5 Behind Scenes - Fav Photos 2024

Behind the Scenes 5

More behind the scene sneak peaks at how the photos were taken...

Agnes in the Garden

I take all my exterior 'garden' doll scenes on the table on my backyard patio. Right now it's late September and the garden is starting to look tired as it fades into fall...

But all the photos of Agnes and Matias in their garden were taken in August, when everything was much fresher. Every spring I always buy several baskets of million bells, with their small in-scale flowers, to serve as background forms doll's 'gardens'. I set up a scene using the pillar unit and million bells, with the upper garden and urn in the background, but then the dolls are backlit because the open sky is behind them. So a white card is necessary to bounce light onto the dolls, and because the table isn't big enough for something to support the white card, I always ned a volunteer to hold it for me...

The white card bounces light onto the dolls. Unfortunately the pillar in the background isn't tall enough so I always have to extend it higher in Photoshop....

The scene with Agnes visiting Naomi also needed a white card. But I'd gotten tired of always having to extent the top of the pillar, so Jan added an extension...

I take the photos using forced perspective, but that still has certain limitations to consider. I need to take the photos close to the dolls in order to make the urn on the pillar in the background look a reasonable size, but then the pillar (and everything else including the dolls) will start to flare out towards the sides. But if I get further back away from the table to get a better view of the dolls, and then zoom in, the urn on the pillar starts to become too big and somewhat out of scale.

Naomi's Birthday

I shot all the photos for Naomi's birthday in April. But then when I started posting the story four months later, I realized there were important scenes missing, especially with the sewing machine. The initial photos went from the surprise to the hug....with nothing in between....

I felt I needed more photos to fill in the story, and that meant setting up the entire scene all over again. Every detail had to be identical in order for the new set of photos to fit seamlessly into the first set. The bed covers needed to be the same, the pillows stacked exactly the same way, Naomi's robe draped the same way on the chair, and in the scenes after she'd opened the first two gifts, those had to be positioned exactly the same way on the bed.

And I had to find new pink ribbons to tie onto the sewing machine that would resemble as closely as possible the ones in the first set of photos. Then an entirely new, additional set of photos were taken to fill in the scenes where Naomi reacts to the sewing machine...

And while I was at it, I also took additional photos I'd not considered months earlier. Like the children hugging their Mom...

...as well as a more intimate photo of Baron and Naomi first thing in the morning...

Photo taken in April...

New photo taken in August....

The new photos fit seamlessly into the story. The only discrepancies in the photos were the heights of the candles in the background, which I wasn't even going to try and deal with. And I realized that I'd forgotten to put Baron's boots at the foot of the bed the second time. But otherwise everything else was perfect in Naomi's Birthday.

Furniture and props

Just a few photos of my doll furniture collection along the wall of my basement photo studio. It first started out years ago as a single book case, but expanded over the years as my collection grew. The shelves house all my furniture and medium sized props. All the smaller props are stored in labeled boxes on the main floor.

The corner shelves in the basement used to house toys for our kids, and then our grandkids, but most have moved on, and my doll furniture and horses are slowly taking over.

I forgot to take a photo of the three other horses (the most often used ones), all the styrofoam castle pillars, and my collection of doll size carpets stored on an old dresser on the other side of the room. Oh, and there's boxes with picnic tables (3 sizes), bicycles, and lobster traps, and an OG car stored under the photography studio table.

Pirates

August is International Pirate Month, and I had wanted to take some photos for it, and use my Captain Hook figure. Pirates obviously can't be photographed in my backyard. They need to be photographed at the beach, and they'd need to be posed on the ground. I don't do well getting down, or up off the ground anymore, so I find it works best to set up the scene I want at home first so I know exactly how I want to position everyone down at the beach....

I also have to take into consideration the background and lighting at the beach. When taking doll photos in the sun, it needs to be low in the sky in order to minimize harsh shadows on their faces. The middle of the day is the worst time to be taking doll photos in the sun. I also needed to consider the background at the beach. The shoreline to the west is more natural, and to the east there's a big nuclear power plant. Well, I definitely did't want the nuclear plant in the background, so I needed to take the photos first thing in the morning when the sun was low in the sky to the east, with the more natural beach to the west in the background.

So I put everyone in a box, and put them in bags along with all the props I'd need, and we went to the beach...

