Monthly Featured Photographer - June 2013

(See full photo shoot below.)

This month, our Featured Photographer, specialzes in plush dolls.  His work has been well received by the Teddy Babe Community and he has done  this sphotography and digital imagery especially for CoverDoll viewers to enjoy.

About the Photographer

For this series of doll photos, Zang is directly inspired by the stylistic art of 1980s photographer Patrick Nagel, who is best known for imagery of young women models, rendered largely in crisp black-and-white with some areas of flat color. Nagel's work was perhaps most popularized as the cover art for rock group Duran Duran's hit album 'Rio' (1982).

Zang has a background in art and design, stretching all the way back to high school. In 2003, he bought his first digital camera, a 2-megapixel Kodak point-and-shoot model. Later, in 2008, he acquired Jayna, his "Jessica"-model Teddy Babe, and in the following year, bought a newer 10-megapixel Kodak. He sometimes uses a tripod, but more often doesn't, especially when attempting unusual angles. While a nicer camera isn't really needed when the subject is already "soft and fuzzy", a camera from Canon or Nikon is still on his to-buy list.

Right from the start, Jayna has been a great and prolific model, with photos shown at The Doll Forum, The Teddy Babe Chronicles, The UK Love Doll Forum, and here at CoverDoll, where one photo of her won top prize in a contest held in 2009. One "secret of success" Zang uses is to pose her more like a woman and less like a doll -- in other words, having her head tilted and turned, arms, hands, and legs bent at the right places, hair nicely brushed (more or less) -- so that she looks a little more "alive" at first glance.

Most of the time, photos of Jayna are retouched in Photoshop in order to slightly adjust factors like brightness and color saturation, and to remove the occasional "fleck". For this series, a variety of photos in different outfits, poses, and locations were taken first, and then each one was "painted over" by using the various color, brush, line, and fill tools in Photoshop. The trickiest areas involved detailing the hair and eyes; it's a lot of tedious work, but the effect is worthwhile. The overall result is a visually sharp, and fairly unique twist to doll photography.

Thanks, Zang for sharing this creative digital imagery.

- Midiman

Note from the Editor: Each month we will feature a
different photographer's work. We invite doll owners and manufacturers
alike to participate in this new monthly feature. Photo shoots must meet
a minimum quality level. If you do not meet that level we are happy to
work with you, critique your photos and help you to raise the bar on
your photography. Good photo shoots can be had with low cost digital
cameras. It is all in the technique.

Submit your inquiries and sample entry photos to featuredphotographer@coverdoll.com