Dawn, at Dawn

Apologies everyone for another delay. This was a pre-prepared post I hadn't shared. Not sure what I'll do, to be honest. In any case, enjoy the photos--I think some of these are stunners.

Well, one of the unexpected advantages of winter, is that I was able to walk my way to a park to take photos soon after dawn... and didn't have to wake at 4am to be ready! In any case, my dragon Dawn, deserves to be photographed at dawn, as she invokes it.

Truth to be told, taking these photos was quite difficult. As you know, I shoot with adapted vintage lenses and leverage Sony's system to use focus peaks to help with manual focus (you can read more on my post here). The problem is that shooting with the high contrast levels that I wanted here totally screws the peaking system, and I was left to rely on my insticts.

Good thing that my photography instincts are so attuned!

Dragons' Eyes

First of all, I apologise to my readers. Life happened, and it was increasingly hard to keep posting. I have some more posts to share, but I'm unsure what will happen, to be honest. It's been a bit rought, sadly =S

In which I was bored, and wanted to play with a macro adapter. I took this with a large Vivitar, and a few boxes to hold the unwielding thing steady. It was quite demanding, you'll see, because every teeny tiny movement would literally bring things out of focus. Likewise, since I was so up-close the doll, generally a single eye is in focus. Here is a teaser, and more under the cut.

Hope in Pink

This is actually an old dress I did for Kanon, so it doesn't really fit Hope's thicker neck (the rest is fine, though).

Now, the problem with this photoshoot is that it was a particularly cold and windy day--but there was sun. You know, that good, shiny, unclouded sky that seldom happens in winter. Fastforwards to the second photo, and there I wass, beneath a puffer jacket and a thick beanie, shivering like a madwoman and with a hand so cold it was starting to get red. I had to go to a coffee shop and get a takeaway tea just to curl my fingers around something and continue taking photos.

In any case, some of the photos are nice, and I wanted to share them!

Nyx in the Greenery

Oh, this is quite straightforward and simple--I was a bit downcast, so I grabbed the camera and the nearest dragon (Nyx, the purple one) and went out to take photos. It was quite nice, because I tend to neglect poor Nyx. In any case, downcast or not, I ended up doing camera-stretching and camera-yoga all around a park. In other words, business as usual, ha!

I hope you'll like the photos! More under the cut!

Autumn is Arriving

Honestly, there is not much to this post except a bunch of photos of Eiar looking adorable. These weren't taken in Autumn but Spring, actually! The thing was that the ground had a lot of leaves, the little trunk was also quite orangey, and I did an edit favouring the warmer, browish colours rather than the greens--hence why it looks like Autumn. In any case, Autumn is nearing here Down Under, so they "fit" the mood!

Dragons' Chess, Take Two

Not quite sure if you remember... but Eiar (green) and Theros (pink) are quite keen to play chess. Turns out, I found a garden with a gigantic chess! (For comparison, the "king" piece reached my hips!). Anyways, there isn't much to this post except the dragons having another go at it, and me crouching into insane angles because the bokeh was stunning.

New Dragon Crew! Project + WIPs

Hello all! Well, it turns out that xmas got me me a new trio of dragons! It all started when I saw a white Ashes on Aileendoll EU website, and had an idea for a wild mod. Then, the shipping was twice the cost of the dragon, so I added a white Violet, to compasate--after all, I had another idea for another wild mod. Then, it turns out that Judit, from Aileendoll EU, decided to play Santa and gifted me a white Rot. I didn't knew about the last one, as my partner not-so-subtly confiscated the box upon arrival, and held it captive until Xmas day.

In any case, you are set for several posts about the dragons, since I'm having some (as aforementioned) wild plans. More under the cut (alogside phone-wips).

Lovely Kanon!

This was meant to be a Valentine's Day outfit, but the coat didn't look nice at all, and the dress wasn't reddish/love-related enough. However, the photos are very nice and I refuse to waste them. I did try to enhance the red on the photos and give her this golden glow, but oh well... sometimes, it just doesn't work.

In any case, I took these photos with the Jupiter 85mm lens from 1962. I love that not-haze that it has (it's not haze per se, but a "characteristic" of this lens' construction). In any case, Kanon always looks adorable!

Dragons In a Garden

These photos belong to another set of a little magical garden I found... in a wedding venue. No, I did not attend a wedding, but this garden is often used as such. It had all these little places that were great, and I was running around (as usual), wrestling with the dragons and a few lenses (again, as usual), doing camera yoga (all too common). Thankfully, it was quite quiet, so there was no need to ignore people.

As before, I did some "sets" of photos that aren't worth dividing into smaller posts, so I'm just going to make some comments between them. All of these were taken with my Minolta 58mm f1.4, adepted to my Sony a7riv. So, manual shooting on all of them. The sharpness of this lens (circa 1973) is damn impressive, if you ask me!

