Do you prefer your doll's photos to the doll?

This is a truly fascinating subject - regarding the photograph as fetish. (We will need to focus on that aspect of the subject rather than the more personal aspect of your bonding or not bonding with your girl for this to remain on-topic.)

I adore my boys - adore them to pieces and they are like "house gods" (tm cynthia_in_flinthills) as they sit in various places in my home. I've got a winged Dollshe Saint sitting here on the computer tower as I type....but....there is something about capturing them in photos that elevates their beauty FOR ME. Because I'm a professional photographer, I'm already well aware of how photographs hook me psychologically - but I would love to hear how others have or perhaps have not had this experience.

I really "fall in love" with the dolls through the viewfinder.

 

I once had a Dim Odelia, that for the most part was a big disappointment to me..she didn't stand well, couldn't sit well, her wrist hooks broke the day I got her, she had no eyelashes...just a big disappointment..but then i dressed her in this red dress I had, and took some pics of her and she was just beautiful in them...she had a photogenic quality that some of my other dolls still don't have....
I still did sell her, but I will always have those photos..

 

I love my dolls in photographs. It's something about the way they photo which makes it all worth while.

But, I love them in real life too. I just like having them around. And sewing for them. XD

Photography (for me) is about finding beauty in your subject: and that's what I always achieve with these dolls. So maybe I do love them more in photographs, but they're beautiful to me in 'real life' too.

 

While I do like having my dolls around as physical objects, they only really come to life for me in my photos. Its my photographs of my dolls that I spend all of my time admiring really. The dolls themselves get relatively little attention in comparison. And more often than not, when I say "Let me show you my dolls," what I REALLY mean is "Let me show you my photographs of my dolls."

In fact, I even tend to show photographs to my husband when he asks how a newly arrived item looks, or how a recent project has been going... I mean, the doll itself is just upstairs! I could just as easily go get the actual thing than to find the latest photos on my cluttered desktop.

 

I think it's the ability through photographing to emphasize certain things over others. Our eyes take in everything, or perhaps, as the eyeglasses go up in strength, we can't focus as tightly on certain things, and most of the time the lighting setup in our daily lives is really out of control!

It's the same process at work in movies, where you can get in closer than you could to any face in real life (someone discussing celebrity called it "pseudo-intimacy").

Photography also tweaks our focus since it really lifts things out of their context, away from all the distracting clutter just out of frame.

But photos vs. real life... In real life, I do have in mind the defects, the shortcomings, the things I wish were a bit different. But my dolls are very generous with "special moments" and give me chances over and over to re-get totally besotted with them. But I find unless I get that "special moment" first from a doll in real life, I can't get that feeling from a photo of them, no matter how well done it might be. There are molds that leave me utterly cold, and even while, in a photo, I might admire, say, the stunning faceup that was given, it's a purely aesthetic or technical appreciation only.

Since I do mostly photostories, my photos are more geared towards the story being told, rather than perfectly staged portraits (I don't think I'll ever get a shot with every hair in place!). While it gives that extra dimension of life to my "people", they still have to generate their magic on me in real life, or else they don't end up being brought "further out" in the first place.

 

A truly, truly unbelievably succinct and intriguing statement. Thank you for saying this!

 

I love to take pictures of my boys -especially Miya- but in my eyes they always look better in real life. I can't quite seem to be able to capture what I see, so I strive to achieve that goal at some point. I'd love to share what I love and appreciate of my dolls with other people with more accuracy.

This is what I love about bjd as hobby- it allows you to expand your artistic outlet in various ways, and photography being one of them is great tool to share your ideas and concept of beauty. and also educate yourself (which is what I'm doing, sort of)

 

For me, the dolls are much better in real life. All the things that don't bother me in real life, like a stray hair or awkward elbow really get on my nerves when I notice their presence in photos.

And I will always wish that everyone could see what I see when I photograph. A lot of the time, what I think I am taking a picture of and what appears on my computer screen are two different things entirely. Maybe if I was a professional, I'd be able to come closer to that, and I'd prefer my pictures to my dolls.

 

I prefer my dolls in photos, and that is because they seem to have “life” in photos.

There is not always a need to tell a photostory as you can still easily convey a story through just pictures. I am not a professional photographer, but I am an artist and the rule I’ve always been told was to “create a story with you art”. I never really understood that very well until I started to take pictures with my doll.

