The third in a series of stories I drew for my little sister way back when I was a teen.
At the BeachI like taking photos down by the lake, but it has to be either in the morning or on an overcast day. It's because I can't take photos facing east because there's a big nuclear plant at the far end of the beach, which would be totally inappropriate in the background of some 'Medieval' scene. So that means I have to shoot towards the west, but it has to be before noon or it would mean shooting into the sun, and then the dolls would just be dark silhouettes against a bright background. So, a bright overcast morning is always best, because then there's soft filtered light without any harsh shadows. Like in the scenes of Baron and Naomi's family holiday at the beach. I set up the scene, and then went to lay down on a tarp on the sand a few metres away, so I'd be down at the doll's eye level, and then I'd direct Jan to make any small adjustments if needed...  Then I'd zoom in to take the photos....  Iris' New DressI wanted to take series of photos of Iris making herself a new dress for her baby's first birthday, so set up the Victorian interior on the dining room table....   When taking photos with the dining room table pushed into the bay window, the light is brightest close to the window, and the scene will often need some extra light further in the 'room' away from the window. I'll often use a photography light, but the easiest, way to add the most natural light is to position the foil-covered board to bounce light from the window back onto the subject.    Then there's soft natural light coming from both directions without any harsh shadows. But again, the photos need to be taken before noon on a sunny day, before the sun starts to come in the window, like in these two photos, where it was already shining on the train of the dress, making it a bit over-exposed.  One of the most important aspects of doll photography is the lighting. When I take photos outside my patio, I have to take the photos facing the south, which means the dolls are facing away from the light. So I use an art board covered with aluminum foil to bounce the light from the open sky behind them onto the dolls. It's important not to have it too close otherwise it will reflect too bright a light onto them.  When taking photos inside, my favourite lighting is when I have the dining room table pushed into the bay window, which faces west. The best photos are taken on a sunny morning before the sun rises high enough in the sky to come through the window, but after the sun is high enough to hit the exterior south-facing wall of the kitchen, and bounce light into the dining room through the window. But my prop window unit is not that wide, so the light gets bounced not only through the window itself, but also behind it, adding more light to the subjects, which would otherwise be back-lit and mere silhouettes against the bright window..   The final set of photos of my group in their evening wear...      ..and just the group from SartoriaJ  Decided to take some photos with ladies wearing all four of the new ballgowns together. However I only have two tuxedos, so only two of the ladies were accompanied by their partners....     
   I also made two ball gowns out of a sparkly pink dance skirt I found at Value Village...     Bianca joined Sarah out on the terrace....   Last month I busied myself making some more ball gowns for my Fashion size ladies. I had two peacock print satin capes I'd picked up at Value Village at Halloween a few years ago. I had always planned to make doll dresses out of them, and now was that time. I used the same new Elf Gown Pattern I've been using all year, and chose Bianca and Agnes to be my models....  Matias agreed to squeeze into one of the tuxedos, to accompany his beautiful wife.... 
   Rex and Bianca   I had given my sister free reign to do what she wanted with the Trip Journal, but it needed a few extra photos taken for the very end. And we thought it would be nice to end with a photo of Lonnie actually working on a mini version of it in her bedroom. So I had to set one up.  The room needed 'posters' so I printed out a photo of a Doodle Art my sister had recently finished, as well as one of the pictures from my Olde Fairy tale book....
I needed miniatures of the many maps and brochures used in the book, so photographed a lot of them. These are just a few....
I printed them all 1/4 scale and folded them into brochures and books. I also printed out several of the actual trip photos, including the ones on the page from the book she'd be working. I chose a page with a cut out totem pole, so I could have her cutting it out.  I took all kinds of photos of her working on her scrapbook, and in the end this was the photo that was used on the last page in the book....  It took Lonnie a while to finish the scrapbook about her family's trip across the country, but she was finally done...  Some of the pages ....starting with a few interesting stops in Northern Ontario  Then the days travelling across endless Manitoba and Saskatchewan....  ...finally crossing the wheat fields in Alberta, and arriving at the mountains....  Several pages later they are in Victoria, on Vancouver Island....  ...and at Pacific Rim National Park...   Back on the mainland, a trip to Whistler included gondola rides to the top of the mountain, and another on the Peak to Peak gondola to Blackcomb....  Then several days later, starting the trip back east through interior British Columbia along the Fraser and Thompson River Canyons...  to Jasper National Park...  Then after exploring Jasper and Banff, another long drive across the Prairies to get back to Ontario....  Where the autumn colours were at peak...   Then finally getting back home after their four week trip....  Lonnie's book was a labour of love, with over 250 photos of their (and our) trip across Canada to the Pacific and back, and I can't wait to see it in print.
*To revisit the entire trip back in 2015 - Trip to the Pacific |
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
March 2026
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