It’s seems an odd reminder to someone whose hobby is photographing and creating stories around dolls, but I seem to have forgotten all about playing with the little things. I got so caught up in the posing and the photographing and the photoshopping and the layout that I’d entirely forgotten the magic at the center – creating a tiny, inhabited world. This week, I’ve been recapturing that magic.

If you watched one of my photography sessions – especially the last one with the Bronte-esque sisters Charlotte and Emily – you’d think I’d been forced into playing with dolls as penance. I’m all tense and grumbly, trying to get them into the right pose (in fairness, the poses for the last episode were terrifically hard, and those particular dolls are unreasonably hard to pose). But, still, really. I mean, it’s a hobby – the thing that’s *not* work. But I can get into this space where I’m so focused on the distance between what I’m trying to accomplish and what I’m actually capable of, that I forget that I actually just enjoy the process as a process.

So, this week I spent much more time playing. Of course, it helps that this set of dolls are a dream to pose, and that every angle I photograph them at seems like the right angle. It also helps that I’m emotionally attached to this story in a way that I’m not with the In The Picture premise.