In real-life, I love looking at them. Having monologues with them, dressing them and painting them, but it almost seems like work. I was a wee-bit upset that when I took my doll out of the box it didn’t jump out at me and dance like they do in the photos! {does that make sense?}

I think because I read so many photostories and because I am such a visual person, I prefer my dolls in pictures. Once you look at the end result, you can almost forget the all painstaking, brain crushing, time consuming work it took to get those lovely photos!

 

For me, I notice they both have ups and downs, in real life and photos.

As aangita said, photos help to make the doll seem more alive, and photos do fade out undesirable clutter and focus on a point. The Kiril Through the Camera (for the most) part looks very different through view-finder as opposed to what's really in front of me. Sometimes it makes me scratch my head, because he either looks cooler in real life than in photos, or vice versa

Little things also nag me in photos - stray hairs, the clutter that does come through, blurriness, lighting, and sometimes that inability to capture all that's really happening.

But in real life, you'd never guess through photos that Kiril is as floppy as he is, or that Hiroshi's dificult to pose, etc. You don't notice those trivialities in the photos themselves, only in taking them..

So both are equally liked for me, since they're balanced in pros and cons (Sorry for the long-winded, roundabout way of explaining;; ) But I have to say.. It's not the same holding and playing with photos as it is holding and playing with the doll itself

 

That got me thinking, because often I do the exact same thing even without realising it (my dolls might be in the next room over, but I automatically reach for my laptop when I want to show someone some new aspect about my guys - or even, in fact, a new guy himself) I wonder if there's an element of control with the pictures that there isn't with the dolls themselves: for example, I could hand one of my boys over to someone and he could flop around, kick them in the arm, his wig could slide off and drop to the floor, his eyeputty might have loosened and his eyes rolled back in his head...

The list goes on.

But with photographs, all the unsightly stuff is already taken care of, cropped out of the picture or dumped in the recycle bin if it's truly unsalvageable. When you choose a photo to display for someone you choose the best of the best: the doll looking its most beautiful with no bad angles, sudden stray hairs or wardrobe malfunctions or anything else that might spoil the image you want them to project. No surprises to worry about, and the whole thing's far more controlled. Maybe that's part of the attraction of photographs compared to the physical doll, especially when trying to impress someone else or admire the beauty of the doll for yourself?

 

Most certainly! Taking pictures of them brings them to life, captures their soul if you will. Other wise, they're just sitting on a shelf or in their trunk.

I do this all the time, I much rather show the pictures then the dolls. Strange. I think part of me is proud of the photography and I feel that the artistic outlet helps me justify having dolls.

 

I totally agree with that.
Like, I can't even add anything on, I agree with it so much. XD

For me, it goes both ways.
I really enjoy showing Diavolo to people in person, but, Salus...
I prefer in pictures.
Then, there's some days that I just can't stand pictures of Salus, and spend all day just looking at him and appreciating him in person.
It's a really interesting topic~

 

I actually find the opposite happening with my doll. I HATE him in photos, but he is obnoxiously cute when I just look at him.

I also have a Lati. Perhaps it's just something about them that doesn't photograph...?

 

For me, it's as though they come to life in pictures like a stop in real time...more so then real time itself. (I hope that mumble jumble make sense)

Every time I take a shot, a part of me grows more and more attached. The more I take, the more the blend of the real-ness in my pictures and the reality in life becomes less and less hazy. They become one in the same in essence... for me. I hope someone understands what I mean...I'm horrible with trying to explain things. XP

 

I do love the photos I take of my dolls, but I think I can never like the photos as much as I love the real doll. It makes me sad that none of my photos do the real gorgeousness of my dolls justice..
I'm also a person who loves touching things, and feeling the weight of a doll in my lap is also a bit important. I could never like the photos as much because they're something abstract.

But I can't keep a doll that doesn't photograph well either. I ended up selling my Belle because no matter how much I loved her in real life, I felt so disappointed that I couldn't show that through the camera. She was really really hard to get a good picture of.

 

To me, my dolls seem more alive in real life than in photos actually. I spend a lot of time admiring my dolls, and sometimes I'd want to capture it on camera, but the photos never work out as well as how I see them with bare eyes. I find the viewfinder quite limiting sometimes, in fact!

