Here Be Monsters

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Posted on January 30, 2024 by marey mercy

As promised, here are some Monster High dolls I’ve shot lately:

One thing I love about Monster High is how the line helped push fashion dolls beyond the typical Barbie look of idealized female bodies and faces. Lines like Monster High and Bratz revitalized the market and took fashion dolls in all sorts of cool directions. Now we have stylized fairy tale dolls, zombies, mermaids, and all sorts of shit for kids to play with and adults to collect.

Lines like these also pushed Barbie to go in new directions, and you can now find Barbie mermaids and fairies, among others, although Mattel hasn’t been bold enough to create a monster Barbie. Yet. Barbie also has introduced a variety of body types and skin tones that are much more diverse and can speak to a larger market of kids looking for fashion dolls that really represent who they are. But I will always be a bigger fan of the lines that find the top and go way over it. It’s the equivalent of my self-portraits.

Frankie with edited makeup by me, and a restyled outfit because I didn’t much like what she came in

Then there’s my first Lagoona doll, whom I attempted to give a short bob and pretty much destroyed. I started to look for a doll wig on Etsy to cover her botched bob, then realized with Lagoona on sale for $9.99 it would be easier to just buy a second one, which I did. Then I went ahead and bought a doll wig for the first one anyway. I haven’t taken any shots of the original Lagoona yet, so I’ll share a stock picture of it before showing my modified one, doll wig and all.

This is how she comes out of the box. I adore the 80’s inspired dress!

I’ve actually come to like my restyled version more than the original, which is why there are no pictures of the first one. That wig was only about $7 plus shipping on Etsy, and I did have to completely cut off the rest of her hair to make it fit, which was fine. I would eventually like to add more wigs to my collection since I have two dolls whose hair I had to remove and replace with a wig. Why not have a variety of looks for each of them? but $7 for a doll wig is really economical; most of them start around $20 which in my case is usually more than I spent for the doll, so it’s hard to convince me to make the purchase, even though some of them are incredibly drool-worthy.

I think this one speaks for itself:

Another thing I’ve had fun doing is trying my best to “remove” the doll’s makeup in PhotoShop and then using this old makeup program I have to change up their look.

I don’t really do anything with these makeup photos, but playing around with them on the computer is still fun.

Posing is still an issue for me because I try my best not to let the stand show. I’ve tried this several ways and they’re all time-consuming, so eventually I may give up and just show the stands. There are definitely doll photographers who do this and it’s not nearly as noticeable or distracting as I thought it would be.

Probably one of my most photogenic Monster High dolls.

Etsy is a great place to buy wigs, and Poshmark is a great place to find used dolls. I got Electrified Frankie for about $15, which is pretty great considering how much use I have already gotten out of her. But I’m still trying to control my spending right now so I haven’t been on the site much lately. What I really want next is this amazing Bratz Gay Pride duo I found on Amazon:

How amaaaazinggggg is this?! I may convince my husband to consider this a Valentine’s Day present because everything about this set is awesome. First of all, I am really loving Bratz right now. Those faces photograph perfectly. And the statement these two make is absolutely worth the price tag. Plus those are some FABULOUS furry accessories.

Speaking of Bratz, I will be sharing their photos in my next post! Stay fabulous everyone!

Light Up the barbie!

Posted on January 16, 2024 by marey mercy

Ohmygosh – I’ve bought and photographed so many dolls since last I wrote.

In fact, I went on such a buying spree my husband threatened to divorce me if I bought One. More. Doll. And yes, we’re still married.

So I think the best way to catch everyone up on all the dolls and all the photos, I should categorize my entries by line – and yes, first up is good old Barbie.

I swiped this outfit from a different brand of doll. It didn’t really fit her but I made it work.

When it comes to Barbie, the choices are endless. But there’s a certain body the line makes that is called “made to move,” and it is a fully articulated doll. This means it bends and rotates at the elbows, the wrist, the shoulders, the feet, the knees, and the torso. The head on an articulated doll usually has more movement too. Whereas a non-articulated doll’s head will swivel back and forth, an articulated doll will also look up and down. They’re just infinitely more posable. You can identify an articulated doll by the joints. It’s a tradeoff, the joints themselves are kind of ugly, but the posabiliity makes up for it. And while it’s not a total dealbreaker, there’s no denying how much more I can do with an articulated doll.

Several of Barbie’s collections have this “Made to Move” body, and my favorite is what is called their “Signature Looks” line. Based on the lack of availability of a lot of these dolls, I assume they are a line that’s been out of production for a while, and many are listed on Amazon at over $100, but I’ve managed to collect a nice variety of them for less than that. The Signature Looks line is more focused on the fashion statements the dolls make – which is nice, considering that Barbie’s outfits are often lackluster.

