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Playing with Fire

8/9/2017

 
I'm sure after my last post, many people were aghast that I would use real flames so close
to my dolls.  So I thought some 'behind the scenes' photos and explanations were in order.

First of all, I would never risking damaging my dolls, or causing some kind of out of control inferno. I carefully selected the doll's campsite to be on a huge flat spanse of granite - and swept off any debris that could possibly catch fire. Jan built the campfire out of stones he'd gathered from the gravel campground roads (and washed) and built the campfire using bits of birch bark and fallen branches.  I positioned my dolls around it in a wide semi-circle, so that they'd all be about a foot from the actual fire.  Then I got down flat on the rock with my camera....
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Once I was down, I was too far back to reach anything to fix anything, and theres no way I was getting up again until I was done, so Jan had to adjust anyone's direction of gaze. Then I set my camera on 'multiple' consecutive shots to hopefully catch a nice set of flames, as such a small fire tends to burn out very fast.        And we were ready.   Jan lit the fire......and I started to shoot....

​The light breeze from the lake blew the flames to the right......and then to the left.....
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Or, the breeze died and poor Ringo was totally obscured by the smoke....many times...
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 ​The tiny fire would burn out rather quickly, so Jan rebuilt it several times.
​Several photos had flames that were way too big and out of scale to look believable....
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And poor Ringo looked like he was about to be totally consumed by the fire....
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In the end, I had 16 photos to work with, and chose one with a nice trail of smoke to one side,
​and Photoshopped some extra flames from other photos in in order to make a nice campfire, which was a simple enough thing to do, since all the photos started out the exact same size....
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On hindsight, it might have been nice to have changed some of the doll's poses, but the
main focus on this series was to get a decent-looking campfire, and since there would likely
by Photoshop involved afterwards, all the photos I took needed to be as identical as possible.  
Plus with an open flame, that had to be the main focus of our attention.

The dolls did smell a little 'smoky' like a campfire, when we first cleaned up the scene, 
​but the smell had completely dissipated a few hours later.

Roasting Marshmallows

8/8/2017

 
Meanwhile, back in Kilarney, the kids had built a fire and were busy roasting marshmallows....
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More Ducky Fun

8/7/2017

 
Knowing the Big Duck would be in Amherst this past weekend, I just had to take Elin along.  
She just LOVES yellow duckies, and she even had a duckie themed birthday cake.....  
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So we took Elin, and Holly too.  It was nice that when we arrived to see the World's Biggest
Rubber Duck, it was quite early in the morning, so there were no crowds. It's also nice our
son-in-law actually encourages me taking doll photos, so at least I wasn't feeling embarrassed doing it in front of family - because taking doll photos in front of strangers is hard enough,
​but in front of family it's WAY too intimidating. 


​Elin and Holly had brought their own little yellow duckies along...
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They each posed individually with the big duck....
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A sneaky son-in-law captured Jan and I at work....
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Family suggested I take pictures with the big Baby Duck too.
Emily was very interested, wondering what Grandpa was doing....
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The two little dolls were about the comparative scale of Emily with the big Mama Duck...
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Personally, I preferred to take close ups...
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Just wish the pictures weren't posting so gray-ish.

​All in all, Holly and Elin were pretty proud of themselves. After all, how many
​little girls get to be photographed with the World's Biggest Rubber Duck??

More Fun in Amherstburg

8/7/2017

 
A few more photos of a fun Sunday morning, celebrating Canada's 150th birthday, in Amherstburg..
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And to top off a totally fun weekend, Grandpa made a tire swing for Elliot and Emily...
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World's Biggest Rubber Duck

8/7/2017

 
Early next morning, right after breakfast, we headed down to Amherstburg again. The crowds had not yet started to arrive so there were plenty of parking places.  And the big duck was inflated!!
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The big duck is a 'Mama' and her baby was also there - inflated and secured in the park....
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A kiss for Baby Duck....
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But the BIG attraction was the Mama Duck....
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Fort Malden

8/7/2017

 
This past weekend - which was the Simcoe Day, Civic Holiday weekend - we went to visit our daughter near Windsor.  And as luck would have it, the World's Biggest Rubber Duck was going to make a showing in the small, historic town of Amherstburg, just south of them, on the Detroit River.

Unfortunately on the Saturday, it was way too windy, so the duck was never inflated, and we went to see a battle reenactment at Fort Malden, which was also part of their weekend festivities....
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Emily checked out the British encampment....
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Brady & Elliot met the soldiers....
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First a little music.....
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Then the enemy Americans arrived.....
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..and the battle began....
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Emily loved all the cannon and gunfire, but Elliot didn't much like all the noise....
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In the end, the British were victorious....and defeated the Americans...
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Behind the Scene

8/4/2017

 
And another photo of my photography assistant, making some final adjustments.....
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Boating

8/4/2017

 
One lovely morning, we took the kids and some boats to the pools near the lighthouse.
Paige saw the girls struggling with the sailboat.... 
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....and thought she better go and help...
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Aaron decided he was too big for either boat....
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So just sat on the rocks and watched....
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Nami and Ringo wanted to try the rowboat....
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But they couldn't coordinate their paddling, so they didn't go anywhere....
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...until out of frustration, the boat tipped a little, and they both went over the side head first. And I was too busy rescuing them to take pictures. Fortunately just their wigs got wet, but the water dripped onto their clothes and wet those too, and it certainly wasn't the cleanest water, so both dolls needed a good wash, and their wigs shampooed, and their clothes laundered.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. But seriously, what's a camping trip without going for a swim??

the Outhouse

8/4/2017

 
With wilderness camping, comes the inevitable outhouse.

​'Wow, two whole rolls of toilet paper!  You must have some serious business to take care of."
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"Hey, where are you going??"     "I'm going to find another outhouse!"
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"Don't be like that. I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything.
​If you lend me one of your rolls I'll let you go ahead of me."
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So Ringo handed him one of his rolls, and did his business, then headed back to camp.....
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For Ringo, the worst part about camping was doing without a proper washroom....
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Off to New Homes

8/4/2017

 
Two of my old art dolls went off to new homes yesterday.

​The Marquis was the last of my attempts at making a sculpted doll all by myself, after my sister decided she no longer enjoyed sculpting dolls. But I decided that even though his costume was great, I just couldn't sculpt a realistic guy to my own satisfaction. And to be honest, I didn't feel like practicing at it for who knows how long, until I was better at it, as I much preferred costuming.
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Short John Silver also left.  He was a fun character from a series of smaller OOAK caricature and gnome dolls that both my sister and I made during a period when our regular dolls were not selling well, and we were looking for fresh inspiration. We both sculpted our own figures and I dressed and finished them all. They were much more fun to make - even the sculpting - but there was no market for them at all, so I still have most of the ones I made.
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    Author

    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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