And even the most perfected picture comes from the doll itself imo. Before taking pictures one would need to straighten the flyaways, adjust the eyes to proper positions, or give the doll a pretty face for it to look gorgeous in photographs. Much of a photo's composition comes from real life (posing, background, lighting, etc.), so why only admire the pictures? It would be like admiring photographs of a beautiful scenery without stepping outside to appreciate it in person.

 

For me, I do love my dolls generally more in photos.

But. They do look so different in real life, than compared to the pictures. Keiji, for say, is flawed horribly. But in alot of his photos, he wears flowing clothing that tends to cover it up. After buying an el, i've come to greatly dislike them. So whenever Keiji looks like an el (the eyes, nose...whatnot) i just cringe and put him away. That's why he's never in natural lighting-it makes him look like an el :/

Sage on the other hand can go from being a child to an adult in the blink of an eye. But through the viewfinder he always ends up looking like an adult now adays. But he's one i love more in person than in photos.

I do love my photos far more than i like admiring my dolls in real life. But at the same time, those photos wouldn't be here if my dolls weren't in my hands.


Edited to add:

And, in photographs, for some reason they always feel "alive" you look at a photo, you don't question how they got in that pose or the minor fiddling that was done to make the photo perfect. It just is a picture of artistic beauty. But when you're behind the camera, taking those photos. You notice those fiddly things. For me, when it's FINALLY perfect, i take the picture and my camera doesn't capture what i see...

 

I agree completely with byouyuuken. My dolls sit around my house, and I spend a lot of time looking at them, but so many times what I see I cannot capture on camera. There are photos I have taken of them that I love, but really I love the doll more in real life.

 

For me I love my dolls more in person. While I love to take pictures, I feel the pictures really don't do them justice. I often cannot capture what I see. There are times where it seems as the angle is perfect, the way the lighting brings out certain features, so I grab the camera and take the photo but when I look at the screen I think that's not what I saw! D: I sit there and stare from the screen to the doll wondering why I can't seem to capture his beauty into the photograph. It frustrates me really. Which is why I don't post all that often, the photos just don't do them justice.

 

I love my dolls in real life much more than photos...In fact I don't take photos of them very often at all.
They sometimes have the most interesting and emotional expressions that I could never capture. Especially Tora, he is my most difficult to photograph but in real life I really adore him ♥~

 

I love to take pictures of my dolls, but I find that they never look as nice in photographs as they do in person.
Therefore, I'm always striving to take the best pictures of my dolls that I can, so that one day they'll look just as beautiful in photos, too.

 

Taking photographs is what helps me really connect with a doll. Here is this simple object that with a simple viewfinder and lens can be transformed into this beautiful, living being.

As I go over every shot, I just feel this surge of affection. If ever I feel like I'm losing connection with a doll, all I have to do is set up a photo shoot.

It's strange how basically distancing yourself from the doll will bring you closer to it. I suppose that taking photographs is how I "play" with dolls.

 

I def love my dolls more in photos. I think it gives them more life, I mean, real people don't move in pictures, so the dolls look all the more realisitic I think.

I'm so uninspired by my dolls, esp my boy, if I can't take photos. But when I do it's like I fall in love all over again! XD They just have so much more...chracter in photos. I don't know... I wonder why some people prefer the dolls in person and soem in photos?

 

This is such an interesting topic! I remember before I got a BJD, I worried if they'd look as beautiful in person, and I anticipated being disappointed when I finally saw one. There is definitely something different about looking at a doll and looking at a photo... but I think it depends on the doll.

Right now I have two dolls, and there is definitely a difference between them, as far as why/how I enjoy them. My Danbi doesn't photograph well most of the time, and he sucks at posing. But he is just so adorable in person, I love him to pieces. When I first got him I gazed at him for hours ^^;; My Shine, however, looks great in photos and has a lot of personality through them. In person he's also pretty, but I do think I prefer him in photos. I can't look at him for hours like I can with my Danbi, but I don't enjoy the photos of my Danbi as much as photos of my Shine.

So I can appreciate both kinds of doll adoration xD I think it's similar to human interaction: talking to someone online is WAY different than being with them in person (at least, most of the time).

