Neon's A Doll A Day Challenge 2018

[davidd]

The party never dies!

Fantastic group shot of the Monster High "classic" original characters! Pictures like this, of my favorite figures, help re-ignite my enthusiasm for doll photography... and for the A Doll A Day Project!

What do you use for a pedestal to raise the figures in back? Is it covered with black velvet to eliminate light reflections?

[Alliecat]

I know how tricky it is to pose multiple dolls. Nice group shot.

[Cornflower Blue]

Nifty doll stack! That's a great way to include a lot of dolls in a different orientation than horizontally.

[Lejays17]

Love the original six shot.

I think I prefer the unfiltered shot to the filter d one

[GreysPrincess]

That group shot is superb!

[Offgenemi]

wow number of days already passed 250! i love these photos with dark background. the group photo is awesome

[neon_jellyfish]

davidd - thank you so much! For pedestal, I have matte black paper box, and when I need different size, I use whatever box and hide it under the infinity background

Alliecat - thanks! The ghouls gave me a bit of trouble, Lagoona kept landing on her face and Clawdeen didn't want to hold hands with anybody but in the end, it worked out as I wanted

Cornflower Blue - thank you!!!

Lejays - thank you! I prefer the non-filter photo, too! I usually do (which is why I always post them along the filtered ones), I just have fun playing with various filters

GreysPrincess - many thanks!

Offgenemi - thank you very much! To be honest, it's kinda scary how fast the days go by

Day 253



I had no inspiration for today's photo whatsoever, and it was that stupid kind of day when everything you touch goes wrong. So I just played with Iselle to cheer myself up and at some point, I took a picture, and this is it.

ETA: I know I could just lay her down and arrange her hair better and the stand wouldn't be there, etc. and the photo would look much better, but that would be boring. I wanted to try to make her jump for 'real', so she's on a stand - actually, there may or may not be several of those on this photo (and a few boxes and also a T-shirt). I had fun!

[neon_jellyfish]

Day 254



Pinterest is messed up, so I can't upload, and I'm not exactly keen on starting a new account elsewhere (also not in the mood to use instagram, since it crops tall pics). Today's photo isn't anything special anyways, just another tired quick snap.

ETA: looks like mobile version of pinterest is working. It's the swing from FdC playset, the main part already made appearance twice, and I really, really didn't know what to do for this photo (I haven't been able to get outside for a few days and had no plan B), so I just grabbed it and put Rochelle on it and called it a day.

ETA 2: nope, still not working...

ETA 3:...Yay...?

[neon_jellyfish]

Day 255

Finally managed to get out and take some photos, so here's another part of Šárka series.



I'm not very pleased with these photos, so maybe I'll take some more. I need morning light, but last few days I've been struggling with insomnia (it usually comes together with migraine) and just wasn't able to get out early enough.

Anyways, Rosamunda Wilhelmina von Lebkuchenburg is resting on the foot of Kozákova skála (=Kozák's cliff/rock), the place all my 'beautiful view' pics are taken from (e.g. Day 241). Taking dolly photo featuring the cliff has proven difficult. I wanted a photo where you can see the doll and the cliff from afar, but I haven't found a good place for posing the doll while keeping the view, so here's a separate photo:



Kozákova skála is probably named after old family of landowners that used to own quite a lot of land around here, however, they died out in early 20th century and their homestead was demolished to make place for new, very ugly buildings.

The top of the cliff was populated by random groups of hunters since paleolithic, in neolithic there was permanent settlement with farms and pasturages. In bronze age, the settlement turned into hillfort belonging to Knovíz culture, local part of Urnfield cutlture, most likely of Celtic origin. Knovíz culture people may or may not have been cannibals! After they left/died out/blasted off to the outer space/whatever they did, nothing happened for almost 1500 (?nobody knows for sure) years, until Slavs came in 6th century and built their hillfort on top of the old one.
Slavic settlement lasted for more than 200 years, but unfortunately, enthusiastic but completely dilettantish archaeological 'research' led by amateurs in 19th century destroyed practically all the evidence, so we know this place has its piece of history, but we don't know any details.

I'm kinda sad that history of place where I was born and live was lost, but on the other hand, it is somewhat romantic. We know things happened here, but we don't know what things, so we can let imagination run wild

[Alliecat]

Very interesting! Easy to see why so many people wanted to live up there with such a vantage point. Rosamunda looks like she's thinking about some of this history. And, cool portraits of Latte & Rochelle too.

[davidd]

I like this photo of Rosamunda sitting in the shadows at the base of the cliff. The light nicely highlights her hair, and also catches the tops of the yellow flowers next to her.

The ancient (and largely unknown) history of the region and this hill are quite fascinating! I hope the weather (and your migraines) cooperate so we can continue the historical tour of the region!

[Lejays17]

The extra history bits are fascinating, I'm looking forward to learning more.

The Rochelle pic is cute, I really should look out for a version of her.

rosamunda is looking very thoughtful there

[neon_jellyfish]

Alliecat - thank you!!! I always wondered how all those people from ancient times called this peak (Kozákova skála is modern name), maybe she's thinkink about it, too...

davidd - thank you very much!

Lejays - thanks! I do recommend Rochelle, she's a sweetheart.

Day 256

The weather was great today. Great for sitting on the windowsill with a cup of hot tea and watching the rain, that is. So I'll continue with portraits for now.



This is Rina from Bratz 10th Anniversary line (2010).
I wanted all 10th Anniversary dolls, but only a few appeared here, and importing them from abroad would be ridiculously eensive, so I only have 8 of them. I noticed that fandom is divided when it comes to Bratz re-launches and changes in design. I understand that, MH and EAH reboots did that to me, but with Bratz, I like all 'generations'. I don't have any of the first dolls (they were long gone when I started collecting) and nothing after 2011 made it to Czech Republic. I was excited for the next re-launch, but I have to admit, I'm somewhat underwhelmed. The new dolls themselves are pretty, but not $50 pretty.

[Lejays17]

Bratz aren't my favourite doll line, but I generally like their clothes. This top / dress is nice, I like the d sign on it.

[davidd]

I know that many collectors can glance at a Bratz doll and instantly identify the "generation," and often even the line it is from. To me, they all pretty much look alike, except for the "reboot" series.

Even though I post a fair number of Bratz photos, I do not consider myself a serious fan. I always thought they were interesting, and I appreciated them for attempting to be "edgy" (and for the threat they posed to the Mattel near-monopoly of playline dolls), but my first Bratz purchase was only a few years ago, and I have only picked up a few of them that caught my eye. I thought the Bratzillaz line was a lot of fun.

This is a very cute portrait of a nice example of a less common Bratz character.