A “tall” Barbie and an average-sized one.

Barbie also has different sizes of dolls – something they’ve been doing for a while now – and while I haven’t bought a “curvy” doll yet, I intend to do so at some point. They also have a “petite” doll, and some “tall” ones. The doll on the left in this photo is one of the tall ones – and I mean, she is TALL. Legs for days. She photographs beautifully. She was hard to find, and the one I bought off Amazon clearly wasn’t new, but I was happy enough just to have her so I didn’t complain.

See what I mean about posability? You really can’t beat an articulated doll when it comes to taking photos. And the fashions on the Signature Looks dolls are pretty nice, too. They’re not elaborate, but they’re more fashion-forward than your average Barbie, and the materials are a bit nicer too.

Remember when I told you that my tall Barbie was clearly used? Well, one issue I had with her was that her hair was a little creased. And I tried to flat-iron the crease out of it, which was a mistake, because I burned off a section of her beautiful long black hair. I can fix it in Photoshop, but when she is hanging out in my closet she looks pretty sad. Fortunately, there are doll wigs. I found this one on Etsy, and wow – it really elevates my photos! The thing about doll hair is that it doesn’t move like natural hair or normal wig hair; all the wind in the world won’t move it much. But with this wig I can pose it like the wind is blowing it, and it stays. So now this gal takes even more gorgeous photos!

Sure, the hairline’s a little thick, but hey, it is just a doll.

The Signature Looks line also has some short-haired dolls, and of course, I had to get both of those! It’s really rare to find a female doll with short hair, and these two were too cute to pass up:

I love Blondie’s Argyle sweater! I stole that off a “Be Kind” doll that I only bought for her outfit. (She was cheap)

Really pretty make-up and face sculpts on this line, too – not so Barbie-ish

Both of these had very limited availability online – I bought them through Amazon but from third-party sellers, and they were more expensive than I generally go for. But I had to have them. Also, the brunette is a “petite” doll, and when they say petite they really mean it! I have two, and as of yet, I haven’t posed them with a taller doll, so it might not translate here, but trust me when I say these dolls are pretty short.

I stole those pants from an average-sized doll, and her shoes disappeared! The shirt and tie came from a Rainbow High doll.

I have a few more Barbies I haven’t had time to photograph, a curly redhead and another petite gal – also from the Signature Looks line. So this post turned out to be shorter than I thought it would be, but oh well. Next up – Monster High!

Doll Wonders

Posted on December 9, 2023 by marey mercy

Hey there – more doll photos!

I’m really digging the monochromatic look of some of the Rainbow and Shadow High dolls, which isn’t a surprise considering my previous selfies. One thing I’m using PhotoShop to help with is the eyes – I’ve found that moving the irises to a different position helps with realism, but it’s kind of a bitch to do. In the photo above, I moved the eyes of the doll in the foreground to be looking directly at the camera, which makes a huge difference. I also tilted the background doll’s head just a bit for the same reason. It’s a small adjustment, but it really helps.

Same for this one – I shifted her eyes so that she’s looking up instead of straight ahead to give it an angelic quality. I think I may have over-processed this one, but old habits die hard, y’all.

.With this one, I think I made her eyes too blue, but I’m keeping it as is. And let me just say that a solid black doll is difficult to photograph! You really have to lighten it up to get any of her facial features, and then you have to decide where you want to add shadows back once that is done. It’s tricky.

This solid white doll on the other hand? Heaven.

Another issue I’m working through right now is doll stands. The ones that come with these dolls is fine if you’re just going to stand her in the corner, but for posing it absolutely sucks. It falls apart constantly. I even tried gluing it all together (it comes in three pieces) with Gorilla Glue yesterday, and the damn thing still fell apart, although it lasted longer before doing so. Good doll stands are stupid expensive – like $8-$14 for ONE stand – so I haven’t bitten the bullet yet, but I’m going to have to because working with the ones I have is making me crazy.

I finally got the doll with the plaid leggings!

Backgrounds are another issue, and while I have purchased some small backdrops specifically for photography of small items, they haven’t arrived yet, so I’ve managed to come up with some creative ways around the problem. As you can see in the photo above, wrapping paper hasn’t worked out that great – it has creases I have to try and fix in post, and it reflects light which I then have to pretend like I intended to be there. But in the photos above this one, I had better luck – I have a furry white chair cover that I was able to use to good effect, and I have some other ideas for things I can use around the house.

Oh, and another issue with these plastic doll stands is that they show – there are ways to maneuver the doll’s legs to conceal them, but when the stands keep falling apart while I try to place the legs properly things get annoying quickly. So for this one, even though the full shot was super cute, I could NOT find a way to successfully get rid of the stand, so I chopped her off mid-calf. Bummer. With the fuzzy background, I was able to use it to cover up the stand for the most part, but when using wallpaper not so much.

