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matsushimaI've been trying to improve my doll photography without getting too precious (or up my own ass) about it. Fiddling, mostly.
I want this to stay a hobby, you know? Even though I'm writing about it academically, I insist that, when my doll photoplay overlaps with my academic research, I am doing play-based, not practice-based research. To quote myself,
There is pleasure at improving at a skill but that enjoyment is different when it's improving at a hobby and improving at a profession, or something you plan/hope to professionalize. (On one version of my intro page on Neocities, I split my hobbies into "hobbies I am trying to monetize" and "hobbies I am not trying to monetize.")
Lately, I've been futzing around with Lightroom Mobile presets. I've never had any success with the files you're supposed to be able to upload into Lightroom somehow? so I've been individually adjusting each slider according to filters I find (and save) on Pinterest. I posted one of these edited photos before.
Today, while trying to do something different - apply a lens blur only to a mask layer - I accidentally discovered the "dehaze" function. Fortuitously, this happened shortly after I had posted on Tumblr about wanting to learn how to make my photos look more hazy/dreamy and I was like, oh, that's how you do this! I've been surprised to discover just how much of photography is in the editing.
Here is the before and after of a photo I took of Kohaku not too long ago:
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pineisland-dolls has turned into moodboard/process journal/inspo posting. It's a very different vibe from Instagram but I wish there was a bigger doll collecting community there.)
P.S. I know Kohaku's eyes are crooked. Her eyes are always crooked. She has a wandering eye and I ordered a pair of glasses for her. This is how I like to let my doll characters evolve through play with the physical object. I wrote about how she became the kind of girl who cuts her own bangs because I bought her a cheap wig.
References
Rollins, A. (2025). Playing With/As Research: An Autoethnographic Account of Doll Photoplay in Tokyo [Unpublished manuscript]. Masters of Arts in Humanities, Self Designed, Antioch University.
I want this to stay a hobby, you know? Even though I'm writing about it academically, I insist that, when my doll photoplay overlaps with my academic research, I am doing play-based, not practice-based research. To quote myself,
I am choosing to call this “play-based” rather than “practice-based” because, although it involved the creation of creative artifacts (photographs), “practice-based research” implies a level of technical skill and artistic vision that I cannot honestly claim (Rollins*, 2025).*No, I'm not actually going to publish my academic writing under the name Annie James Rollins but only because, as far as I know, you're not allowed to do that.
There is pleasure at improving at a skill but that enjoyment is different when it's improving at a hobby and improving at a profession, or something you plan/hope to professionalize. (On one version of my intro page on Neocities, I split my hobbies into "hobbies I am trying to monetize" and "hobbies I am not trying to monetize.")
Lately, I've been futzing around with Lightroom Mobile presets. I've never had any success with the files you're supposed to be able to upload into Lightroom somehow? so I've been individually adjusting each slider according to filters I find (and save) on Pinterest. I posted one of these edited photos before.
Today, while trying to do something different - apply a lens blur only to a mask layer - I accidentally discovered the "dehaze" function. Fortuitously, this happened shortly after I had posted on Tumblr about wanting to learn how to make my photos look more hazy/dreamy and I was like, oh, that's how you do this! I've been surprised to discover just how much of photography is in the editing.
Here is the before and after of a photo I took of Kohaku not too long ago:
 |  |
P.S. I know Kohaku's eyes are crooked. Her eyes are always crooked. She has a wandering eye and I ordered a pair of glasses for her. This is how I like to let my doll characters evolve through play with the physical object. I wrote about how she became the kind of girl who cuts her own bangs because I bought her a cheap wig.
References
Rollins, A. (2025). Playing With/As Research: An Autoethnographic Account of Doll Photoplay in Tokyo [Unpublished manuscript]. Masters of Arts in Humanities, Self Designed, Antioch University.
