davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2024

[Alliecat]

Ha ha – grumpy soldier amid the bright flowers is a funny photo. Although when I zoom in he actually looks a little sad.

I haven’t seen that stuff about Flickr. Just some banner on the top of the page that said something about “1%” something or other… I didn’t bother looking.

[davidd]

Although when I zoom in he actually looks a little sad.

That's probably the result of his allergies.

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11 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Doll Boots

[Alliecat]

Rather ominous. Is someone in a body bag??

[davidd]

Rather ominous.  Is someone in a body bag??  

If a Zip-Loc storage bag counts as a body bag, then yes.

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12 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Sword Guy

[Alliecat]

Also rather ominous
Nicely done "atmosphere".

[davidd]

Nicely done "atmosphere".

Keep it dark, that's my photographic strategy!    
I actually used the DSLR for this pic, and for a series of similar images to illustrate a photo story.

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13 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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See the pirates who tied them up here:

https://flickr.com/photos/puuikibeach/al...317094874/

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[Alliecat]

Really nice staging and posing and use of depth of field in all these. Looks like a lot of work. It must be fun to do collaborative stories though.

[davidd]

Really nice staging and posing and use of depth of field in all these. Looks like a lot of work. It must be fun to do collaborative stories though.

I used the DSLR camera for the first time in ages for the story photos. It was interesting adjusting ex-posure compensation and f/stop to adjust depth of field, shadows, and hand-holdability (I was too lazy to fish out the tripod).

The collaborative stories can be fun. They can also be frustrating when somebody goes off in a direction that they think is awesome but is actually boring or stupid. Of course, that person could be me. My stories are receiving less "reader response" than at any time in my nearly two decades on Flickr and my several years on various forums. It's a good thing I do the stories mostly for my own amusement because apparently nobody else is amused or even interested.

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14 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Pullip Steampunk Zappa Doll

[Alliecat]

Very vintage. My eyes are playing tricks as to what is the wispy thing in front of her. It looks like a puff of steam... from some engine mechanism in her dirigible maybe?

Yay for getting out the DSLR. I did OK with my little point-&-shoot for quite a while, but oh boy, having all that control back when I got the Kx was great.

I remember doing a collaborative story with a penpal once. Each letter included a chapter. I don't remember the story at all, but I think each of us probably skewed the story for our own enjoyable direction because we each wanted to end up with the hero

[davidd]

My eyes are playing tricks as to what is the wispy thing in front of her.  It looks like a puff of steam... from some engine mechanism in her dirigible maybe?

When I "processed" the photo (converted to B&W), I didn't know for sure what that "wispy thing" was, either. I decided it was probably a ghost.

Then my curiosity got the better of me and I went back to look at the set-up. I couldn't tell for sure what it was until I looked at the set-up a couple of times and zoomed in on the photo. The "wispy thing" is a piece of string catching the light.

Or, more specifically, jute cord used as trim on a doll-scale chair. You can see the entire scene in the photo I'm posting today. The corner of the back of the chair in front of the Pullip doll caught the light from a single flashlight shining up in to the doll's face from a low angle.

A ghost would have been more interesting, but nope, it's just light glancing off a piece of string.

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15 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Random Doll Assortment for A Doll A Day

[Alliecat]

Hah.  Sadly, that's the way it often goes... the wondrous things we'd like to see end up having mundane ex-planations.  It was a fun atmospheric photo anyway.

[davidd]

... the wondrous things we'd like to see end up having mundane ex-planations. 

It took me a bit of examination and cogitation to figure out what had happened.

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16 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Forty Years of Unpleasant Dreams

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I spotted this Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - 40th Anniversary toy figure at Walmart today, priced at $35.

I walked away without it.

Will I regret this later?

I'm kind of past the peak of my Elvira fandom, so it wasn't all that hard to leave it on the shelf.

Current eBay prices (including shipping) range from $30 to a little over $100. Will there be "future collector value" in these figures, or, some 40 years after her heyday, has interest in the Elvira character faded?

16 July - A Doll A Day 2024

[Alliecat]

Still looking at them for potential flip value? Ehh.... srsly, get some good stocks instead
Not at all familiar with the character, but from the box at least, it looks like a good likeness.

[davidd]

Still looking at them for potential flip value?  Ehh.... srsly, get some good stocks instead.
Not at all familiar with the character, but from the box at least, it looks like a good likeness.

The "flip value" is more out of curiosity than planning to resell. I went through a phase some years ago where I purchased two of every figure - one to open and one to keep mint-in-box. For me, the biggest challenges to maintaining items mint-in-box are storage space and being able to keep the boxes in good condition for as long as it takes for things to increase in value.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark was a syndicated TV horror movie hostess (the Hostess with the Mostest) who rose to a level of cult fame in the mid-1980s. She wore a cleavage-baring "goth style" dress, had black hair, and introduced (and interrupted) the movies with sarcasm, satire, and snarky double-entendres.

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17 July - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Nora LaValle aka Katia Nine-Tails

Nora LaValle has selected "Katia Nine-Tails" as her "pirate name."

Head: Super Duck SDH 018B
Body & Costume: TBLeague Cowgirl PL2018-103

[Alliecat]

Haha, funny. I think your pirate crew needs a photostory or a blog or some kind of tv show of their own too. It could air after Smarts & Crafts.