This was part of a shoot that really did not work. The paper was reflective and crinkly, and the outfit I put on the doll just really didn’t work. But I did get this one pretty cool shot. As much as I love to have hair moving around in my photos, I haven’t yet been able to successfully do this with a doll. Their hair just does not move like human hair or wig hair for some reason, no matter how much wind I blow on them. So I’ve kind of given up trying. And as excited as I was to try taking photos of dolls outside now that I’ve got this lovely property, I’ve found that I hate it as much as I do taking selfies outside. For whatever reason, I just can’t function when dealing with heat, or leaves, or gravel, or dirt, or anything relating to the outdoors. So back to the studio it’s been.

These are actually quite small dolls – about five inches – and I’m really proud of this “backdrop” I came up with. It’s just some old paint palettes I use when doing my paint pours – one behind them and one they are standing on, as well as some of the plastic stands I use to dry them that get all drippy. I think it came out kinda cool!

Dolly Shots

Posted on November 30, 2023 by marey mercy

I can tell I’m going to quickly run out of doll puns to use as blog post titles. Oh well.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading since my last post, and have picked up some tips from others to improve my doll photos. One big mistake I was making was using too much light. Generally, when dealing with a human subject, you want as much light as possible on the face to balance out uneven skin tone and help hide imperfections. Not so with dolls. Too much light on a doll’s face and you end up with a hunk of plastic with eyes. You actually need more shadows on a doll’s face to give it depth and dimension. So yeah, learning this improved my results tremendously.

I’ve also had to pull way back on my photo editing – which has always been my first love – and put more care into the shots themselves. When taking self-portraits I worry mostly about color and the texture of fabrics, then I just twirl and jump and roll around until I come across a good shot or two. Dolls obviously cannot do any of that, so most of my time is spent on getting the setup and the pose of the doll just right before taking the photo. There’s a lot of upside to this. While much more time is spent actually taking the photos, a lot less time is spent editing them, and I also don’t have to take as many to get a good shot.So, it’s a different process, and I still get too heavy-handed with the editing on occasion because I can’t help myself, but overall I’m starting to really enjoy it.

Obviously, I am now obsessed with buying dolls, but it’s much cheaper than wigs and people costumes, plus I don’t have much room to build up a massive collection so that helps. And with “fashion dolls” like the Monster/Rainbow/Shadow Highs or the LOL OMGs, they usually come with extra clothes and accessories so I can mix things up. There are some gorgeous dolls out there I’d love to buy, but they actually cost more than a synthetic wig even at today’s prices, so that’s not going to be happening. Pullips and Blythe dolls are the two I’m drooling over, but I couldn’t see myself daring to take one of these and stick them in a tree to take a photo anyway, given their price point, so for now I’m sticking to dolls in the $20-$30 price range.

Pullip doll – price range $200-$400. These are supposed to have more posability than the Blythes, but I still like the Blythes a wee bit better.

Blythe Dolls – $250-$400 without customization – that pink one tho!! It’s everything.

After some experimentation, I’ve figured out the best lens to use (my 17-40 mm L-series)and where the best setup is around the house (on top of my desk). One nice thing is that I can sit in a chair while I take pictures! 🙂

She’s leaning on a little desk shelf I have that I turned over on its side – I also used some PhotoShop magic so that her eyes are looking to the side instead of straight ahead, and changed her skin from blue to pale.

My head is brimming with ideas right now for things to try, which is great – I bought several rolls of wrapping paper to use as backdrops as I still prefer to take pictures in a studio setting as opposed to outdoors, and all sort of things I have around the house can be put to use as props.Some work out great, others not so much, but it’s so much fun trying things out I don’t mind too much when something fails.

Wallpaper backdrop and $12 doll from Amazon

I freaking LOVE this doll’s hair and rockin’ outfit

I often look up photos of real people to help me get poses right. My little $12 Amazon doll in front of the wrapping paper was posed by looking at photos of poor children from the 1800s. And this rockin’ babe was posed in imitation of all those Charlie perfume ads from the 80’s with Shelley Hack in them. Remember those? In almost every single one of them she’s walking with this wide stance and her hair is blowing everywhere. I can still sing the jingle.

There’s a fragrance that’s here to stay, and they call it – CHAAARLIE!

OK so I had to add a background to this one – and check out those SHOEEEES!

I’ve started to look more at the clothes a doll comes with than the facial features, since these two brands I really like mostly look the same but with different hair. And since a set of clothes cost as much as, if not more than, just buying a new doll, I’ve got two more coming that I bought strictly for the outfits. But the dolls are cute too:

LOL OMG Melrose doll – I NEED those leggings!

