Behind the Scenes: How the Girlettes Balance

Linda Sue at Lady Margaret's Curlers was wondering how the girlettes hold their poses. I always like to see "The Making Of"s....
so this morning I pulled together some examples and wrote to her:

I love when movies and photography achieve their special effects "in camera" instead of on a computer.
(Did you see  the movie Be Kind, Rewind, with Jack Black and Mos Def? they are rank amateurs recreating special effects with tin foil, vacuum cleaner parts, and other junk--I love it!)

Some incredible toy photographers use Photoshop, but for my own fun and satisfaction, I almost never photoshop the girlettes. (I don't even own Photoshop.) I never studied photography or anything, but I do have an iPhone that is a breeze to use and takes pretty great photos.

To provide balance, I use whatever's at hand.

The dolls wedge their feet into snow or dirt, or they anchor them in tangled grass and weeds.
Mud is ideal:

A stick stuck in or on the ground behind them may prop them up.
You can just see a hint of a stick, circled in blue, behind Penny Cooper's right leg.

(I took this with the "portrait" option on iPhone ^. I don't like it---looks like a fakey Sears studio portrait.)

Often something they're doing or holding provides balance--like how Golda holds and is held up by her dreidel here:

A little something that's in the scene can serve as a foot rest to help a girlette balance too.
Even though it's in view, the eye often doesn't register the "little something" as a prop. Like the penny under Penny Cooper's foot here:

(But Golda in her hat ^ stands unaided. The girlettes can stand on their own, even a little off-balance.)

Eeble's foot is resting on a stick:

A hairband:

Occasionally the girlettes undertake a more ambitious scene, and I have to use a more elaborate aid.
Ivy here is hanging from Penny Cooper's hand on fishing line,
and Big Doll's arms are tied around Annie Evening--you can see the white string:

BELOW: Here's a rare "photoshop": my Christmas card in 2019 of Minnie Sutherland skating on the lake.
A clear-plastic doll stand held her upright.  Her body hid the stand's vertical pole, and I rubbed out the visible base in iPhoto's "edit".
It's a bit smeary, but again, I count on the eye to overlook such things, or on the viewer not to mind if they do register it.

I would just add, this was a challenging shoot:
the ice was too thin to hold me, so I crouched on the lakeshore and got damp and cold, and I moved Minnie on the doll stand into position with a stick.
I was worried I wouldn't get the shot before the sun set, but it came together in time.

I've never used it, but some swear by Blu-Tack--you know that stuff like silly putty for mounting posters on walls. Sarah uses it sometimes. LOL--I forgot, she even titled a post "Never Mind the Blu-Tack".
And that's the thing--mostly the viewer doesn't mind.
I myself even like to get a glimpse of what's going on.

Penny Cooper always says,

"A balanced approach is usually best."