Behind Scenes - Fav Photos 2024

Behind the Scenes

Taking a look behind the scenes of some of the photo shoots, in the order they were taken....

Behind the Ruby Red Christmas Photos

First the scene of them decorating the gingerbread house. Like usual I set everything up on a box on the kitchen counter. That's so the dolls are at roughly the height that their eyes would be if they were real children, which is important for shooting anything in forced perspective. It was a very dark, miserable day outside, so I needed help from a photography light.

Jan had been baking chocolate cakes that morning for our granddaughter's birthday, so I scraped some of the last batter out of his mixing bowl, and smeared it on the doll size bowls, to represent 'gingerbread'. I also wanted 'icing', so spooned some yogurt onto the edges of the mixer bowl. Then, when the background was clear of 'giants' I took close-up photos of the dolls.

Then for the Christmas Morning scene I posed the dolls in the 'contemporary' Christmas interior on the end of the dining room table...

The posing was extra challenging since I wanted variety in the doll's positions, but even though they are 'articulated', they aren't exactly the best posers, and won't hold many positions.

I had Sara standing, and Bella sitting flat on the ground, both of which were easy poses, but I wanted variety and wanted Alex to be sitting on his knees. He is articulated at the hips and knees, but won't hold a knelling pose on his own, so I took a thick elastic band (the ones that come around our morning paper) to help him hold a kneeling position. He also needed elastics at the wrists so his hands would be pulled close enough together to actually hold something.

Then it was just a matter of hiding the elastics so they didn't show in the photos...

Small Sets

Sometimes, especially when photographing my really small dolls, it's only necessary to set up a small set. Like with Tiana Toad on 'Wear Your Pearls Day'. I just needed a bit of furniture to suggest an opulent room...

Then took close-up photos of Tiana, being careful to pay attention to the reflection in the mirror.

It was the same with my House Elves hanging up their new painting. I didn't feel like setting up their entire house, so just put together the part of their room right beside the fireplace...

Then I'd take close up photos. But with the paintings being behind glass I really had to watch out for reflections from the window behind me, otherwise the paintings would be obscured by glare, like here...

So, to avoid the glare, most of the photos needed to be taken slightly from an angle.

Another Small Corner

I was in the middle of taking Matias and Agnes' family portraits when I had the sudden inspiration to photograph Dominic and Miho in a contemporary setting. I wasn't prepared to take down the entire castle interior since I still needed it, so I just moved the furniture out of the way, replaced the wall hanging, and created a contemporary sitting room at the end by the window.

Then I took close-up photos...

Faking an Art Gallery

I wanted to take a photo for 'Inspire your Heart with Art' day, but I wanted to go the easy route without having to set up an entire scene on the dining room table. Since I have most of my sister's small paintings hanging on the wall in the back hallway, I thought I'd just take advantage of it.

But how to make the dolls stand at the right height, as if they were in an art gallery?
It just took a bit of creative ingenuity, with the dolls balanced on their own, without their stands, on one of my nestling side tables, balanced on the top of a step-ladder.

Then taking the photos close up, and straight on at the doll's eye level...

Faking 'London'

When I was planning on taking photos of Oliver and the Artful Dodger for Charles Dickens Day, I had two options; either set up an entire Victorian scene on my dining room table (which was being used for something else at the time) or find a real life location. The real life location won out because it was easier. So I packed up the two dolls, and we headed over to The Courtyard, which is a Tudor style little plaza in Pickering Village...

But to fake 'old London' I needed to avoid having any of the cars or signs in the background. So we went around to the north side where there's just a sidewalk along a quiet street.

My assistant's hands aren't as steady as they used to be, and he has difficulty holding dolls level for me to photograph anymore - especially when there's two of them - so he constructed a small shelf attached to the end of a hiking stick.

Then he just has to hold the doll's bases steady with his fingers. I hadn't even bothered to change the doll's shoes to something more period appropriate, since they weren't going to show anyways.

Then I took close-up, forced perspective photos, making sure modern things like signs and fire hydrants weren't in the photos.