OMG LOL Groovy Babe – I need those leggings, too

The OMG LOL’s don’t have as much movement as the Monster/Rainbow/Shadow Highs (their legs really aren’t bendable at all), but they’re about an inch shorter which makes them easier to deal with. I also like their big old anime eyes and the fact that they’re all pear shaped – lots of junk in the trunk and pretty small boobs. My Rainbow and Shadow High dolls are adorable, and I love the monochromatic color schemes, but they’re not curvy like the LOLs.

Speaking of which have you seen the curvy line of Barbies? They’re pretty awesome. Just wish they dressed them better. Although this one looks cute:

Sadly, my Madame Alexanders have pretty much been shoved to side, since they don’t fit the photography I’m doing at all, but I still owe them for the inspiration. More to come!

Hello, Dolly!

Posted on November 20, 2023 by marey mercy

It’s been a minute since I posted anything – you know how it goes.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seriously engaged in photography. As I’m sure I’ve already mentioned, I just got bored, and I had no new ideas or subjects to pursue. So I dropped it, for the most part, and focused on other things: rock painting, paint pouring, and knitting. But recently – and I can’t even recall why – I became interested in rebuilding my Madame Alexander doll collection, which is something I do from time to time, and in pursuing that I came across the most amaaaaazing doll photography happening all over the internet. Not MA, so much, but mostly more modern and anime-looking dolls, with which I fell in love immediately. Especially the Monster High dolls and all of their spinoff collections. There was only one thing to do. Buy the shit outta some dolls! Let’s go!

What I love about these babies is that they come attired and made up exactly like I used to do myself. Only, these bitches require no application time on my part! And I’ve never enjoyed taking pictures of other people; it’s an art form I like to engage with in solitude – which is part of the reason I started putting myself into costumes, so I’d look different each time. Well now I’ve got the perfect models to work with – they do exactly what I say, they don’t engage in small talk, and they have no ideas of their own. My dream models – where have you been all my life?

Okay, okay, I know where you’ve been. In stores. On Amazon, mostly. And I have been snatching you up! In fact, I have one more shipment coming today and then I have recognized I need to calm the hell down with all this purchasing. Fashion dolls are NOT going anywhere, and I’ve already got a backlog going. So I’m going to work through the ones I have before buying any more – but man are these tempting!

I have so much to learn – which is what has all my gears cranking again. It’s the learning curve that I enjoy; getting excited over trying new ideas, and constantly coming up with ideas of things to try. The possibilities, at the moment, feel endless.

Oh sure, I know I’ll reach an end eventually, but that usually takes me about ten years, so we’ll see how far this goes. I can already tell I’m going to have to recycle a lot of these as I do not have the space for the endless supply of new dolls I’m sure to encounter, but that’s OK. It’s all part of the process.

So here’s to a new photography hobby! Stay tuned for more doll photos! Possible very, very many doll photos.

Goodwill Hunting

Posted on June 27, 2023 by marey mercy

I couldn’t resist that title, sorry.

When I last went to the Nacogdoches Goodwill with Doug, I was explaining to him what makes a good portrait shirt, and it gave me the idea to write about it, so here we are. Obviously, I am drawn to color in my photos, and the color scheme of a set often comes from the wig or wigs I plan to wear, but it can come from clothing I find to wear too. So let’s focus on clothes for this post and leave wigs for later.

The first thing that came up when we were looking for tops (since I knew this would strictly be a portrait session, there was no need to look for full outfits) was that t-shirts are almost always a bad idea. They just do NOT photograph well. They look shabby, wrinkly, and unimpressive overall. I got away with it in the shot above because the focus is on the hair flower, but it still would have been way better with something else here. I just didn’t have anything at the time I wanted to shoot with this poinsettia so I threw on the green t-shirt and went with it. Any time you see me in a portrait with a plain old t-shirt on, believe me, that is exactly what happened. But there are a few exceptions:

Sometimes I come across a t-shirt with a great slogan on it, and in that case, I can make a t-shirt work. This one I found at the Goodwill in Houston, and man was it an awesome score. Problem was that it was freaking TINY, and I basically had to rip it at the seams to get it on and off, so it was no good after one photo session. It’s really too bad because this is still one of the more awesome t-shirts I’ve ever used.

