I was looking for an interesting building that could pass for a 'Victorian Hotel', and thought Parkwood Estate in downtown Oshawa would be perfect. It was the home of R.S. McLaughlin, Canadian auto baron and founder of General Motors of Canada. The 15,000 square foot, 55-room mansion was built between 1915 and 1917 in the Beaux-Arts style. It is a National Historic Site, and all the art, architecture, gardens, landscaping and original furnishings are all faithfully preserved. It is a very popular site for filming, and professional wedding photography. The grounds are free to the public, but there's a fee for tours inside the mansion.
These photos were taken several years ago on a previous visit in the fall, when the gardens were full of flowers...
We took a chance and headed over in the middle of the week, on a cool day in spring, hoping there wouldn't be any filming going on, as the place would have been closed to the public. As luck would have it, it had been closed the previous week for filming, but there was no one there that day. The only people around were the staff planting the annuals in the gardens, and the security guard, who came over to check to see if we had permission if we were doing commercial photography. After all, we did have quite a lot of stuff with us. But we explained we were just doing some doll photography, and he said that was fine. Then he started to tell us all about, and point out, the special trees planted throughout the property, and about the movies and TV shows filmed there recently.
With all the stairs and railings, there's all kinds of places to stand dolls on for some photos...
Cleaning up after posing the dolls on the top of a railing...
Forced perspective, taken at the doll's eye level...
Same spot, but with dolls moved and photographed in the other direction...
We'd brought some horses along, and I had to get down on the grass to take the photos, and then ask Jan to make any adjustments...
A photo, taking care not to include the blue garbage bin in the background....
The final wine and dessert scene was set up on the top of the stairs railing down to the formal gardens.
A photo taken straight on at the doll's level....
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