Seaside Vacation

In preparation for their trip to the seaside, I wanted to make a set of Victorian style swimwear for the children. I started by making two for Nyssa and cousin Holly, and two for Eric and his cousin Coco. Then I thought baby Sena could use one too.  Then why stop there? So I made some for Lisa, iris and Steve as well. In fact I made two sets for Steve, since the first set was made from the same fabric as the boys and I decided he needed something different.  I didn't feel like stripping down Iris or Lisa when making their swimsuits, so Leona and Lonnie offered to be models in their place.

I know inflatable beach toys are not era appropriate, but it's ultimately a time travel story, and cousins Holly and Coco (who are from modern times) were going with Iris and Steve's family, and they brought their own favourite beach toys along. Well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

I had originally wanted to photograph their vacation on a trip up north, but after that got cancelled, I was stuck with the beach down at the lake.  I'd wanted to have taken the photos before July before the schools were out for the summer, but things being what they were, it was the final weekend of June and it was supposed to be a scorcher. Well, I really wanted to get the photos taken and done with, so I got everything ready, and we went down to the lake for three mornings in a row, all before 9am, while the sun was shining in the right direction, and before the beach crowds arrived. 
Day one, early on a Saturday morning, and I set up a scene on the beach....

One of the photos...taken straight on at the doll's eye level...

We did go back to the beach again that evening, but it was packed, with no parking spots, and way too many people, so we just left, only to return again early the next day on Sunday morning. I started with Iris in her bathing suit...

Then I set up the family picnic.

I took the photos from a lower angle, so the background looked more like an overgrown sand dune. It was getting very hot, so we called it a day, packed up and left.

We did go back again that evening, but it was even more crowded than the day before. It was getting hotter and more humid every day, and Monday was supposed to break records, but we went again early that morning. I started by setting up the sand castle scene, and then people started arriving at the beach. There was a grandmother with a toddler right by that tree, and another family throwing stones in the water a little further down the beach from us, and I had to take the photos so they'd all be hidden behind the tent...

I photographed the sandcastle, beach combing, and the family walking in the water scenes that morning. But it was so hot that I totally forgot to take behind the scenes photos,

* to revisit all the behind the scenes from the new Victorian Family series
​- Behind Victorian Scenes