Then I set up my scene, and got down on the tarp to take the photos. So, even though it had started out as a clear sunny morning, the clouds soon moved in to help create the perfect lighting...

Egg Day

June 4th is Egg Day, and I decided to take a photo of my little Forest Dweller mice making off with some real full size eggs. I felt it would look more interesting if they'd accidentally broken one, and two ladies were busying themselves trying to scoop it up....

But the broken egg kept spreading on the counter....eventually reaching both little ladies, and soaking into their clothes

So I had to strip them down and wash their clothes...

Weeding the Garden

June 13th is National Weed Your Garden Day, and I wanted to have Owen and Leona, and their kids, out trying to get control of their overgrown garden. Maybe they'd been away on an extended vacation, or had just moved into a new property, and the gardens were completely overgrown with weeds totally choking out the flowering bushes.

I had set the family up on my dining room table so I'd know how I wanted them posed, then took them all out to the edge of the back garden, and used my 'poke-in-the-ground' wire stands to support them.....

Then I had to lay down on the grass to take the photos....

Although it was also one of the few times where it worked to take a photo from the standing position. The higher angle helped emphasize the enormity of the task before them...

New Props

I'm constantly on the lookout for anything that might be useful, and currently have three new items sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be used in doll photos.

I picked up the turkey at the local garden centre with every intention of repainting it like a wild turkey and using it for some Thanksgiving photos. But our Thanksgiving has already passed, so it's good that the US Thanksgiving isn't for another few weeks.

I picked up the huge dragon skull at Value Village in their Halloween props department. I can imagine several scenes with that. Then this past week I spotted the knight figure, and immediately thought it would make a nice addition to Lawrence's office. It's missing the lance, but that will be an easy fix...

Then I had some fun taking photos...

Naomi's Book

When taking photos it's important to make sure all the details are correct. I was taking photos of Naomi reading out on the patio, and her book kept falling out of her hands. So I didn't notice until afterwards that I had put the book back upside down. Now, in my defence, the front and back covers are very similar, and I don't see details in the dark very well....

But once I noticed, I had to reshoot with the book right side up...

Behind the Scenes of 'Drako'

In September on a trip to Value Village I noticed a huge dragon skull in their Halloween props section. I immediately had several ideas for doll photos that could be taken with it, so bought it.

Two Guys

A story was slowly starting to take shape in my mind and these two guys, both had roles to play in it, so they were standing together in my workspace. Matias who is a SartoriaJ 51ATH guy was being changed into his knight outfit and still needed his leg armour, and Owen who is an Iplehouse JID, was waiting for me to make him a 'safari' vest. The contrast between the two of them couldn't have been greater, and I was amused thinking of what the two of them could possibly be thinking, so just had to take a photo.

Matias & Winston's Family

I had been considering where to shoot the story. Where would such a huge skull be discovered? I did look around the construction sites to the north of us to see if there would be anything suitable there. But in the end I decided it would be a lot easier down one the beach. It's just a five to ten minute drive to the shore of Lake Ontario, and it likely wouldn't be too busy there in October.

I had to plan which scenes I could take the dolls for at the same time, since we'd have to carry everything form the parking lot to the beach in one trip. It also had to be the right kind of weather. The best would be first thing in the morning with a mix of cloud and sun. So I kept an eye on the weather forecast for our very first trip to the beach, and I prepared Matias and Winston. I'd stitched strings onto Winston so he could be suspended from a long pole like he was flying. On the morning of October 23rd, the sky seemed perfect, so we packed everything into the car and headed to the beach.

When we got there I posed Matias on his horse, and went to lie down on the tarp on the sand, as the best, most realistic doll photos need to be taken down at the doll's eye level. Then I directed Jan to suspend Winston where I wanted him, and took the photos.
The strings are clearly visible against the dark sky in this photo....

The strings were not quite so visible in this photo...

However, they still needed to be removed in Photoshop, and because I was pretty much immobile while laying on the sand, I needed to crop the photos to get the close ups I needed for the story...

For the second set of photos to be taken that same morning, I had brought along Winston's entire family. I set them up around the skull and laid down on the tarp on the sand, and asked Jan to make any adjustments...