All She Does Is... — Had this one made for me 😉

Believe it or not, this one was actually my husband’s. His mom made it for him back when he was a teenager, which is hilarious (this is, by the way, the back of the shirt, but I’ll talk more about that later). It’s a great example of the times when a t-shirt really works in a photo session, which is rare. In each case there’s something more interesting going on than just a plain tee- the first one was embroidered and had a tight cut, which kept it from looking too schlumpy, the middle one was a ringer tee, which helped, and the disco one was a football-style tee which gave the shoulders some interest and also added shape. But for the most part, t-shirts are meh at best, and ick at worst, even when they’re not the focus of the shot:

So, with a few exceptions, say no to t-shirts. But anything can work if it has an interesting neckline. It could be a scalloped neck, or it could have some cutouts, or, if you’re really lucky, you’ll find a top with feathers around the neck – and you can never go wrong with feathers! An asymmetrical top can also be cool, as can super-huge shoulder pads, lace, or ruffles. Anything that adds interest to the part of the top that is going to show can work, but for me, I am drawn more toward texture than loud prints. I’ve chosen plenty of tops with interesting prints that still work, and they’re easier to find, but anything with interesting textures or embellishments is a definite yes.

The print is okay, I guess, but it’s the wig that saves this shot. On its own, it’s another *meh*.

https://flic.kr/p/2axeuEC

Even though it’s not the focus, the mesh top adds something extra

But don’t just look at the neckline; sometimes a top will have interesting detail elsewhere that you can utilize. I have several tops with unusual unique sleeves that I’ve made work – but unique sleeves do involve some weird posing, as you want to be sure you get them into the shots.

This red one has it all – ruffles at the neck, a nice satin material, AND lace inserts at the shoulders. To get the full benefit of all that, I did have to smush my shoulders together or pose while looking over one of them, but it worked great!

Another thing to consider is how else you can wear the top aside from the normal tag-in-the-back. If there’s an interesting detail on the back of the top, can you wear it backward to show it off? I do this quite often. In fact, that hotrod angel shot above had an interesting back to it as well, also with text, so in a case like that, it’s as if you get two shirts for the price of one:

https://flic.kr/p/VHqfUp

The front of the “Disco’s Dead” tee (I don’t like this picture, though – it’s overprocessed, which is a bad habit of mine)

This is supposed to be the back of the top

Many times, the front of a top is too low to make it into the frame of a portrait in a significant way, so I will often turn a top around and wear it backward if there’s something about it I want to feature.

You can really tell I have this on backwards but oh well

Rainbow Eyes — You can also wear a fascinator in weird ways, too

In other words, don’t be afraid to wear a top in some abnormal way to get the effect you want. In fact, you don’t have to wear it at all. Sometimes, I’ll take a top that never worked well for me and wrap it around my head, or my neck, or layer it under/over something else – anything that works to create an interesting shot. Take the first picture in this post – that’s actually a green floral shirt that I threw over my head at one point.

This is me poking my head through a sleeve

Netwit 1 — Wearing a hooded lace kimono backwards

I think you get the idea. Another thing I look for in tops for portraits – movement. If it’s light and flowy, I’m all for it. I love to use fans to blow hair and clothes around as it creates interesting shapes, so a flowy top is always going to be high up on my list. Light fabrics in generous cuts that can be flung around, especially if they’re in an interesting print, are gold, because there’s so much you can get out of flinging them about in different ways.

But let’s say you’re bored with all of this. Why not take yourself down to Pier 1, or Home Goods, or hell, a sporting goods store, and buy shit to wear that was never meant to go on the human body? You’d be surprised how much fun you’ll have choosing items to wear from the automotive aisle at your local Target.

hey — This was some sort of weird decoration I found at Michael’s

I actually bought those old doll parts off eBay

A little popcorn-style gift bag someone gave me at some point

An oldie. — A Valentine’s Day decoration I found at Target

The last thing I’ll mention is sweaters. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than a thick chunky sweater for taking interesting pictures. And fuzzy sweaters? Yes, please. Unfortunately, they’re also hot as hell, and posing while wearing them is ROUGH unless you’re outside in the cold. Who knows – now that I live on a property with an interesting landscape maybe I’ll take advantage of that this coming winter and take lots of outdoor portraits wearing crazy sweaters, because they really do add interest to a shot. But you’ll probably sweat to get them.

I knit a sweater. — Bonus if you made the sweater yourself

Happy Halloween — Fuzzy vest worn backward

Feathers, crystals, pom-poms, and stripes? Best. Sweater. Ever.

Whew! I think that’s all I have to say about portrait tops. Next time, my favorite subject: WIGS!

Knitography!

Posted on July 24, 2021 by marey mercy

Well hello everyone! How the hell are ya?

