the Garage Sale

Today is the last in this week's series of Behind the Scenes posts. 

​I keep a list of interesting Special Days that I might want to do a photo shoot for, and I really wanted to do the garage sale. I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I like a challenge.

​For anything that complex I always do a preliminary set up inside on the kitchen table before bringing everything outside.  So the first thing was to gather all the sales tables and larger props that would be up for sale. Then I piled on all the 'old' toys, books and glassware.  

I took a photo and printed it out so I'd know how to set it all up again outside, then emptied the contents of each table onto a separate tray to help keep everything organized.

I set everything up again on the patio picnic table, then started placing all the dolls into the scene. First the adults...

Then after the children were positioned I started taking photos.
The whole secret of forced perspective is to take the photos straight on at the doll's eye level.

Then I walked around taking close ups...

And in order to get the feel of all the stuff for sale I took some photos from a higher angle..

I didn't think of taking a wider behind the scenes shot until after all the children had already left, and we were in the process of cleaning everything up...

Then it took me a while to put everything back into storage where it belonged, so I know exactly where to find it next time I need it.