down. Three styrofoam pillars are raised on empty plastic yogurt containers to give them extra height.

Black Bristol board is inserted behind the glass in the china cabinet to hide the interior, and a half wall is positioned on the back edge of the dais, behind the throne....

At this point it became apparent that the table wasn't going to be wide enough, so everything had to come off so we could insert another table leaf. Then I started all over again. Then I started hanging 'stained glass window' wallhangings on the china cabinet doors. I was going need more styrofoam wall units than usual, and was going to have to use the Tudor interiors as well as the 'stone castle walls'

I decided the walls were going to be too short for wide shots, so we went to Dollarama to get several sheets of black foam-core to raise the walls higher. We cut the foam core and hot glued it to the bottoms of the existing wall units.

I noticed the glass chimneys on the chandelier were extremely dusty, so took them down to clean them ... after all, every extra bit of light would help once I started taking photos.

The finished set. I wasn't concerned about all the black lower walls, as all the guests would be standing in front of them, so they wouldn't show anyway. And for wider open scenes, I'd just move the wooden railings currently along both sides of the middle off to the sides to hide the black.

The Wedding

I didn't take any behind the scenes photos back in 2024 until Aeran and Kyle were leaving after the ceremony.

View of the set from the hallway. The larger photography light was needed since the set was further back inside the room away from the natural light from the window, and there was a solid wall blocking the light from outside. It was aimed at the white ceiling to bounce more light into the set.

When I retook the photos of Aeran and Kyle leaving the cathedral, I first had Aeran on Kyle's left....

Back in 2024 I'd photographed her on his right, which I thought looked better, so I switched them and reshot the entire sequence

the Balcony Scene

I was trying to come up with something new and different from all my other weddings, and thought of the couple waving to their subjects from the balcony after the ceremony. I set it up right in the middle of the cathedral set, using one of the short wooden railing walls as the front of the balcony, and had to raise it on some wooden blocks to the right height. And I removed the wall on the window side so there would be more natural light coming in, so it would look more like they were outside.

Formal Portraits

I set up the dolls for their formal portraits on the picnic table, with the pillar unit and surrounded by baskets of million bells. However, in that position, they are facing north away from the light, so I used two foil-covered boards to bounce the light onto the dolls.

Then I just cropped in to cut off the boards...

the Coronation

I had originally photographed the wedding and coronation back in August of 2024, the year I took the final photos for the story. Back then I had taken all the photos with my camera hand-held and set on Auto-focus. But the intention was to eventually have the story printed as a book, and most of those original photos just weren't sharp enough, since they were taken at ISO 6400, and would be far too grainy. Even though I loved many of the photos, and they'd look just fine here on my website...

When zooming in, the image was far too grainy. If you are looking at this on your phone you're probably thinking it looks just fine. But if you were seeing it on a larger screen - or if it was to be printed in a book - it would not be suitable at all.

Here's another example, for those of you with a bigger screen.

I loved that photo, and it looks just fine here, but if you zoom in, it's not sharp enough to be printed in a book.

So, I made the decision back in January to reshoot the entire wedding and coronation. I had to duplicate the set from two years ago. except this time I wanted higher walls, so hot-glued additional panels of black foam-core onto the bottoms of the walls, to make them higher...

This time I set my camera on a ten second timer at ISO 200, so the photos would be sharp enough for print. With the camera set securely on a tripod, a shutter speed of just a half second was perfectly fine.

This time I also had more fancy gowns for the guests to wear. The gowns were made to fit a Fashion sized doll, but would also fit my other MSD ladies. They'd just be a bit long. So, even though I used the same dolls in the audience, most of them were wearing something different this time. So I couldn't even mix in any of the few sharp photos from the original photo shoot in 2024.

One of the scenes I didn't shoot the first time, but got the idea for the second time, was the balcony scene. I figured the exterior of the cathedral would still have some of the same architectural details, plus the 'stained glass' windows, so just posed the dolls behind one of the wooden half-walls...right in the middle of the cathedral interior scene, with all the other dolls still standing off to the side, and out of the way....

