Blog Archives

Faded Flowers

6/6/2024

This will be my last post for a little while, as I won't have access to social media for a while, so I thought I'd leave you with something adorable....

I received a beautiful flower arrangement for Mother's Day....

I love the formal arrangements and always try take photos while the flowers are still reasonably fresh....

The roses never last very long and are always the first to go, but the other flowers in the arrangement can often last for two weeks or more. By then the entire arrangement is ready to go onto the compost pile. And then the fun really begins. I take the faded flowers outside and cut them up for photos with my dolls....

Most years I've photographed the faded flowers with fairies, but this time I chose my two baby elves, and their two little friends, the little girl dragons...

So, I'm leaving you with this big smile, and for all you fans out there who come here every day to check out my daily Blog posts, you can always get your daily fix in my Favourite Photos albums for the next little while instead. There's fourteen years worth of photos and stories there that you can revisit, and enjoy!

Cookie Thieves

6/6/2024

Scorch and Elliot love chocolate chip cookies, and decided to help themselves to Jan's stash....

"That's all of them."

Taking Photos in the Woods

6/5/2024

There's a trail through the woods down by the lake, which has become my go-to spot for taking doll photos that need to be photographed in the woods. Like the scene with Matias and the Owl. My creaky old bones don't much like getting down on the ground anymore - unless absolutely necessary - so I've gotten into the habit of taking along our old slide projector stand. Then I set my characters up on it....

....and cover the top of the stand with gravel and leaves to blend into the background...

I had wanted Matias to hold the Owl aloft, like it was coming in for a landing, but the owl was rather heavy, and as much as Matias may look like a tough, 'strong' knight, his arms aren't going to hold anything high up in the air. So I cut a piece of coat-hanger wire to support the Owl, and tied Matias' hand to it....to hold it up...

Of course, then I have to get rid of the wire using Photoshop. In every single photo.

A week or so later, we went back again to take the photos of Agnes reading to Mika and the little dragons. This time the scene had to be set up on the ground, which meant laying down on a tarp to take the photos....

Once Upon a Time

6/4/2024

Mika and her little dragon friends loved it when her mother would read them stories....

Mika & Nuri

6/3/2024

I was inspired to take a series of photos of the two babies as if they were posing for a portrait in a professional photo studio...

Creating a Chess Tournament

6/2/2024

it was early February, just before our youngest grandson's tenth birthday. We asked what he might like as a gift, and our daughter suggested a chess set, since he was a member of the school chess club. Well, Jan had a beautiful, vintage set from way back when he was young, and decided it would make the perfect gift for a young chess enthusiast.

I had always loved that chess set, with it's beautiful Renaissance-inspired Chess men...

I had used it once before, for a Special Days photo for 'National Chess Day' on October 9th, years ago back in 2013...

So, with the chess set moving on, it would be my final chance to use it in doll photos, so I thought holding a 'chess tournament' would be the way to feature it and give it justice one last time. So I set up Baron and Naomi's apartment...

...and some of the dolls started arriving...

Then over a period of just two days, I shot over 150 photos. I'd set up a scene and pose everyone, take some photos, then change everyone again.

I don't know much about chess, other than what direction the pieces can move, and I figured that if I just placed the chessmen haphazard on the board there would probably be people out there who would notice that the pieces in my photos weren't set up properly. So, wanting to be as accurate as possible, I googled 'checkmate set-ups', and printed out a page with different checkmate scenarios. Then for each new game I'd place the chessmen into the positions on my print-out.

My favourite photos for telling a story are always the close-ups,

..but for true realism it's always very important to have everyone in the background posed like they are engaged with what's happening in the foreground.

The very next day after having shot the entire story, it was our grandson's birthday and we presented him with the chess set, and he immediately challenged Grandpa to a game..