The End of It's Been A Real Slice September: Doll Blog Basics

When I had my Q&A, I received a whopping two questions. I suppose I probably should've given everyone more time for that... but I promise I'm not complaining, because one of those questions was the perfect post.

From Meritre: What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a doll themed blog?

Oh, my goodness. Where do I start? There are so many things that I love about doll blogging and I want to be able to share that joy with everyone, so here is a crash course on the basics of how I do what I do!

1. Read other blogs for inspiration. To be honest, the only reason I got a blog in the first place was because I read beast'sbelle's Belle doll's blog, Belle's Bulletins. I had recently received a much-longed for Megara doll and I realized that, hey, we could collaborate on a blog just like beast'sbelle and Belle! With that, we began to write posts. We started by using pen and paper- I wrote down what Meg told me to write and took pictures of what she did.

The first picture ever taken of my Meg,
right after opening her.

After about two months, we finally set up a Blogger account and created Meg's blog: Meg, My Life in Purple and Plastic. Sadly, we got really behind on posting. She hasn't put anything new up in over a month and is still describing last Winter, but we don't plan on ending her blog any time soon. To those who have stuck with her, thank you for your patience.

Once Meg's blog was (sort of) under her feet, I began reading blogs like Never Grow Up and Toy Box Philosopher. I can do that, I thought. So this blog was born.

The first doll I ever reviewed,
Mattel's Sparkle Anna

I decided to start reviewing some of my Frozen dolls, and I found that I really enjoyed doing it but it was very time consuming, which leads us to my next bullet point.

2. Don't feel limited by your genre. I initially planned this site to be only reviews of Alice in Wonderland dolls. Why? I honestly thought that my only real collection would be Alice stuff. With the exception of Ever After High (I only collect Wonderlandian EAH dolls,) my Frozen, Tangled, and Hercules collections are much more important to me.

I submitted this photo of the Wonderland gang to Emily at the
Toy Box Philosopher and it was featured in one of her posts!

As a result, I have made this into more of a Wonderland of different things to see and explore. Edits made by me? Check.

This one's gone crazy on Pinterest!

Cosplay tutorials? Check.

I know I'm not done yet, but I think there's only one left!

Doll photo stories? Check.

These pictures give me the warm fuzzies :}

Doll reviews? Check.

Comparing articulation of two Rapunzels

3. Practice makes perfect. Oh, how cliche that sounds, but it's true- especially with doll photography. Here's one of my earliest photos of Meg:

What is going on here?

I was trying to be creative. I took this picture on the edge of my parents' bathtub because I liked the idea of the white and the dark purple with Meg's dress. However, because of the striking color difference, it is incredibly obvious that I took the picture crooked and that Meg is off center. Also, her pose is rather unnatural. What is she pointing at? And why is she not looking in the same direction that she's pointing? Also, the light is so bright on her that it she appears to have a halo at her head and feet. Last I checked, Meg wasn't a saint.

Better... but still not great

This time my picture is too dark. Other than that, it's much better- Meg is posing more like a real person would pose, but she's still glancing at the ground just beyond my camera. She doesn't have to be looking at me to look good, but she doesn't appear to be looking at anything specific. She also doesn't look like she's lost in thought- she just looks like a plastic doll, no thoughts in her head.

Best of the bunch

The lighting here still isn't great... but the shadows make sense because Meg's poking her head around the door and is in the shadow of the hall outside of my room. Also, she appears to be peering around the door at something (or in this case someone: Hercules and Esmeralda.) She also has a very realistic pose for a doll with such limited articulation.

This is true of any doll I have ever taken pictures of.

YUCK

I took this picture of Anna when she was still in her box. I think I used my phone. You can see my thumb in one corner, she's completely blurry and looking at my thumb, and there's a big flash reflection in the corner.

One of my all time favorite photos.

Here's Anna again. She's standing next to my glass sliding door and there's sunlight streaming in on her. Her background is neutral and not at all distracting, and she's looking at something above her. The sun? A cloud? Actually, Olaf.

Taking pictures of multiple dolls can be tricky, too.

I still think this picture is sweet.

This is supposed to be a romantic moment: Herc kisses Meg on the cheek. Aww. But I took it at an odd angle, the lighting is bad, and Meg is- once again- staring at nothing.

I had just opened his box...

This picture of Eugene and Cress is better. The lighting has improved, and they do seem like they're in their own little world... but the light on his shiny hair is distracting, and he appears to be gazing lovingly at her eyebrow.

This was the most fun photo shoot. Ever.

This picture is the best of these- Anna and Elsa are looking right at each other and the natural light bouncing off of the snow makes the colors- especially Anna's hair and eyebrows- pop.

4. Have fun! This is your space to do what you want with, make it your own!

Samantha at the museum

5. Be courteous. Just because this your blog doesn't mean you can use it to platform against others! I have been on several blogs that just turned into anti-this-or-that and as a result I had to stop following one of my favorite blogs. :( People of all different backgrounds could read your work. Respect that.

Esmeralda is here to remind you that even the minorities and
outcasts matter.

6. Put yourself out there. I've had several bloggers come to me and say "Hey, I like your blog, it's similar to mine! Will you check it out?" and then we end up mutually following each other. In any event, I always visit, even if I don't end up following. What you have to share is worth sharing. You can enter contests, submit your work for blogs like Toy Box Philosopher, et cetera.

Violet understands feeling invisible.

7. Don't put off posting. This is really easy to do and I do it all the time... but then I don't share half of the dolls I've taken review pics of and am almost a year behind on Meg's blog. Do your best to balance blogging and regular life.

This is from a Meg post that hasn't been published yet.

8. Don't worry if you don't get a ton of followers or comments. Over time, I've grown my own little group of followers who mean the world to me. It didn't happen over night, but I even had people contribute their own pictures to Camp Gowonagin, which was awesome.

Maisy makes a gods-eye at camp

9. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! My first forays into blogging (under a different name and using different software) failed miserably and I am so glad that they did, because they brought me here to you guys and Blogger.

I couldn't decide what to put here, so Operetta.

10. Find a theme to start with. I find that it's easiest for me to get lots of posts up in a short amount of time if I have a theme, such as Live Your Dream December. I got a TON posted in December 2014 and I think that having Tangled as a guide was really helpful to me. My blog isn't all Tangled theme, but it was in December.

Rapunzel with an ornament.

I hope this is helpful! Thank you all for sticking with me!

xoxo

MyLittleMegara