Then I just took close-ups....

Maya's Search for Byuri

Like the rest of the Quest Saga, which I originally started taking the photos for way back in 2012, Maya's story was photographed in many places over the years as well. Thankfully dolls don't 'age', so it's possible to put together a story with photos taken over a thirteen year period.

At home, ON - August 2013

At home, ON -August 2013

At Home, ON - July 2025

Mt. Robson, BC - June 2024

Kootenay Lake, BC - June 2024

Jasper Nat. Park, AB - June 2024

Near Mt. St. Helens, WA - May 2012

Uclulet Campground, BC - June 2024

Pacific Rim NP, BC - June 2024

Roche Rouge, Kilarney, ON - August 2013

Kilarney Lighthouse, ON - August 2013

Chickanishing Creek, ON - August 2013

French Beach, BC - June 2024

Kilarney, ON - August 2013

Long Beach

The photos of Maya travelling along the beach were taken at Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. The Park Visitor Centre can be seen in the distance on the left. The tide was out, and the beach was pretty much deserted that morning. I posed the doll and horses on the sand, and had to get down on the ground....

...because all forced perspective shots require the subject be photographed straight on at their eye level....

Once down on the ground, I direct Jan to make any adjustments...

..although I do have to get up when there's a major change required.
When standing on his own, Maya was supported by a wire stand that was poked into the sand, and I have to make sure it's hidden behind one of his legs and doesn't show in the photos.

Camp in Jasper

One of my favourite sets of photos from the story was the ones of Maya's camp. It was photographed in the Overflow Campground in Jasper National Park in Alberta. The campground was wide open and almost empty...

We covered the picnic table with our tarp, and I proceeded to set up the scene...

The lighting was just perfect that evening, with filtered sunshine on the mountains in the background.

I had spread gravel from the campsite on the tarp to make a more realistic setting and tie the foreground into the background. But a picnic table isn't all that big, so the edges of the tarp would show in some of the photos. So I took some photos of the gravel on the ground so I could use it to hide the tarp in the foreground in the photos later in Photoshop....

I also superimposed some real flames over the fake fire for the final photos....

French Beach

The photos of Maya and Byuri (Soa) walking in the forest were taken in our campsite in French Beach Provincial Park, just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It was early morning with sun shining through the trees.

Blotchy shade is my least favourite lighting for doll photography, and the picnic table was concrete, and not moveable, so I had no choice and just had to make it work. I positioned the dolls and horses on the table, and covered the rest of the surface with gravel, twigs, and moss.

I was really pleased with the first few photos, until I realized Soa was wearing the wrong cloak. She had come along wearing Asa's native regalia, to pose as both an 'older Byuri', and in case I needed some shots with 'Byuri's mother' taken from the back. I couldn't bring Asa because she'd had a new dramatic faceup after the first photos for the story were taken way back in 2012, so I couldn't use her.
Blotchy shade is my least favourite lighting for doll photography, and the picnic table was concrete, and not moveable, so I had no choice and just had to make it work. I positioned the dolls and horses on the table, and covered the surface with gravel, twigs, and moss.

I was really pleased with the first few photos, until I realized Soa was wearing the wrong cloak. She had come along wearing Asa's native regalia, to pose as both an 'older Byuri', and in case I needed some shots with 'Byuri's mother' taken from the back. I couldn't bring Asa because she'd had a new dramatic faceup after the first photos for the story were taken way back in 2012, so I couldn't use her.

But as a grown Byuri, Soa wouldn't be wearing her mother's button blanket. She should have been wearing Byuri's Chilkat blanket. So, I had to replace it, and reshoot...

With the dolls backlit by the sun, it was necessary to bounce some light onto them so they wouldn't just be dark figures against a bright background.

Then after taking all the photos, it was time to clean everything up....

I'd used gravel and twigs from the campsite to make the picnic table top resemble the forest floor, but the moss was brought from home. I'd purchased it at Dollarama, and every bit of it had to be collected and put back into the bags....