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
- Anubis the Cat wants to be in the picture too!
- I decide to go with it.
- Anubis is blissing out.
Alternate Bastards
- My conception of Randall’s character seems to involve a lot of tongue-biting
- Trying to smile cynically
- More tongue-biting!
- A sneer? I’m not actually sure I know how to sneer.
Alternate Constables
- He is Suspicious!
- Ho!
- What’s all this?
- Puffing out my cheeks
Alternate Doctor
Alternate English Roses
- Ladies of the (circa) Edwardian period, like, barely ever took selfies with their iPads.
- See Last Comment
- How do you sprawl gracefully on a blanket with flowers and a parasol?
- Seriously, how?
- People are always doing this sort of thing in old pictures
- How is this so complicated?
- Seriously, how do you do it?
Alternate Foreigners
- Not quite ready for the picture…
- Is it just me, or do I kinda look like Tom Waits in this one?
- Sinister?
- A buffoon!
- Totally Sinister.
- I love this one, but it wasn’t right for the character.
Alternate Mrs. Grace Merriweathers (for Gossips)
- Too cutesy
- Too sad
- Too happy
Alternate Heirs
- Top-hat trouble
Alternate Inspectors
- Here you can see that I have theatical putty on my nose
- The nose is looking rather better here
- I headed over to show my family my new nose
- My sister and I amuse ourselves with my Fast Camera app
- Abby (my sister) is probably secretly a wood nymph
- She is certainly delightfully odd
- Abby and I being odd together
- “Look at your nose, sir!” (Ten points, good for absolutely nothing, if you can tell me what I’m quoting)
- Seriously, the nose seemed to grow larger as the day wore on.
- Yep. The Nose is still there.
Alternate Kitchen Maids
- What am I doing?
- What is potato?
- Peeking!
Alternate Ladies
- Weirdly intimate moment with reflection in mirror
- I start really enjoying being Lady Cadblister
- Really enjoying it.
- Taken in our weirdly narrow hall (my camera is on a shelf in a closet, btw)
- 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.
- This one looks, somehow, too feminine, body-wise.
- Note the Godzilla figures in the background.
- This captures some of the ratty essence of the character.
- He looks too amiable here
- 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
- 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.
- The position in this one is a little odd
- Sulking!
- I am seized with a sudden rage!
- He has apparently said something quite shocking
- Alec falls out of character
- Roar!
- I fall out of character.
Alternate Richard Crabtrees
- The shadow… of me holding an iPad!
- Can one photo-bomb one’s own portrait?
Alternate Tomboys
- Trying to look as sporty as possible
Alternate Unwilling Investigators
- What sort of face does a Colonel Of The Old School make?
- Is it this one?
- The beard is sort of salt-and-pepper… sort of
- I rip off my whiskers- or some of them- and the situation improves
- Relaxing my neck muscles after making my Colonel-face
- more relaxing
- I am looking at Alec, who is trying to coach me in how the English salute
- Is this right?
- I don’t know. I think Alec said something funny. But… I just don’t know.
Alternate Vicars
- All Edwardian Vicars had side-whiskers. It was the law. At least, that is the impression I got from my research.
- This is, perhaps, A vicar. But not the vicar in my story.
- This is also not the right sort of vicar.
- In this one, I think I resemble my father. He does not have side-whiskers, by the way.
Alternate Witches
- Outside shots were taken in my front yard.
- During this photo shoot, one car drove slowly by my house three or four times.
- A friendly & reassuring smile
- Anubis the cat wishes to be my familiar.
- Color-changing tea lights add magic to anything
Alternate Xs
- X was, I think, the most challenging to photograph
- Man on one side, woman on the other, so as not to reveal X’s identity in the featured image
- It was tricky to take a picture in which one side or the other didn’t recede from view
- Also, some were too dark
- Some of the too-dark ones are rather neat, though
- Like this one
- 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.
- The Yeoman was the most complex set-up of all
- A fog machine and a spotlight were both involved
- I don’t know.
- I wore latex gloves on my hands to give them a strange texture
- I also wrapped lace around my face to make the face vague and indistinct
- Also, I did this make-up under the lace
- This one is a bit too vague
Alternate Zebadiah Sneakforks
- Here you can see that I’ve drawn lines between my nose and mouth; in different light, it looks more convincing. I hope.
- 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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