Again, the photos need to be taken very low down at the dragon's eye level...

the King & His Men

Two days later on October 25th, we went to the beach again. That time we took Winston with Willie and the Wizard, shot a scene with them, and then a second scene with the Saphira and the House Elves. I didn't take any behind the scenes shots that day. The next day on October 26th, we took Lawrence's family down to the beach, but I also didn't take any behind the scenes shot then either.

Several days later, on October 30th the skies were way too sunny in the morning, but in early afternoon it turned to hazy sun and I decided to go to the beach and give it a try. We'd packed up everything needed for the photos with Lawrence and the knights, as well as everything for the palaeontologist scene, planning on taking everything we needed for one scene first, then bringing it all back to the car and taking everything for the second scene.

With the sun in the west now, the scene had to be shot in the other direction, which was a good thing since there was also a very strong wind blowing from the west. The men's cloaks billowed in the wind, and their hair was blown back out of their faces...

I decided it was way too windy to take the palaeontologist photos, so we just went home.

the Paleontologists

The next morning, October 31st, the sky looked promising, so we took the paleontologists to the beach again. I set up the scene, and got down on the tarp to take the photos...

Again, the photos were taken down at the doll's eye level...

the Victorians

The final big group to be photographed down at the beach was the Victorian scene. It was going to be the most elaborate of all the set ups on the beach, with eleven dolls and all kinds of extra props. Whenever there's going to be such a complicated scene I find it best to practice the set up at home so I know exactly what I want to do once I'm actually at the beach.

I made the string with little flags to go around the skull, and wrapped it in tissue paper so it wouldn't get all tangles up. Then I wired lots of little balloons. I wasn't sure about final placement since my table is flat and the beach has a major slope, but at least it would help give me some idea.

Then after several rainy days, the skies finally cleared on November 5th. We went to the beach a little later that day since I wanted to take the photo towards the east this time (for variety) and I needed the sun to be in the right position. When we got to the beach I set up all the dolls while Jan secured the tent pegs...

Every time we went to the beach I needed to have everything packed in such a way that we'd only need to make one trip from the car to the beach. So I came up with the idea to use my double horse carrier bag, and inserted most of the larger doll boxes vertically into the horse boxes. The two smallest boxes went into another bag along with the skull. Most of the boxes held more than one doll.

Like usual I took the photos while laying on the tarp on the sand.

I really had to pay attention to the background. One of the main reasons I rarely take doll photos in this direction is because of the nuclear plant at the far end of the beach, along with all the high tension hydro towers along the horizon. But some of the best angles of the Victorian scene would have them in it. Along with some airplane vapour trails....

So I had to remove them in Photoshop....

While cleaning up, some people came walking along the beach towards us. Even though there were hardly any people out on these cold mornings, there would often be a person or two who would stop to see what we were doing, and we'd just say we were taking photos for a children's book, and they thought that was so interesting....

the Museum

The final scenes for the story would take place in a museum, so I had to come up with some kind of believable set. I wanted plain white walls, so had to go buy several sheets of white foam core. I had been picking up the biggest dinosaur toys I could find at Value Village. They were not nearly big enough to pass for a realistic scaled dinosaur, but would have to do as part of a 'dinosaur diorama'.

We laid down a wooden floor over the table cloth, and I proceeded to create a museum set. The dinosaurs all needed some kind of elevated display, so I set about making them out of white bristol board...

I created two dioramas....

...and added some suitable background photos, and all the identifying signs.

And I was ready to start taking the photos....

With the walls being only so high, and there not being any ceiling, I had to take the photos with the smaller skeleton from above.

More Photos

When I started to put the story together, it seemed to me that the scene with Willie and the Wizard seemed too 'boring'. It had been one of the first scenes I photographed, and since I was stuck on the ground it was too difficult to get up and change the posing....

Then I got the idea that it would be the perfect spot to include Winston and Saphira's origin stories. But I was going to need close ups of Winston, Willie and the Wizard talking. I hadn't even thought of it back when I took the first set of photos of them at the beach, so would have to go again and take them. I was hoping for a similar day, but it wasn't happening, so November 19th we braved the cold and wind and went to the beach again, for the seventh time. It was too cold to even consider laying down on the sand, so we had brought our projector stand. We set it up on the beach, and covered the top surface with sane, and I positioned the skull, and the three characters. I hadn't brought the Wizard's horse as there would not have been room for him on the stand. Then I walked around taking close up photos my characters....