Behind the Scenes
Taking a look at the 'magic' behind my doll photo scenes...
Forest Dweller Christmas
When we were working on turning the Forest Dweller Christmas story into a book, it became clear that it needed a few more scenes towards the end of the book. So I had to set up the entire set from three years ago again. Thankfully I always take photos of my sets just in case I ever need to duplicate them again. This was the original set....
Back then I'd used two different room settings - the one above plus a separate dining room - but I just needed the one with the kitchen and the music corner on the far right. So I set the entire thing back up, making sure every detail was exactly the same - and took the photos of the menfolk cleaning up the kitchen...
...and washing the dishes...
Another additional scene for the book was with everyone relaxing in the 'music room' at the far right corner of the set...
I took a lot of photos...
By that time the kitchen part of the set was a major disaster area with props and furniture from the previous two scenes just piled in there out of the way....
Gingerbread Houses
One of our daughters-in-law has a birthday at the very end of November, and she enjoys doing something together, so we all got together at our house to bake and decorate little gingerbread houses. These were the two I made....along with a little gingerbread tree....
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Jan made a little church and lighthouse but didn't feel like decorating them. They all spent the Christmas season on display at the end of our kitchen table - although by the time of the photo below Jan had already eaten his church....
Anyways, every time we make the tiny gingerbread houses together, I'm always inspired to use them in doll photos. And since the dining room table was already occupied with a Medieval castle interior, I set up a little scene for my Forest Dwellers on the end of the kitchen table. I used both trees from the castle in the other room, plus two pieces of furniture to fill in the spaces and hide my kitchen in the background.
Then it becomes a matter of getting down low enough to take the photos straight at the little critters' eye level....
...and take lots of close ups....
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Tiny Mouse Portraits
Ever since I shot the additional scenes for my Forest Dweller Christmas book, I've been inspired to photograph my little mice in tiny scenes of their own. Now, I'm used to taking doll photos in huge scenes covering my entire dining room table, but my mice are just 10 cm tall, so they need a totally different approach. I need a close crop scene with a blurry background, and that requires a totally different kind of set up.
The first scene I remembered to take 'behind the scene shots' for was Muffy reading in bed with Christmas tree lights in the background. It's easier for me to take the photos if my subject is raised, so I set up the scene on two of my prop boxes....
The first scene I remembered to take 'behind the scene shots' for was Muffy reading in bed with Christmas tree lights in the background. It's easier for me to take the photos if my subject is raised, so I set up the scene on two of my prop boxes....
I used the base of a clock for her 'headboard', and the edge of my Storyteller's coat as her quilt...
Then I added the props and took the photos very close up....
For Mannie reading at the window I was inspired by an empty box of matches. I use a lot of matches constantly lighting up the candles in my Medieval scenes, and then blowing them out again, and I'd finished an entire box of matches. Before throwing it into recycle I thought to use it as a mouse bed. So I set up a scene by the window, raised on a box and some books so the bed would be the right height.
Then I took the close up photos...
For the Bubble Bath Day photos I did something similar, but because I was planning on using real soap bubbles I needed something more water resistant than one of my cardboard prop boxes. I didn't want to risk using the big Medieval table either, so I found a different table where it wouldn't matter as much. It wasn't quite wide enough for the entire scene, but fortunately I had another small table the same height.
Now, the mouse can't actually be submerged in real foam, so her 'bath bubbles' are made using tiny bubble wrap and clear beads. Then I whisked up some water with dish washing liquid and dropped it strategically over the outside of the cup and saucer, and took my photos....
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