 

I must say that I really love my Natsu and his photos, somewhat equally in a way to another. But photos wise, I usually love the one I took more then the one I see from other people's camera? I dunno how to explain it. I am not professional photographer, and at times, my pictures are not as sharp as the one my friend's took, but if the picture is taken by me, I feels that he gives more of himself to me in that photo. I love the photos of him, cuz it made him really alive rather then seeing him in my world, sitting on my komputer. maybe i will think differently when I finally made him his own room etc.

but in doll wise, I still love him too. Touching him and loving him is part of my happiness. But there's thing I do without I noticed. When I am staring at his pictures, even having him beside me, I always stares at the pictures more unless I noticed and feels like he said "Hey! I am here!! damnit D: !! " XD

 

I agree that this is a fascinating topic. However in my opinion I would have to agree with byouyuuken. I just got my doll today and instantly went to taking pictures of him. Although they turn out great, I feel that it does not capture what I see in the doll with all my other senses too. I am a photographer and normally I love seeing things in print, but I must say when it comes to something like these fantastic dolls, it is really hard to capture the true joy and beauty that only comes from seeing them yourself.

 

They look nice in photos but i usually prefer them in person, at least for my dolls. It rather depends on the doll ^^

 

I love the photographs I take of my boy, but to me, him in real life means a whole lot more then the photos I take of him. He has his own little personality that I can't seem to put into my photographs. It's sort of like, he's 'just modeling' and after the photoshoots, he shows me his real personality outside of the camera lense. I can't exactly explain this, but thats how I feel towards my boy.

 

For me.................it's photos.

I love them all but they usually seem more alive in photos I think.........and seem to speak out more....because they don't actually MOVE in real life, so when I take pictures I move them around to create moments and emotions to capture........that is connecting with them too because I think if the photographer makes no connection with what's in the viewfinder, the photo will just be a 'dead' one. So the more I take, I think the more alive they become and the more I get to know them and learn about them. Those are connections and bonds you can't get just by playing with them I don't think. ^__^

 

I love looking at photos and takeing them.. But without the acctual doll in my hands it would just be 'oh, that's pretty. *moves on*'
But with my boy sitting next to me he is much more beautifull and 'real'.

 

I love taking photos of my boy and I have them at work and in my purse so I can look at him when ever I want. But when I'm at home I would much rather look at the real doll. I find that the pictures of him, though beautiful, just can't compare to the real thing. To me a photograph is just a piece of paper. And if I wasn't paranoid I would take him with me instead of the photographs.

 

it happens the same to me, as i've only seen BJD personally in Blythe meetings, where they are the "rare" ones. However, when I take alook at pictures, they look so beautiful to me... maybe it is because they look more real than in any other way.

 

It's probably 50/50 for me.

Photography was definitely my main motivator in buying my first doll. I'm not particularly good at communicating my ideas to people in words and am very insular when it comes to my art so find it very hard to work on it with other people around but wanted to experiment with portrait or fashion photography and BJD's where an ideal alternative.

The hobby has of course completely devoured me since then and they're far more than just models too me now. I can spend ages just looking at them, messing about with clothes/wigs or doing face ups etc so I do get a lot of joy out of them in that respect and adore all of them.
But I do love photos of my dolls because photographs can capture aspects of a dolls 'personality' that you simply don't get otherwise, whether through posing or the outfit they wore for that particular shoot or what ever so I also get a great deal of enjoyment out of my dolls that way too but I wouldn't say I love them more in photos any more than in person, especially as I'm VERY critical of my own photography so often end up hating a set of photos I had previously been very happy with so that doesn't really help.

 

There is something about the way the resin captures the light in photographs that is truly special, it's just not there when you are handling it. Humans are usually not in our doll photos, so they look so much more alive than when they are in the middle of a living room where everything is out of scale to them. I think they look somewhat better in photographs, the same way famous models don't look as good as their photographs in real life. But still they are special to me and I truly enjoy handling these beautiful creatures.

 

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. When I take pictures of new outfits, they look amazing in pictures and I get compliments on them all the time, but anyone asks to see the outfit I cringe and tell them it doesn't look as well as it does in the pictures. Flaws are easy to hide in pictures (especially since I got photoshop I can do wonders). Lighting is something I can control so that lets me play on her features, something that isn't appericated while she's just sitting around the house with me.

What I don't like about the pictures of Rhiannon most often is she looks like a little kid. She looks like an MSD from Volks and it kinda ticks me off. In person she has her adult essence, in pictures she looks like she's MAYBE eleven or 13 if you push it. My point in getting a Shoyo was to have a more mature body, but what the point if it doesn't show in the pictures? This is most of why I don't look at pictures of her, she just looks wrong

 

I'm the opposite. I love seeing my Momoko in real life, but I find that she's not very photogenic... and I don't really like photos of her!