Flowery Kitty

Hello again! So, I keep posting some photos from the holidays--just two days, but I ended up with roughly 2.5k of raw photos, and the prior day had 40 (!) edited (!!) photos. This one was a bit milder, with only 12 edited photos, but nevertheless that's quite a lot. It was quite funny because I took some, then panicked because Kitty Cookie was missing her tail, and then found it on the cushion she'd travelled. I only lost three shots because of the missing tail, and I did manage to retake one, so... no big deal.

Let's start with a flowery one, and then I'll make some comments on the other photos that are somewhat "related".

BJD Questions!

Hello all! Well, last year I was contacted by Fran from Hat's Nekocomiccon, who is a BJD blogger as well. It's incredible that we are still here! Anyways, Fran and her created a 100-questions tag, and invited me to answer it. I haven't done this in *checks notes* ~9 years, so I said "why not?" and here you have the result.

I did took the liberty of merging/omitting some questions whose answer alone would've been too plain. Nevertheless, you can find the entire list of questions in the link I listed above. Also, I had this idea for a thematic photoshoo, so here you have the dragons urging Merry with questions.

Happy New Year!!

And another year just came and went, everyone. Just like that. I know these photos are a bit more xmas-sy than expected, but I couldn't pick from the set, so they are here anyways. Before the photos, I want to wish you an excellent 2023. I wish it treats you kindly, that you live it at peace, and for the inevitable bad moments to be short, scarce, and mild. I wish you the best, and thank you to read my blog. It's been 10 years of blogging, and although I'll make some changes in 2023, this journey isn't over.

Best wishes, everyone! Onto 2023!

Merry Xmas!!!

Not much to say today, except that my collection of Nutcrackers is growing (dang it, they look amazing), and I thus, I *had to* sew a Nutcracker-inspired outfit for Hope. I hope you'll like it, there isn't much to the photos but Hope, nutcrackers, and xmas lights bokeh!

Goals Balance!

Hello everyone! It's that time of the year, and here comes Merry to balance (awfully) and see how we fared! I hadn't set up many goals for this year (you can read them here), and I'm happy to see that I'm slowly regaining the interest for the hobby. I guess burnout really takes a toll. Anyways, it begins under the cut!

Unusual Ornaments

Hello all! Well, I don't know how you assemble your xmas tree (and if you do), but I generally have the regular, boring baubles with the usual shiny, matte, or glittery style... and the fun ornaments! This year I actually got two that are like Fabergé Eggs (plastic-made, of course), that open and close! So, I had this grand, silly idea of putting my dragons in the tree and around these ornaments.

There isn't much to this post except the dragons near some ornaments, with red, yellow and green saturating the scene. Which ornament do you like the most?

Spring Dragons!

Well yes, it turns out that I hadn't used my Carl Zeiss Jena lens in a while. This Jena is the second oldest lens I have, also from 1962--and it is ridiculously sharp, heavy, and well built. I wish the plasticky modern lenses would come with such pure metal bodies as this have! Anyways, this lens is a 75-300mm f4.5-5.6, which meant that the dragons where there (imagine a point) and I was 2 meters away from them, squatting or tiptoeing to get the right angle. Add some curious passer-bys. I regret nothing.

Kitty Pumpkin Witch

Well yes, because after the soft, faery-like photos of witchy Kanon (with a dress that was quite complicated to sew), I just snapped Kitty Cookie with the expectation of doing a more orangey photoshoot! Which... ended up also quite soft. Anyways, there is no need for halloween photos to be all high contrast, right? Right?

Also, yes, I know--I promised witchy Kitty Cookie, and the photo here has no hat. I just loved the angle! (Picture me doing advanced camera-yoga to get that one, though). There is a witchy hat under the cut. And more photos--all taken with my Vivitar 90mm macro 1:1.

Witches are Cute

Well, it turns out that Kanon does everything but cute--so now that halloween is here, she's a cute witch! I know that I did Hope's photos in a purple-ish colour last, but this time I used my Jupiter lens (the 1963 lens I own), and that strange haze it has gives the photos a very ethereal look. For those interested: I checked and it's not haze per se, it's some sort of feel derived from the lens construction, but it's lovely.

Anyways, here is cute Kanon, the Witch:

Bookworm Kanon?

Hello all! I hope you are doing well. Today I have a silly posts with a lot of photos, but the truth is I am quite enthralled by this lens--Jupiter 9 85mm f2. A lovely vintage one from 1962 that uses a very weird mount, and is a bit difficult to focus, but that takes stunning photos! I honestly love the "air" or... "identity" this lens gives to the photos. Also, I didn't know what props to use so here you go:

Contrasting Dragons

Hello everybody! Moar dragon photos because they are cute!! I had this idea with this metal posts, so I freezed my buttocks trying to get the photos done while doing camera-yoga. Anyways, I tried a couple things when editing the photos, so I'll show you. Hope you like it!