St. Nicholas at Miho's Castle

After taking photos of St. Nicholas visiting the Royal castle, it was time to change the set to Miho's castle. Which meant switching some of the furniture, all the wall hangings, and the table covering.

There were a lot of dolls, and I do try take a few photos of the entire room with everyone, trying to take al least one with everyone clearly in the photo and not blocked by someone else.

Then I move in to take the closer up photos, to draw attention to the various parts of the scene....

I'll keep getting in closer and closer....

Unfortunately, my castle walls aren't that high - just the height of a sheet of foam core - so whenever there's a wider group of dolls, the photos usually end up with the tops of the walls and the edge of the table showing.

Then it's just a matter of cropping in...

Then finally, with the last of the Christmas dinner photos taken, it was finally time to clean up all the Christmas decorations for another year.

Peanut Butter Cuteness

I always check to see what 'Special Days are coming up in case I feel inspired to take photos for one. I knew I wanted to do Peanut Butter Day, but it wasn't until the last minute that I finally decided on who to feature. The Avery twins and baby dragons! Which meant I needed the 'kitchen' half of the dragon's lair. I still had a castle interior up on the dining room table, still waiting for me to photograph a scene that I'd been wanting to for weeks, so that meant clearing out half the set and piling everything to one side....again....

Then I set up the dragon's kitchen on the other half. I have a binder with print-outs of every room setting, so I know exactly what needs to go into any particular room. I just take the print-out down to the basement and gather all the furniture and props I will need. Then it takes just a few minutes to put everything together in the dining room, and I can add the dolls and dragons.

...and I can start taking photos....

Someone on FB thought I'd actually baked a tiny loaf of bread! LOL I may be a perfectionist, but that would be going too far, even for me. Someone else commented that the bread and peanut butter looked "so real". Well, that's because they were. I wanted white bread, but we don't eat the stuff. Then Jan remembered that there were still some hotdog buns lingering in the downstairs freezer, left over from a family BBQ last summer. So I took one out and started slicing it nice and thin while it was still frozen. Then I spread peanut butter on several to make thensandwiches. I had to be very careful so that the slices of bun didn't come apart in the middle.

Dog Biscuit Appreciation

February 23rd is Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day, so we picked up a couple of dog biscuits at Bulk Barn and headed down to the lake. I set up Holly and all my resin dogs on one of the picnic tables, with everyone facing into the sun...

Then I took close up photos...

the Solar Eclipse

April 8th we were going to experience a total solar eclipse, and I wanted to take photos for my Special Days book. The forecast was for clouds on the actual day, so I decided to take my photos a few days earlier, and I thought the beach would be a good place to view an eclipse, so off we went. I'm getting too old and stiff to be getting down on the ground - unless absolutely necessary - so we brought along our projector stand to pose the dolls on. I don't normally like taking doll photos in full sun because of the possibility of harsh shadows, but taking photos earlier or later in the day when the sun is not high overhead, and then having all the dolls looking into the sun helps minimize the shadows....

I sprinkled some of the fine beach gravel on the stand to help hide it in the photos, and made sure everyone was looking in the exact same direction, before taking close up photos....

We had taken a white umbrella along to shade the dolls from the sun when I wasn't taking photos of them...

Taking photos...

Behind the Scenes at Home

The castle interior was set up on the dining room table, but I needed to photograph several Special Days photos, and most needed just a small set-up at one end of the table.
Like the sleeping babies in their bed, for World Sleep Day...

I was in the process of taking several completely different scenes, so there was quite a mess piled on the other end of the table. But no one would ever notice since all the photos I needed were close-ups

Then the wall and furniture was switched for the National Quilt Day photos.

Again for just a small scene at the window end of the table...

My work space was also a huge mess with several projects on the go all at the same time...

Bonnie was changed into her paint smock to be photographed for the Art book, I was in the process of making tiny baby elf wigs, and clothes for the Myou twins, as well as a Victorian outfit for Baron.

But my work space is constantly changing. A few weeks later and there's an entirely new group, with Matias patiently waiting for one last photo shoot before he gets changed into his casual outfit, and all the little girls that I'd been making lace party dresses for. There was just one green BID dress left to finish, and then I'd be done and could move on....