Trying New Things

I'm not dead, lmao.

I moved! And because of that, all of my stuff was in different boxes and motivation to find it all was pretty much zero with work going on at the same time. Now that I have some downtime (thank you, lockdown) I've decided to try photographing each of my dolls in chronological order from when I received them. 

I plan on doing new headshots for everyone, but I waited too late in the day for the natural light and I haven't been able to find my ring light for my camera yet to use my photo tent for them so for now I'm just doing some photos using new string lights I got since I've been enjoying coloured lights for myself. 

I got frustrated arranging these earlier so while I can do two colours I couldn't get the energy to do more than the one. I'm still figuring out how I want to use these.

Moving on

Tragically my laptop fell on the floor last week and dented the corner of the display causing terrible black outs, horizontal line textures and colour variations throughout the screen. I've since acquired a replacement but I am faced once again with the dilemma of needing Photoshop but not feeling that Adobe prices their applications appropriately--their Creative Cloud system looks like a nightmare.

So I have been looking for a replacement for Photoshop and research has led me to trials for Affinity Photo and Pixelmator Pro. Despite article claims that they are very similar/intuitive/better than Photoshop, the learning curve on these programs begs to differ. Thus far I am not satisfied with either program but I reckon that is more likely due to the 20 years I spent using Photoshop and not because these new applications are all that bad.

I decided to do a comparison and edit an older photo in each program to see what it was like. I'm probably going to continue my research by watching video tutorials since neither program is particularly transparent about how to do things I want and what exactly is happening.

Early Mornings

Any time I want to do something cute/romantic/sappy the first couple I always think of is Rose and Ruby. <3

Ruby is a plumber and works long hours, which often means he's up early and home late. Meanwhile, Rose is a blogger and works from home, so he spends a lot of time missing Ruby.

Reunited

Just over a week ago my wife and I were reunited with our very dear friends who live a province over. Our time was too short so the photos from that time are few and I have some regrets about that but I'm happy we spent the time doing other things instead. <3

Here are some photos of our DDs together.

(left to right) Minti, Calla & Azure (who belongs to our friend CallMeGorgeous/micaeverywhere)

Ruby & Rose Quartz

Ruby got a new faceup a long time ago but it was around when I stopped taking photos, haha. He still needs a new wig because as much as I like the colour, it's a little too intense for him and it is not friendly with the editing process. One day hopefully.

Anyway, this is one of the actual canon OC couples my wife and I have, Rose and Ruby (Rose is hers, Ruby is mine).

To the Moon

A lot has been happening at home and as a result, there is no space really for me to take photos for the last year. Among other things, I got the bright idea of changing the doll room to the master bedroom and sleeping in the former doll room (the smaller of two bedrooms). Unfortunately this came with a lot of challenges and is still not completely finished, however there was enough progress for me to sneak in a couple photos today. :)

This doll is a Ringdoll Amethyst and he belongs to my wife. His face is so adorable I just want to squish it. ;3; His name is Telesto, and he is the Moon to Vega's Sun. :)

I should also probably mention that I forgot everything I used to do to edit photos so...this was interesting. 😂😂😂

Together At Last

So back in June my Bimong Narin finally arrived! His name is Ruby and...he's amazing, truly. Bimong did an amazing job with his body I can't believe how different it feels from the one I used to own.

Anyway, Ruby is Rose's boyfriend. His faceup is temporary (as in my excitement I forgot to remind my fiancee that he's ginger) and he definitely needs new eyes but so far he's amazing.