So I haven’t updated since April, and since then I’ve been able to meet up with friends, hang out with my sister, and eat in a few restaurants with Doug. Hallelujah! Except oh wait – this is Texas, after all, and our super-low vaccination rate means the Delta variant of COVID-19 is on the rise in a major way, and Doug and I are back into quarantine mode. I’ll be damned if after committing to avoiding this stupid virus for a year I’m going to turn around and get COVID, even if it most likely wouldn’t be in some serious form since I’m vaccinated, because a bunch of people refuse to do their part and just take the damn shot already. And yes, I have family members and friends who refuse to get vaccinated, and they are all absolutely on my shit list. There’s no way in hell our governor is going to mandate masks, social distancing, or vaccines at this point, so if we’re going to stay healthy AND do our part not to spread the virus (since vaccinated people can carry it asymptomatically) we’re going to stay home. Again. Sigh.

But hey, I did this whole stay-at-home thing for like 14 months already, so I’m good to go. I’m still knitting a LOT, and although I still have much to learn I’ve managed to knit a few decent scarves so far. My plan was to keep knitting scarves until I had several more advanced stitch patterns down – my first full scarf was a basic garter stitch (and that one was a bitch because I bought a light weight yarn that was hard for a newbie like me to work with), then a seed stitch, and then a rib stitch. I tried stockinette with a border but the damn thing still curled up, so I don’t know what I did wrong there.

Check out my fancy multi-colored knitting needle!

I was going to move on to a basket stitch when I got the idea to learn how to knit roses – and now I am obsessed. My goal is to knit a shit-ton of roses together to make a blanket, but that’s going to take a while, so in the meantime I thought I could at least get enough made to use in photos. Even that was going to take awhile, so I got the bright idea to just use photoshop to pretend like I’d made a shit-ton of roses. Problem solved!

This was done with only three different roses

I just snapped a photo of myself, then stood in the same exact spot and stuck a knitted rose on a knitting needle and held the thing up in all the different positions I wanted it to be, and then layered them all on to the original photo.

These little roses I turned into tea light holders, and they sit in a little silver platter on my office table. I’m pretty pleased with them! I’m currently learning to knit leaves I can add to my roses, but that involves both increasing and decreasing stitches, which is a new skill for me, so I have so far successfully knitted — one. I have a long way to go folks. But thanks to the Delta variant and a plethora of stubborn Southerners who won’t get vaccinated, I have plenty of time now!

*And yes, I realize many, many people cannot get vaccinated for various reasons. I do not fault those people one bit. In fact, the high risk of COVID to people who cannot get vaccinated make me fault the ones who could get it but won’t EVEN MORE.

Anyway, I’m enjoying both the knitting AND how I am finding ways to incorporate it into my photography – or knitography, as I have taken to calling it. I feel like there is loads of potential here to take both activities in some fun new directions.

This is one scarf I made that is half white and half yellow – I just layered several different shots of me throwing it around into one photo.

Aside from this, my summer has been light. I have put on some weight again, and tried to taper off my Lexapro since I dropped 20 pounds the last time I stopped taking it, but emotionally I couldn’t handle it. I finally realized it was ridiculous to put myself through the wringer mentally to lose a few pounds, so I went back on it and am trying to get the weight down without having to lose my peace of mind in the process. It ain’t easy, but at this point I have at least stopped the weight gain, which was really starting to climb. Haven’t lost any yet, but am no longer putting it on, so that’s a start.

Our old girl Penny had a rough June. She has vestibular disease, which is common in old dogs. It’s essentially when small blood vessels burst in the inner ear, and the symptoms can be scary because they mimic a stroke, but vestibular is much less serious in the long run as dogs generally recover from them 100%. Penny has had three vestibular “events’ as we call them, where she gets major vertigo and struggles to walk and stand. Initially she also gets so nauseous that she throws up, but now that we’ve dealt with this before we have medication on hand that helps her with both the dizziness and the nausea. Mid-June, she had another bout of this; she was lying down on a beanbag chair when all of a sudden she rolled off it and started shaking her head around. We knew right away what it was, and tried to get medicine in her before she threw it up. It was unpleasant night as she couldn’t walk well enough to go outside, so she peed and pooped in her dog bed for about 24 hours before things kicked in enough for her to be able to walk with our assistance.

We bought a harness like the one pictured above, and it was a real lifesaver once Penny regained enough balance to be able to walk outside. She was still terribly dizzy, but she COULD walk, and with this harness we were able to help her keep her balance. Her recovery took a while this time – it’s been a little over a month now and it’s just been in the past few days that she’s been completely back to normal. We still keep the back harness on her all day and use it when she goes out, as her back leg strength still isn’t as good as it used to be and it allows us to help her stay upright when she goes to the bathroom. But she’s finally back to walking around the house on her own, and even being able to sleep on the bed with us again – although she still needs help with the stairs that get her up there. For the first three weeks, when she couldn’t get up on the bed, I actually slept on the floor in my office right next to her, which was not good for my back let me tell you, but it was good for my heart. After losing Sprocket in December, we are both even more sensitive towards any pet that gets sick right now. Even after so much time has passed, we still miss that old boy something terrible.

