2 Behind Victorian - Fav Photos 2026

Behind the Victorian Scenes - part 2

We had started work on a Victorian Family Photo Album, but noticed there were a lot of subjects not addressed in the older photos I'd taken in the past, so I decided to take some new ones to fill the void, and got totally carried away. And while I was at it I paid attention to taking lots of behind the scenes photos. so, this is how it was all done....

Lunch on the Dock

I'd also taken Eric and his friends along on the drive to Prince Edward County. There's a park out on a spit into Lake Ontario in the town of Wellington. There's a long sand beach on the lake side, and the other side faces the town and there's the docks with a boat launch. Prince Edward County projects quite far into Lake Ontario towards the border with the USA, so there's an unmanned, self-serve entry station at the dock. We set up the projector stand roughly at a child's eye level, with one of the the docks and Wellington shoreline in the background, and I posed the boys on top..

...then took the photos...

Sailing Boats

I had been unable to find a suitable spot for Eric and his friends to actually sail their boats in the water when we were out in Prince Edward County, so the only choice was to do it down at the lake close to home. Due to all the storms and rain we'd had all spring, the water levels were very high, so the more private beach where I prefer to take my doll photos was non-existent, so I had no choice but to set the boys up in the water's edge along the more popular beach. The much wider sand beach there was just a narrow strip after the high water, but it was better than nothing. Thankfully the water was very calm that morning, since it would not have been possible if there had been any waves, even small ones.

I lay down on the tarp right at the water's edge to take the photos. Then all of a sudden an entire senior class from the nearby school appeared on the beach right where we were. They had come to explore the erosion from all the storms. (note all the brown exposed roots from the tree beyond the boys) Well, that was the most awkward experience ever. Here I was, this big, old woman lying down right on the water's edge taking photos of dolls. I refused to look up at them or make eye contact, just sat up, quickly cleaned everything up, and we left. I was thoroughly soaked.

Back at home all the boys needed their feet removed so I could brush out any sand in their ankle joints, and let their feet and lower legs dry....

...and I had to hang up their wet clothes to dry...

the Bank

In the process of putting together the Victorian Family Photo Album it became obvious that there was very little featuring Steve. What did he do all day? The family was clearly well-to-do, so I thought he could be a banker. Which meant putting together his bank office, so I could take some photos of various people coming either to invest or withdraw some money.

It's always interesting trying to create a brand new set using many of the same pieces if furniture. I couldn't use any of the foam core walls that appear in any of the family's Victorian home, so went with the stone walls from my castle interiors. Even though much of the furniture also gets used in my medieval castle interiors, it's the props that help set it apart, and turn it into a banker's office. It's elegant and uncluttered, and he's clearly interested in art. Jan asked if he was 'Canadian', which reminded me of the three little 'soapstone' carvings I'd made once upon a time, so I found them and placed them in prominent spots on his desk. A few of my mini plants help to create the appropriate atmosphere.

I had come up with three separate scenarios to take place in Steve's office, gathered the dolls, and started with Bordy...

I figured as a bank manager, Steve would have a secretary. I don't have many regular MSD guys, and couldn't use any of the ones who appeared elsewhere in the book, so chose Narin. Now, he's just a small, slim MSD, but had to wear my much larger FID Phantom's shirt, vest, and cravat. I had to roll up his sleeves or they'd have come down to his knees, and I had to temporarily take in the back of the vest. And I wasn't even going to try find him some appropriate shoes.

I thought it was a really cute little story.

And then Iris came to get some money. Taking a vertical photo was always a challenge since the walls aren't very high, and the table isn't all that deep...

So then the photo has to get cropped...

Lisa's Bedroom

Another member of the family who had very little coverage in the original sets of Victorian photos was Lisa, the older daughter. So to remedy that I put together her bedroom. Now, I figured it could be much like Lonnie's modern bedroom, since the two girls lived in the same house, but a hundred years apart. So, the basic layout could be the same, and she could even have some of the same furniture, and wallpaper. But the decor and props needed to be different.

It was just a small set taking up half the table...

The finished set looked so real with the sun coming in through the window...

One of the photos taken in it...

the Fountain

When I was trying to come up with alternative places for Eric to sail his boats, I thought of using the bird bath as a 'fountain' in a park. I covered the patio table with the tarp, with the gray underside facing up, so it would resemble concrete. I dumped the water out of the bird bath to make it a little lighter, and asked Jan to move it onto the table. I filled it with water, and tucked moss all around the outer edges. Then I posed the dolls, and placed some baskets of million bells behind them...

Because I was shooting in mottled shade with the doll's backs to the sun, I needed Jan to hold the foil-covered board to bounce light onto the dolls...

The million bells were still at peak, and the bridal wreath spirea bush was blooming in the background, making it look like my family was in some beautiful garden park. But I always try to avoid having the trunk of the crabapple tree be too prominent in the backgrounds as it's hugely out of scale. There is a small bush in front of it, and I always try take the photos with the tree off to the side as far as possible....

Then I took all the photos closer up, straight on down at the doll's eye level....

Family Picnic

I came up with the idea of photographing the family having a picnic at a park, and practiced setting up a scene at home....

