Tourmaline .

Emotive Toy Photographer

Toy Photography: How to, Why, its Roots & More! Featured

Hi there!

I’ve been using toys and miniatures in my photography since 2008. My work in this field hasn’t always been good, and sometimes it’s still not. But sometimes it’s really good. I’ve had my work in publications and galleries across the globe and I’m very passionate about the subject of toy photography and its deep roots. Because of this I research and write about toy photography and related subjects pretty often and maybe just maybe, you’ll find this info useful in your own life and work.

Let me know if there’s a topic you’d like to see here. More will be added in time.

– Tourmaline .

*New*

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My Wedding

I’ve mentioned I got married, but I didn’t show you any pictures!

Married March 14, things began shutting down a few days later, so we’ll definitely need a honeymoon redo. But the wedding was fun and beautiful, and we’re married! If you’re reading this and you were one of our guests, thank you for being there with us!

Click on an image to see it in a larger gallery view.

Tell me about your wedding or your dream wedding to come!

 

The Toy Photo that Fooled the World for 60 Years

The Surgeon’s Photograph

“I realised, for the first time, with complete assurance, the picture was not a fake and that the Loch Ness Monster was real and tangible; a living animal -or one that had been real and alive when the picture was taken in 1934.”

-Nicholas Witchell, The Loch Ness Story

The year is 1934, Marmaduke “Duke” Wetherell, a movie-maker and big game hunter, was hired by the London Daily Mail to find evidence of the Loch Ness Monster. He arrived at the lake and found mysterious footprints. After having the casts of the prints tested, it was found out that the prints belonged to a hippopotamus. The London daily Mail wouldn’t let Wetherell live this down.

Livid, Wetherell came up with a plan. He’d give them precisely what they had asked for, evidence of the monster, one way or another.

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Color your World: Manatee

This week, the colors is Manatee.

  • Between now and whenever you have the time share a post inspired by the color (s) on your own blog or social media. A poem, flash fiction, photo, drawing, whatever you’d like!
  • Link back to this post and include your post link in a comment below so that I can share your link next week.
  • Tag your blog post ‘coloryourworld’ so others can find your post in their WordPress Reader.

Check out the CYW home page with links to all weekly challenges as they post.

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Toy Photos of War that Fooled the World for 50 Years

“The most extraordinary photographs ever taken of air flights in war.”

-The Illustrated London News

Wesley David Archer was an American Air Force Pilot in WWI. He enlisted in 1917, but his time in active duty ended when his plane was shot down in October of 1918. The photographs he took while flying are said to be quite good, but those are not the photographs we’re going to discuss today.

In 1927, after a stint as a set designer and modler for productions, Archer and his friend began building models.

Death in the Air, Wesley David Archer
Death in the Air, Wesley David Archer
Death in the Air, Wesley David Archer

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Vogue and Toy Photography

Vogue is a popular fashion magazine. They’ve been around since 1892 and are still going strong. And through them we can draw an easy line from fashion photography to interior design photography to still lives and within, miniature photography.

Harley Weir

Vogue, Billie Eilish by Harley Weir
Vogue, Billie Eilish by Harley Weir
Vogue, Billie Eilish by Harley Weir
Vogue, Billie Eilish by Harley Weir

“Beauty is so subjective, it’s anything that moves me and I think those things are especially moving if I cant explain why. Enjoying a sunset for example is a bizarre pleasure that only humans seem to appreciate and that makes it so mysterious and so intellectual.”

– Harley Weir

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Color your World: Mahogany

This week, the colors is Mahogany.

  • Between now and whenever you have the time share a post inspired by the color (s) on your own blog or social media. A poem, flash fiction, photo, drawing, whatever you’d like!
  • Link back to this post and include your post link in a comment below so that I can share your link next week.
  • Tag your blog post ‘coloryourworld’ so others can find your post in their WordPress Reader.

Check out the CYW home page with links to all weekly challenges as they post.

Read more

The Staged Photos that Fooled Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the World, for Nearly 70 years

“The series of incidents set forth in this little volume represent either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax ever played upon the public, or else they constitute an event in human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch-making in its character.”

– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Coming of the Fairies

Elsie Wright and Francis Griffiths, Cottingly Fairies, 1917

Elsie Wright and Francis Griffiths, Cottingly Fairies, 1917

In 1917, Elsie Wright (16) and Francis Griffiths (9) would often play in the woods by their home. They told everyone they played with fairies there, but no one believed them. After Elsie begged her father for use of his camera, she was finally granted permission, and her and Francis finally captured proof of their fairy friends. Read more