Tabletop Studio

For taking photos of Carol’s Sashas and my BJD kids I’ve found it advantageous to have a simple tabletop studio that can be easily assembled and stored away that still gives me a good background.

This is the working side view. For this session I’m using a simple mat board for the background. Mat board comes in any color you might want and is not all that expensive. I also use foam core mounting board with backgrounds clipped to it. Wallpaper can be used or posters or… I have printed portrait background images and clipped them to the foam core.

Back side view. Any scrap wood can be used for the vertical support. This happens to be a scrap of plywood but a length of 1x4 shelf would be perfect.

This is my bench vise. Buy one at Sears or Harbor Freight or online. Might coast as much as $50 but I consider it the key piece to the assembly. It will also rest on its side to support a 16x20 foam core flat to the table top.

Tom

Introducing Sophia

Robert Burns famously wrote about the plans of mice and men. This little story only supports Burns’ view of the topic.

I’ve introduced you to Megan, my Parabox girl. The “plan” was to get a Parabox boy, Sean, to partner Megan and then to get my first resin girl, probably an Angel of dream.

Then fate intervened as it is wont to do and I had an opportunity to purchase a Volks SDCute doll, the new limited edition Gretel. I’ll let her tell her own story.

Hi everyone. I’m Sophia! Tom told me that my box said “Gretel”.All I can imagine is that it was a cruel joke played on me at the factory. Although I like fairy tales as much as the next girl, as you can see, I’m chic and contemporary and have little or nothing in common with the barefoot ragamuffin in the story.

Tom rescued me from my box and got me dressed but he had great difficulty getting my wig on correctly. The nice lady that won me in the Volks lottery sent him some makeshift head caps and now Tom has my wig all brushed out and I feel like me, the real me, not that Gretel person…

Tom back! Sophia is very different from my Megan. Megan is athletic and outdoorsy. Sophia is artistic and a bit more outgoing. Megan’s favorite musician is Allen Jackson; Sophia’s is Joshua Bell. I was afraid that they might not get along but somehow it’s all working out. Now we’ll see what happens when I throw a boy into the mix.    I’m still planning to get Sean but now I understand better just how ephemeral such plans are….

Tom

Last trip update

Tomorrow we will get home so this will be the last trip update.

Today we had a reasonably short drive so we decided to take a scenic route from Whitefish to Coeur d’Alene. Along the way we stopped at a couple of lakes in the Thompson Lake chain.

Early morning mist rises from Lower Thompson Lake

Lower Thompson Lake

We were driving US Rt 2 which follows the Kootenai River. Along the way we found a park with a trail to Kootenai Falls. It was a 15 min walk to the falls overlook. The river is running quite high so the falls were spectacular.

So tomorrow we will be back home after 23 days on the road and some 7000 miles on the car.

Thank you all for sharing it with us…

Tom

Day-22 Glacier

Carol and I went to Glacier maybe 45 years ago. It was not our best trip. We were camping in a tent and it rained most every day. We spent as much time drying clothing and sleeping bags as sight seeing.

The weather report for today was 50% chance of rain with afternoon clearing. We did have a bit of rain but since we were staying in a nice dry Inn it was less of a bother this time.

Lake MacDonald

MacDonald River

Going to the Sun Road, the main scenic drive through the park closes in the winter and was only reopened a little over a week ago. This was the latest opening on record. There is still a lot of snow in the high country and all of the streams and rivers are running high. Lots of seasonal waterfalls.

An unnamed fall

Glacier N.P. High Country

Tom

Day-21 Grand Falls to Whitefish

We drove Rt 89 from Grand Falls to Rt 2 and then Rt 2 West past Glacier NP and Rt 40 to Whitefish. Early this morning we found this modern grain elevator. I have several photos of old grain elevators but I had never seen a modern facility that caught my eye. The morning sun glinting on these was special

Although Rt 2 does not run through the park it does provide some very nice images of the Rocky Mountains.

West from the continental divide the route follows the Flathead River

We found this seasonal falls just off the road. They may be small but they are gorgeous.

 

Tomorrow we will visit Glacier. We have been here once some 45 years ago. It rained! The forecast for tomorrow is AM showers so we may be visiting the park in the rain yet again…

Tom

Badlands National Park

Today we were driving Westbound on I-90 through South Dakota and on into Wyoming.This route takes us immediately past Badlands N.P. so we decided to revisit it. What I love about the badlands is the contrast between the prairie and the badland wall

I also like the varied plant life of the prairie.  Here is a thistle seed

and a scrub tree trying to survive in a hostile environment.

Finally, a classic Badlands view

When we were driving east the only rain we hit was in Wyoming, West of Laramie. Today, in Wyoming, we hit some rain again. We went through a weather front; a bit of rain, quite a bit of wind and the temperature dropped 12 degrees in 2 miles and 2 minutes.

Old Mills

When we travel one of my preferred subjects is old grist mills. On out way to the festival we stopped at Metamora, IN. Metamora is an old town on the Whitewater Canal. The town has returned to its roots and celebrates its history.

One of the attractions is the old functioning grist mill

While most of the grist mills here in the states are water powered, in Europe many of the early mills were wind driven. In Elkhorn, IA, there is an old Danish windmill which was disassembled, shipped to Iowa and rebuilt on its present site. It too is a fully functional grist mill and very different than any I’ve previously photographed.

Danish windmill, Elkhorn, IA

As a footnote, we are in Chamberlain, SD where we were in triple digit heat yesterday and it is 83 at 7:00AM this morning…

Tom