 

For me, a lot of owning these dolls is about touch. Not in a pervy kind of way, but just the different textures on each doll. For instance, my two CP dolls have really smooth cold legs, compared to my Dollshe Saint who has a rougher resin which is a lot warmer for some reason. You can't capture this in photography so personally I feel photographing them is a waste of time.

Also, what I see with my eye and what the camera sees with his are always so different I just get frustrated and it puts me off taking pictures of them.

I much prefer my dolls in real life, because having them on my lap is much more comforting that a piece of paper with their picture on.

 

Oki my previous doll was a CP EL ^^ he was my first, I passed thru the problem of liking him more in photo's than in person, I always found something wrong with him in person and it just bugged me..>< but in photo's he was perfect, everything I wanted! I had to let him go because he wasnt really loved =( only by his photo's.

but now I have a Doc Twingkey I ADORE her ^^ in photo's and in real life. so it all depend on the doll really..or the type of look the doll has you know? ^^ my CP lishe arrived and I loved how she could pose (domuya body) and I adored her photo's but her face was slightly dirty which sorta made me think less of her but then I sent her out for a new faceup! ^^ I know I did love her and she wasnt like my CP EL =)

 

Totally agree!

I much prefer my dollies in real life too. Often i feel i don't do justice to my boys (especially Kaito) with my crappy photography skills. It's so hard for me to capture their emotions & personalities!

I have come across some dolls who look really beautiful in pictures but it has been a little disappointing to see them in real life...

But i have to say, taking pictures of my second boy and looking at his pictures over & over again did help us to bond better! Maybe it's the familarity that's growing

 

I actually love my dolls more in real life. I'm not a very good photographer so they seem to lose all their personality when I photograph them. They seem more alive when they are lounging around my room or flopping over while I'm trying to get them stand, rather than when they are all dressed up and sat neatly on a chair with a pretty background.
That's just me though

 

I really enjoy taking photos of dolls -- in the last year I had a great time at meet-ups and taking picture of my roommate's dolls, because I enjoy the way they look in light, the way you can capture different expressions in a static subject, and the way they can appear to have life and interact with each other. I definitely liked taking pictures more than the dolls themselves, because they weren't my dolls. Even though I loved my roommates dolls -- handling them, even being present from one of their box openings, didn't give me a well of emotion and pleasure like taking their pictures. I suppose I was thinking of them more like "models" then.

Now I have my own, and I find that photographing him is very frustrating! I don't have enough light, his wig is in his face, his clothes aren't very good... I can think of a hundred things to find wrong with it, but in the end I just like holding him in my arms. If my camera breaks tomorrow, I'll be sad because I'll lose a fun way to pass the time and connect with friends who can't know Storm in person. However, if faced between actually having my doll to hold or just having a million great pictures of him, I'd definitely still love the doll more, even if every picture he took was bad or embarrassing.

 

I really did not think about this but for me I think it is even. I luvv dressing , changing earrings, glasses and wigs. But I do take an awful lot of pics.

 

I love taking photos of my babies and I love how some of them turned out but I definitely prefer them in person

 

No I am not so good in photographing my dolls that the pics truly show they essence. I am happy though I can make them at least look close to life like. MK

 

That's a great question! I was thinking about it some days ago. I agree with Aangita: I think we usually prefer our dolls in photos because they look alive in them, just this.

 

No way! Lucifer is 10000000000 times prettier in real life then he looks in photographs. Before he arrived I'de never seen a BJD in real life before so I didnt know what to expect. He looked nice in the photos I'de seen on the internet but the real thing is L.O.V.E!!!

 

Depends which doll. Junya photographs well and I sometimes like his photos rather than him but....Riku....ew...his photos are iccy.

 

I love to take photos of my doll, but I think I prefer him in real life too. I don't know why, but I can't get his trully emotions with the camera. Maybe, it can also be because HE doesnt' like cameras XD

 

If I can take that rare perfect picture, then maybe. But I seldom get everything just right and I know my dolls have much better looks then pics ever show.

 

I love taking photos of everything I see, but I have noticed that with my pictures of my dolls, they never look as nice as how I see them in real life. If I take pictures of trees and the like, everyone oohs and ahhs, not because the trees look better than in real life, but that most people in my city have gotten used to seeing the trees and don't notice thier beauty.

