Behind the Drako Story

In September on a trip to Value Village I noticed a huge dragon skull in their Halloween props section. I immediately had several ideas for doll photos that could be taken with it, so bought it.

A story was slowly starting to take shape in my mind and these two guys, both had roles to play in it, so they were standing together in my workspace. Matias who is a SartoriaJ 51ATH guy was being changed into his knight outfit and still needed his leg armour, and Owen who is an Iplehouse JID, was waiting for me to make him a 'safari' vest. The contrast between the two of them couldn't have been greater, and I was amused thinking of what the two of them could possibly be thinking, so just had to take a photo.

Scenes with Matias, and Winston's Family

I had been considering where to shoot the story. Where would such a huge skull be discovered?  I did look around the construction sites to the north of us to see if there would be anything suitable there. But in the end I decided it would be a lot easier down on the beach. It's just a five to ten minute drive to the shore of Lake Ontario, and it likely wouldn't be too busy there in October.

I had to plan which scenes I could take the dolls for at the same time, since we'd have to carry everything form the parking lot to the beach in one trip. It also had to be the right kind of weather. The best would be first thing in the morning with a mix of cloud and sun. So I kept an eye on the weather forecast for our very first trip to the beach, and I prepared Matias and Winston. I'd stitched strings onto Winston so he could be suspended from a long pole like he was flying. On the morning of October 23rd, the sky seemed perfect, so we packed everything into the car and headed to the beach.
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When we got there I posed Matias on his horse, and went to lie down on the tarp on the sand, as the best, most realistic doll photos need to be taken down at the doll's eye level. Then I directed Jan to suspend Winston where I wanted him, and took the photos.
​The strings were clearly visible against the dark sky in this photo....

The strings were not quite so visible in this photo...

However, they still needed to be removed in Photoshop, and because I was pretty much immobile while laying on the sand, I needed to crop the photos to get the close ups I needed for the story...

For the second set of photos to be taken that same morning, I had brought along Winston's entire family. I set them up around the skull and laid down on the tarp on the sand, and asked Jan to make any adjustments...

Again, the photos need to be taken very low down at the dragon's eye level...

the King & His Men

Two days later on October 25th, we went to the beach again. That time we took Winston with Willie and the Wizard, shot a scene with them, and then a second scene with the Saphira and the House Elves. I didn't take any behind the scenes shots that day. The next day on October 26th, we took Lawrence's family down to the beach, but I also didn't take any behind the scenes shots then either.

Several days later, on October 30th the skies were way too sunny in the morning, but in early afternoon it turned to hazy sun and I decided to go to the beach and give it a try. We'd packed up everything needed for the photos with Lawrence and the knights, as well as everything for the palaeontologist scene, planning on taking everything we needed for one scene first, then bringing it all back to the car and taking everything for the second scene.

With the sun in the west now, the scene had to be shot in the other direction, which was a good thing since there was also a very strong wind blowing from the west. The men's cloaks billowed in the wind, and their hair was blown back out of their faces...

I decided it was way too windy to take the palaeontologist photos, so we just went home.

the Paleontologists

The next morning, October 31st, the sky looked promising, so we took the paleontologists to the beach again. I set up the scene, and got down on the tarp to take the photos...

Again, the photos were taken down at the doll's eye level...

the Victorians

The final big group to be photographed down at the beach was the Victorian scene. It was going to be the most elaborate of all the set ups on the beach, with eleven dolls and all kinds of extra props.  Whenever there's going to be such a complicated scene I find it best to practice the set up at home so I know exactly what I want to do once I'm actually at the beach. ​

 I made the string with little flags to go around the skull, and wrapped it in tissue paper so it wouldn't get all tangled up. Then I wired lots of little balloons. I wasn't sure about final placement since my table is flat and the beach has a major slope, but at least it would help give me some idea of what I wanted the scene to look like.

Then after several rainy days, the skies finally cleared on November 5th. We went to the beach a little later that day since I wanted to take the photo towards the east this time (for variety) and I needed the sun to be in the right position. ​When we got to the beach I set up all the dolls while Jan secured the tent pegs...

Every time we went to the beach I needed to have everything packed in such a way that we'd only need to make one trip from the car to the beach. So I came up with the idea to use my double horse carrier bag, and inserted most of the larger doll boxes vertically into the horse boxes. The two smallest boxes went into another bag along with the skull.  Most of the boxes held more than one doll.

Like usual I took the photos while laying on the tarp on the sand.

I really had to pay attention to the background. One of the main reasons I rarely take doll photos in this direction is because of the nuclear plant at the far end of the beach, along with all the high tension hydro towers along the horizon. But some of the best angles of the Victorian scene would have them in it. Along with some airplane vapour trails....

So I had to remove them in Photoshop....

While cleaning up, some people came walking along the beach towards us. Even though there were hardly any people out on these cold mornings, there would often be a person or two who would stop to see what we were doing, and we'd just say we were taking photos for a children's book, and they thought that was so interesting....

the Museum

The final scenes for the story would take place in a museum, so I had to come up with some kind of believable set. I wanted plain white walls, so had to go buy several sheets of white foam core. I had been picking up the biggest dinosaur toys I could find at Value Village. They were not nearly big enough to pass for a realistic scaled dinosaur, but would have to do as part of a 'dinosaur diorama'. 

​We laid down a wooden floor over the table cloth, and I proceeded to create a museum set. The dinosaurs all needed some kind of elevated display, so I set about making them out of white bristol board...

I created two dioramas....

...and added some suitable background photos, and all the identifying signs. ​

And I was ready to start taking the photos....

With the walls being only so high, and there not being any ceiling, I had to take the photos with the smaller skeleton from above.

More Photos

When I started to put the story together, it seemed to me that the scene with Willie and the Wizard seemed too 'boring'. It had been one of the first scenes I photographed, and since I was stuck on the ground it was too difficult to get up and change the posing....

Then I got the idea that it would be the perfect spot to include Winston and Saphira's origin stories. But I was going to need close ups of Winston, Willie and the Wizard talking. I hadn't even thought of it back when I took the first set of photos of them at the beach, so would have to go again and take them.  I was hoping for a similar day, but it wasn't happening, so November 19th we braved the cold and wind and went to the beach again, for the seventh time. It was too cold to even consider laying down on the sand, so we had brought our projector stand. We set it up on the beach, and covered the top surface with sand, and I positioned the skull, and the three characters. I hadn't brought the Wizard's horse as there would not have been room for him on the stand.  Then I walked around taking close up photos my characters....

After taking the photos at the beach, we went to the nearby woods to take some photos of Miho finding Winston's egg...

Then I finally had all the photos I needed so I could finally start posting the story.
To revisit the story - 'Drako'