Monthly Featured Photographer - July 2015

I'm a relatively new doll owner, having only seriously started entertaining the idea earlier this year. About a month after joining TDF I had ordered Paulina, a Doll Sweet DS160+ –and the usual waiting game began! Luckily DS turns orders around pretty quickly, and exactly a month to the day after order she had arrived. I barely knew what to expect, and the experience has exceeded all those half-formed expectations wildly!

Photo sets are my favorite activity with Paulina (yes, even more than that). I'm still getting the hang of the process, it's in some ways easier and harder than working with human subjects. Easier in that I can stop half-way through to take a break and no one is delayed; harder in that I have to play model and photographer. That means worrying about things like balance (don't want her to fall over!), suspension hacks, eye position in addition to hair, makeup, wardrobe, lighting, posing, and everything else that goes into making a photo.

This set was the result of a great chair find on Craigslist, as well as a nice book of Varga pin-ups I've had for years. Most of the wardrobe I had on hand, though the kimono recently arrived courtesy of another TDF member (great timing on that sale!). The lingerie is all Curvy Kate, size 28F on the bra and size 8 for the panties / garter.

I thought the progression of Paulina browsing the book, then deciding to try out some of the poses would be fun. I shoot everything with a Canon 6D digital SLR, and almost everything with the Canon 25-105L lens. I have two Alien Bees 400 strobe units and an Alien Bees ringflash, as well as a couple of softboxes, octoboxes, reflectors and other gizmos. All photo processing is done in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop; I generally keep the image manipulation pretty light. For this set I did minor exposure corrections, as well as some vignetting and seam removal.

I had a blast shooting this set, and hope everyone likes it! As a brand new doll owner, I was really flattered to be asked to participate in Coverdoll. I hope I will be back with more sets! In the meantime, Paulina's galleries are always available at her TDF Doll Album.

Thanks!
cider