Both of my dolls, but Fleur in particular, don't seem as pretty in pictures. This might be because Fleur can't hold that many poses and the ones she can, don't look natural. Alwyn, my other doll, has photos taken more often because she can hold more interesting poses than Fleur. But I play with Fleur more often than with Alwyn.

It doesn't help that Alwyn can usually portray more varied emotions than Fleur. I find Fleur so beautiful though, I love how her body looks and I love the innoence that Fleur's pictures have.

 

I have mixed feelings about this subject, now that I've sat down and thought about it. I do enjoy taking photographs of my Abadon - I spent what felt like hours a couple of nights ago taking photos of him for the sake of playing with lighting and angles and what not. But because I'm not a particularly good photographer, a lot of the good concepts for photos that I get end up ruined, or turn out very different from what I originally had planned. One of my main gripes is that when I sit down and look at my doll, I'll see an angle of his face that looks stunning, but when I try to take a photo of it, I can never find that exact angle in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen, and I always end up feeling disappointed when I see that it's just not the same in the photos as it is in person.

So I have to say that because of my inexperience, I prefer my actual doll to photos of him.

 

So true in my case, especially the part about humans not normally being in our doll photos. There are very few doll-with-human photos that I like - with meetup pictures being the exception. In-person opportunities to play dolls with others are very limited for me, so 99% of my doll time is spent alone, and the only way to share my enjoyment of my dolls with others is by showing them in pictures.

While I truly enjoy owning and handling my dolls as physical objects, it is their photographic representation that speaks to me emotionally. My main love at present is creating photostories. I find that if I've managed to capture what I was going for (usually an action or expression) I am drawn completely into their world and out of my own, which is both good for creativity and entertaining for me personally. Playing with my dolls is my main form of escapism, much like watching television is to other people, and in photographs I can submerge myself into their world more easily than in real life. In real life there are peripheral clutter and noise of the audible variety to deal with; in photos the silence and visual focus allows expression to come through unimpeded.

Also, I kinda suck at painting and hairstyling, and my fashion sense is somewhat limited by my overall budget, so the physical handling of my dolls is nowhere near as rewarding for me as styling a photograph and ending up with a single photo from which I can derive a detailed story. Most of the time my dolls are characters rather than objects. I am not all that skilled in photographic technique, and I prefer to emphasize expression and body language over technical perfection. If I manage to convey motion or emotion effectively, that is when the dolls seem most like living entities; that is what keeps me engaged.

For me personally, the objective is not to make these characters fit into my world, but for me to be able to enter into theirs.

 

This is a very interesting topic. I don't *not* like my dolls in real life, but I don't really really love them until I've gotten a great picture of them. And if I have a doll that just won't take a good picture, I tend to let that one go.

And if I find myself getting bored with the doll, if I do a photo shoot with it, I often revive my enthusiasm

Case in point: I was recently thinking of selling my 43cm Narin and Narae to focus on the bigger kids --- but I took some photos and they were sooooooooo cute!!! So they're staying LOLLL

 

Funnily enough, the smaller size of my Dolkot Leaf's head (as compared to my original girl and first love, the SD10 Sara) was also a real turn-off for me. But the Leaf doll photographed so beautifully, and had an eloquence of expression in photos that made her come alive. It took us a while to bond, but I'm now used to her 'small' head and as happy with her in real life as I am in photos The more I physically interacted with her - changing her faceup a little, finding a perfect wig - the better things became, and I consider her a beauty in the 3D world as well as the digital/photography world.

 

lol, post some photos id love to see them.

 

i like to see other people's photo's of sdf abadon's - in comparison to my abadon in the cold light of day - but in the evenings when I'm practicing face-ups or sanding him I really admire the mold for what it really looks like. I can't wait to finish him

 

I see so much more in a picture than in life. The curve of her face, the look in her eye, the way that bit of hair falls, the shadows playing across her face . . these things you can see in a photo, without all the distractions..

When I first get a new doll, I take about a hundred photos , with all different wigs and eyes and clothes, and gradually her personality begins to develop along with a bonding.

You know what they like, what they don't like, their best side to photograph, a tilt to her head, an attitude, if you will .all thru the camera..and it isn't based on whether she, or he can stand well, or pose well, it's simply based on her reaction to the camera .

I enjoy playing with them and dressing and primping .but then the camera comes out, and then it's really fun . .like freezing time . . .