For each of my A To Z posts so far, I have taken a LOT of pictures. Sometimes, selecting the picture that I am actually going to use is hard. Sometimes, bloopers happen. Anyway, I thought I’d show you some of my better alternate photos. I will update this post as more photos are taken, so check back!
Some of these pictures have captions on them; if you don’t see any, try mousing over the images- and hopefully the captions will pop up!
Alternate Aunts
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- Anubis the Cat wants to be in the picture too!
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- I decide to go with it.
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- Anubis is blissing out.
Alternate Bastards
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- My conception of Randall’s character seems to involve a lot of tongue-biting
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- Trying to smile cynically
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- More tongue-biting!
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- A sneer? I’m not actually sure I know how to sneer.
Alternate Constables
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- He is Suspicious!
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- Ho!
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- What’s all this?
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- Puffing out my cheeks
Alternate Doctor
Alternate English Roses
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- Ladies of the (circa) Edwardian period, like, barely ever took selfies with their iPads.
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- See Last Comment
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- How do you sprawl gracefully on a blanket with flowers and a parasol?
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- Seriously, how?
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- People are always doing this sort of thing in old pictures
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- How is this so complicated?
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- Seriously, how do you do it?
Alternate Foreigners
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- Not quite ready for the picture…
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- Is it just me, or do I kinda look like Tom Waits in this one?
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- Sinister?
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- A buffoon!
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- Totally Sinister.
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- I love this one, but it wasn’t right for the character.
Alternate Mrs. Grace Merriweathers (for Gossips)
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- Too cutesy
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- Too sad
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- Too happy
Alternate Heirs
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- Top-hat trouble
Alternate Inspectors
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- Here you can see that I have theatical putty on my nose
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- The nose is looking rather better here
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- I headed over to show my family my new nose
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- My sister and I amuse ourselves with my Fast Camera app
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- Abby (my sister) is probably secretly a wood nymph
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- She is certainly delightfully odd
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- Abby and I being odd together
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- “Look at your nose, sir!” (Ten points, good for absolutely nothing, if you can tell me what I’m quoting)
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- Seriously, the nose seemed to grow larger as the day wore on.
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- Yep. The Nose is still there.
Alternate Kitchen Maids
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- What am I doing?
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- What is potato?
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- Peeking!
Alternate Ladies
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- Weirdly intimate moment with reflection in mirror
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- I start really enjoying being Lady Cadblister
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- Really enjoying it.
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- Taken in our weirdly narrow hall (my camera is on a shelf in a closet, btw)
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- I am really enjoying being veiled and spooky
Alternate Nephews – The Hon. Percy is Not A Nice Young Man At All. I had considerable difficulty in contriving to make him look sufficiently unpleasant.
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- This one looks, somehow, too feminine, body-wise.
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- Note the Godzilla figures in the background.
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- This captures some of the ratty essence of the character.
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- He looks too amiable here
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- Taking a break from making faces- they really are a strain!
Alternate Other Women – or should it be Alternate Other Womans? Probably. Anyway, this is one of my favorite costumes of the whole series. I recently wore a somewhat modified version of this get-up to the Steampunk World’s Fair (which was, by the way, awesome).
Alternate Postmistresses
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- Adjusting the lighting
Alternate Quarreling Couples – these pictures feature myself and my boyfriend. No actual quarrel took place; no relationships were damaged in this shoot.
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- The position in this one is a little odd
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- Sulking!
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- I am seized with a sudden rage!
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- He has apparently said something quite shocking
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- Alec falls out of character
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- Roar!
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- I fall out of character.
Alternate Richard Crabtrees
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- The shadow… of me holding an iPad!
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- Can one photo-bomb one’s own portrait?
Alternate Tomboys
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- Trying to look as sporty as possible
Alternate Unwilling Investigators
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- What sort of face does a Colonel Of The Old School make?
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- Is it this one?
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- The beard is sort of salt-and-pepper… sort of
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- I rip off my whiskers- or some of them- and the situation improves
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- Relaxing my neck muscles after making my Colonel-face
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- more relaxing
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- I am looking at Alec, who is trying to coach me in how the English salute
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- Is this right?
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- I don’t know. I think Alec said something funny. But… I just don’t know.
Alternate Vicars
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- All Edwardian Vicars had side-whiskers. It was the law. At least, that is the impression I got from my research.
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- This is, perhaps, A vicar. But not the vicar in my story.
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- This is also not the right sort of vicar.
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- In this one, I think I resemble my father. He does not have side-whiskers, by the way.
Alternate Witches
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- Outside shots were taken in my front yard.
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- During this photo shoot, one car drove slowly by my house three or four times.
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- A friendly & reassuring smile
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- Anubis the cat wishes to be my familiar.
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- Color-changing tea lights add magic to anything
Alternate Xs
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- X was, I think, the most challenging to photograph
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- Man on one side, woman on the other, so as not to reveal X’s identity in the featured image
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- It was tricky to take a picture in which one side or the other didn’t recede from view
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- Also, some were too dark
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- Some of the too-dark ones are rather neat, though
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- Like this one
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- And this
Alternates for The Yeoman
Ah, The Yeoman. This is another favorite of mine. I took the pictures in our front yard at night, and made Alec sit out with me, doing things on his computer, because I thought this might normalize things for anyone who happened to see me. “Auugh!” They would think. “What the hell is that?” And then they’d see Alec, composedly doing computer-stuff in the vicinity. “Ah,” they would say. “That guy isn’t worried about the ghost or crazy person or whatever. I will not worry either.”
This may or may not be logical. However, it made sense to me at the time.
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- The Yeoman was the most complex set-up of all
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- A fog machine and a spotlight were both involved
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- I don’t know.
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- I wore latex gloves on my hands to give them a strange texture
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- I also wrapped lace around my face to make the face vague and indistinct
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- Also, I did this make-up under the lace
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- This one is a bit too vague
Alternate Zebadiah Sneakforks
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- Here you can see that I’ve drawn lines between my nose and mouth; in different light, it looks more convincing. I hope.
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- Sneakfork stands up straight!
Fantastic!
I can’t belive the ammount of work you’re doing for this challange. I think writing a story (and a mystery story at that!) it’s alreasy quite a fit, but getting the pics as well!
I was actually wondering how you got the pictors. I didn’t imagine you’re making them by scatches yourself.
I tip my hat at you.
Hey Jazzfeathers- I take the pictures on my iPad, with an app called Fast Camera, which takes a picture every x seconds, with x being set-able by the user. This allows me to take a batch of pics without having to fiddle, which is handy. Then I load them onto my computer, apply a sepia or an “antique” filter, and slap on a frame. That part isn’t too work-intensive, though finding a good setting for the picture and fiddling with lighting does take some time. The dressing up and making up is a bit time-consuming, but it is also fun, and I’m getting faster at it already. The writing is the part I like best, and after the first installments it has been flowing pretty freely. Once you’ve figured out what needs to happen in each scene, it gets a lot easier- at least, that is what I am experiencing. I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t hit a block!
I am so glad you are enjoying my mystery!
Love the photos, and the captions! You should be in theater.
Lori- thank you! But I actually can’t act- at all- it is like I have a weird anti-talent when it comes to acting, at least on a stage… but I do love doing different make-up and giving myself different noses and Emoting in front of my camera. That seems to work out ok! So maybe I should do make-up for theater… hm…
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