That’s all for now, although I do have a bit more Knitography to process. So maybe we’ll be speaking again soon!

Knitty Kat

Posted on April 15, 2021 by marey mercy

Over spring break, I had enough free time to get in the mood to take pictures again. I’d gotten so stuck in a certain setup and process that I’d “perfected” over the years that it never occurred to me it might not be serving me well anymore. Looking over some really early photos gave me the idea to experiment with some techniques I hadn’t used in years, and they worked out brilliantly.

I’ve always been partial to using softer light than this, but I’ve had the technology to use stronger, brighter light for a long time. As I’ve gotten older, all those soft shadows I’ve been using on my face weren’t as flattering as they used to be – LOL – and directing more light to my face really did the trick.

I’ve also gotten away from using my wide-angle lens for portraits, because to be honest, that totally makes sense, but when I first bought my 17-40 I used it for everything, and in looking over old portraits I realized that hey, they actually didn’t look half-bad. Plus, when working in a space as small as mine the wide-angle really makes it easier to take photos, even if I am just doing portraits. It allows me to incorporate more movement and flowy fabric as well as creating stronger lines that for whatever reason are really working for me right now.

I had a lot of fun doing this over the course of two days, but soon real life emerged again and I haven’t had time to do a photoshoot since.

When the pandemic began, my husband and I committed to staying home as much as possible because we didn’t have to leave the house at all. I switched easily to tutoring from home, and he was already retired, so we went into full lockdown in March of 2020 and still have just barely come out of it. We got vaccinated a month ago – Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but since it’s been over a month we aren’t at risk of blood clots – and while my husband was able to meet up with a few friends to sit outside and have a nice lunch, no one I know has been fully vaccinated so I haven’t ventured out yet at all. But, when this all started I decided since I wasn’t going to be anywhere or doing anything, it would make sense to just tutor as much as possible so I didn’t get bored. So, since last March I’ve been tutoring every single day, seven days a week, and now I’m pretty much stuck with it until the end of the school year because I don’t want to abandon any of my students so close to the end of the semester. But part of my own personal return to normal will be setting some new boundaries and giving myself some days off again. My point is that this should allow me more time to get inspired to take photos again. But we’ll see – I’ve got some other creative endeavors going on at the moment that I’m balancing.

I’ve written about how I took up coloring last year, and while I am still doing that fairly often, more recently I decided to learn how to knit. I’ve only been doing it for about a month now, so I’ve not knitted much more than a bunch of lumpy squares, but I have to say it’s a very enjoyable hobby even when whatever I’m trying to make doesn’t turn out.

I’ve only managed to make one actual THING so far, which is a very skinny scarf -I tried to make a normal width at first but I kept screwing up when I got past about 6 stitches, so I settled for a very skinny one. It’s also kind of short because after successfully knitting a bunch of rows without having to start over, I began to fear screwing up and went ahead and bound it off.

I am currently trying to make a wider scarf in a different stitch pattern, but I’ve had to start over a ton of times so far, which is fine, because as I said before, it’s still a relaxing hobby even when I keep messing up. It only took me a few days to get the basic knitting stitches down – knits and purls – which is pretty miraculous considering my inability to follow instructions, so the rest of it is just finesse and practice. If you’ve ever wanted to try to knit, trust me, you can do it if I can. I am generally hopeless and being crafty with my hands. I’ve tried to learn to sew I don’t know how many times and have always failed, for example.

That’s all for now – I hope you all are getting your vaccine on and otherwise doing well!

Photo-19

Posted on August 11, 2020 by marey mercy

I’ve decided to try another 365 photo a day challenge – this is a way for me to approach photography differently as well as give me something else creative to do while still being stuck at home. Coloring is fun and all, but not going anywhere except to pick up groceries once a week has given me a lot of nervous energy to burn.

For this project, I am going to shoot only in monochrome, and everything will be taken in JPEG instead of raw format. The idea is that this will force me to think differently about the photos I take, and move me in a different direction. It should also eliminate the issues that slowed me down the last time I tried a 365 photo a day project – shooting in color and in raw prompted me to do WAY too much editing of the photos. I got obsessed about the colors being just right, and often ended up over-processing the shots until they looked crappy. It also took a ton of time which made the whole thing laborious.

I think changing the process this way will help me see differently in an environment I’ve been stuck in for way too long and have become terribly over-familiar with. Removing the option of obsessing over color and processing makes me ‘see’ my environment differently, and I’m finding all sorts of little things to take pics of in the coming days. How well this will be working by day 300 is anyone’s guess, but I’m willing to give it a go. I also think I can use photography to tell some sort of story of this time we’re all dealing with – IF, like me, you are staying home as much as possible.