Problem was, it was the end of April, and the trees were all still bare, and it was way too soon for anyone to be having a picnic at the park. So I printed out the photo for whenever I would need it to remind me of how everything was set up, and I waited an entire month for just the right time. When we went to Oshawa to take the photos of Steve and Iris at Parkwood, we took all the children and all the props, along. After finishing at Parkwood, we went to the nearby Peony Gardens. It was still too early for the peonies to be in bloom, so there was hardly anyone there. I chose a spot on the south end of the gardens, set up the projector stand, placed a somewhat larger board on top, covered it with the moss blankets and posed the dolls on top.

Then I took the photos up close straight on at the doll's eye level. The colour and texture of the moss blends in perfectly with the real grass in the park behind the dolls....

the Train Station

Right from the start of the new Victorian Family photos project, I'd wanted to do a series of them going on vacation, and I pictured them all waiting at a train station. now, there's not a lot of heritage train stations around, and I'd originally planned on taking the dolls along for a vacation up north, and stopping at the train station in Gravenhurst. But that trip got cancelled for several reasons, so I had to come up with something else. So I did an online search for other heritage train stations.
Then I started getting ready by making some suitcases out of some plain cardboard boxes. I made them to look like they had a lid, even thought they weren't going to open. I painted them, and glued little leather circles on all the corners...

Then I added handles, straps and some fake metal hinges and locks....

There was going to be a lot of dolls posing on the projector stand, and I knew the top surface wasn't going to be big enough, so I got a somewhat bigger piece of plywood, and painted it to look like concrete. At first I thought concrete was 'grey', but it really isn't. I took the wood outside several times and laid it down on our concrete path to check the colour, and it was a lot warmer than I had expected. More of a beige than a gray. Then I splattered more paint all over the board for some texture...

With the board dry, I practiced posing all the dolls on it on my kitchen table...

I had discovered that Uxbridge, just half an hour away, had a beautiful heritage train station. So I packed everyone up, and we headed north. I was a little worried since some of the photos online showed it with all the windows boarded after the tornado that had damaged it a few years back. But when we got there, it was perfect...

It's the only old railway station in Ontario with a 'witches' hat roof, and even thought it was right in the middle of town, it was in a wide open area and there was no one there. No people, no cars, perfect! And the tracks and platform were running north/south, which meant the dolls would not be back-lit if the sun was out. So we took everything out onto the platform...

I decided what distance I had to be from the station in order for forced perspective to work, and set everyone up on top of the projector stand...

Then I proceeded to take lots of photos, while changing the doll's poses.

The weathered wood of the station platform matched the colour of my painted board perfectly, so all I had to do in post production was to blend them together seamlessly...

After we'd cleaned everything up and had packed it all into the car, I noticed the train car in the field next to the station. It was in pretty bad shape, but I thought I'd try and use it anyways. So, out came everything one more time as I set up everyone as though they were just waiting to board the train....

Then I took close-ups of the dolls from the back...

Seaside Vacation

In preparation for their trip to the seaside, I wanted to make a set of Victorian style swimwear for the children. I started by making two for Nyssa and cousin Holly, and two for Eric and his cousin Coco. Then I thought baby Sena could use one too. Then why stop there? So I made some for Lisa, iris and Steve as well. In fact I made two sets for Steve, since the first set was made from the same fabric as the boys and I decided he needed something different. I didn't feel like stripping down Iris or Lisa when making their swimsuits, so Leona and Lonnie offered to be models in their place.

I know inflatable beach toys are not era appropriate, but it's ultimately a time travel story, and cousins Holly and Coco (who are from modern times) were going with Iris and Steve's family, and they brought their own favourite beach toys along. Well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

I had originally wanted to photograph their vacation on a trip up north, but after that got cancelled, I was stuck with the beach down at the lake. I'd wanted to have taken the photos before July before the schools were out for the summer, but things being what they were, it was the final weekend of June and it was supposed to be a scorcher. Well, I really wanted to get the photos taken and done with, so I got everything ready, and we went down to the lake for three mornings in a row, all before 9am, while the sun was shining in the right direction, and before the beach crowds arrived.
Day one, early on a Saturday morning, and I set up a scene on the beach....

One of the photos...taken straight on at the doll's eye level...

We did go back to the beach again that evening, but it was packed, with no parking spots, and way too many people, so we just left, only to return again early the next day on Sunday morning. I started with Iris in her bathing suit...

Then set up the family picnic.

I took the photos from a lower angle, so the background looked more like an overgrown sand dune. It was getting very hot, so we called it a day, packed up and left.

We did go back again that evening, but it was even more crowded than the day before. It was getting hotter and more humid every day, and Monday was supposed to break records, but we went again early that morning. I started by setting up the sand castle scene, and then people started arriving at the beach. There was a grandmother with a toddler right by that tree, and another family throwing stones in the water a little further down the beach from us, and I had to take the photos so they'd all be hidden behind the tent...

I photographed the sandcastle, beach combing, and the family walking in the water scenes that morning. But it was so hot that I totally forgot to take behind the scenes photos,

More Christmas Photos

When the two Victorian Family albums were first laid out, it became clear that the Christmas sections needed to be expanded upon. So that meant recreating the set from 2018 perfectly, down to every detail.
Christmas 2018....

Christmas 2026. Even the Christmas cards had to be in the exact same places....

The photo cropped in...

For the Christmas Baking scenes, we removed all the modern appliances off of the counters in the background, and I set up the girls on a box on the counter in the foreground.

There was nothing I could do about the stove hood or fridge, Neither of which were period appropriate, so I just tried to avoid showing them as much as possible...