This is a short little update I know, but it’s all I have time for right now. I may just upload a pic a day here under a new tag and add a link to the 365 photos on the menu, but I do still have other things I’d like to share about my coloring soon, especially about how I finally managed to turn my photos into good coloring pages (hint: it involved finding someone else to do the transforming). But I don’t have time to write that all up now so I’ll get to it later. Stay safe everyone!

Harried Alive

Posted on October 11, 2018 by marey mercy

Whoo – it’s been a long while. I’ve been busy, y’all.

Face Paint

Doing what, you might ask? Work, mostly, and also precinct chair duties in preparation for the upcoming mid-term election. Which, I am fairly certain, the Dems will not win in Texas. I love me some Beto O’Rourke, y’all – something to which my front yard signs will proudly attest – but in spite of the need for me to put on my happy face for the Dems in my neighborhood I represent, well, come on. We all know Ted Cruz is a lock for Texas. This state might get there eventually, but I do not think this is the year. I’m perfectly willing to be wrong – and I hope I am – but I don’t see it happening.

mistake#6

Visual representation of me not seeing it happening

We’ve held candidate meet and greets and block walks, and I’ve sent out fliers and push cards. And until this week I was watching/listening to news obsessively; something I finally realized I had to put a stop to. The constant news was making me insane, and the Kavanaugh nomination did me in. I was taking it all, way, WAY too personally, and it was ruining my life. Yes, I believe Donald Trump is a shitty president. I think his administration is incompetent at best; greedy, selfish, and batshit crazy at worst. But you know what – I have disliked presidents in the past, and considered them dangerous and awful (I’m looking at you, Dubya), but I still managed to have a separate and functional life from all of that. And somewhere between November 16, 2016, and last week, those lines got completely erased. I was obsessively on Twitter. I listened to MSNBC and/or CNN for about eight hours a day. I ranted and raged alongside my husband (who is as liberal as I am, but had way more control over himself and the amount of news consumption he was absorbing).

mistake#10

My brain on Twitter

Long story short, I finally realized I was not going to be helpful to anyone if I was completely insane, so I put myself on a one-week news blackout. No radio, no Twitter, no Washington Post, nothing. The first two days were awful, as checking Twitter every spare second had become a terrible pastime of mine, but by day three I had started to realize there were actually music channels on Sirius XM, and there were TV shows to watch (Dancing Queen, anyone?), and work I’d been putting off, and you know, a world out there that was worth enjoying. Of course, people are still laughing at me when I tell them I am slowly allowing the news back into my life with my favorite three-hour block of news shows each night (Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’DonnelL, and Brian Williams) as if it’s hilarious that someone’s idea of properly REDUCING the amount of news consumption to THREE HOURS A DAY is somehow inadequate. But to go from 24 hour news consumption to three is, in my opinion, progress. So there you go.

MIstake # 18

But no, Beto still ain’t gonna win.

What else has been going on? Lots of work – I have 19 clients this year, which is a LOT. I tutor 3 or 4 kids a day, starting at 3:30 PM and usually working until around 8:30 at night. I also tutor three kids on Sunday, and then I have Friday and Saturday as my weekend off. This is working well, but it’s a lot of kids to plan for and keep track of, so I’ve really had to commit myself to staying organized and making good planning notes after each session, or else I forget what we did when I go back to that kid a week later. Note taking has become VERY important with so many students, and it’s the last thing I want to do after getting home around 9 PM, but I’ve found ways to make it work. Sometimes I do it the next morning, and other times I leave for tutoring a little early and stop by a coffee shop to make my notes before the work begins. One way or another, I’ve found that staying on top of it is essential to doing a good job, so a lot more of my time is taken up with work now than has been for the first two years of doing this. Which is to say that photography has taken a MAJOR backseat lately. I took zero photos in September, and very few in August, so I started editing old blooper photos like the ones you see in black and white above (photos where I screwed something up). It’s been kinda fun to work with photos that are basically screw-ups, and it kept me occupied when I had a little time to play around with Photoshop.

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Here’s a few examples

I actually took the first week in October off, just to catch up with things, and I took a day to shoot some photos in a few new wigs I’ve picked up lately. But then I got so busy again I’ve barely had time to edit any of them at all.

multi1

Except this one

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And this one

So there you go – that’s what’s been going on with me since July 9th when I last wrote a blog post. It feels like I’ve been so busy that I should have a lot more to tell you, but at this point in the school year I can’t remember much past the last week or so, so anything else interesting that’s happened to me lately has already been forgotten. I will try not to stay away so long next time, and I hope you are all doing well.

mareymercy.

Horror, Photography and Frivolity

Category Archives: Photography