My Entries and Outtakes From The 2007 Haute Doll Magazine Doll Travel Photo Contest

(Originally written on December 13, 2007)

As you may already know, I submitted some doll photos I had taken for a contest that was sponsored by Haute Doll magazine. I only took part in the contest more for the exposure possibilities than for the grand prize--which was a PictureBook Pocket Digital Photo Album from Brookstone. I already have many of my doll photos (along with photos of my arts and crafts) stored digitally in a portable device--an iPod. (My iPod can also play music and videos, which are the features that the device from Brookstone probably lacks.)

I really didn't care about winning. I was hoping for an honorable mention. Well yesterday I got a hold of the latest issue that had the contest results and I didn't get anything. According to the accompanying article in that magazine, apparently there were hundreds of entries that the judges had to sift through.

Now that the contest is over, the winners have been chosen, and my photos weren't published in the magazine, I can now post them in this blog. At least you'll know what my own entries looked like among the hundreds of others that weren't published at all.

The theme of the contest was summer travel and we were supposed to take photos of our dolls alongside tourist spots. I didn't do much traveling this summer so the vast majority of my own photos were taken in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. I know I fudged things a bit by taking photos in the same area where I live but many tourists visit both cities every year and I've heard in the past that tourism is the second largest industry in the state of Maryland (seafood is the biggest industry in that state).

The contest had two categories--Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls and Fashion Dolls. I decided to enter photos in each category in order to increase my chances of winning. I entered two photos in the Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls category mainly because I had a hard time deciding which photo I liked better. The first one is of my Fantasy Doll Tobias dressed in his pirate outfit (which I made myself) at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. In the background you can see Harborplace, the Baltimore World Trade Center, and the U.S.S. Constellation (which is one of the oldest surviving naval ships in the United States). I took this photo during a break from the Otakon anime convention that was being held in the nearby Baltimore Convention Center at the time. (Click on any of the photos on this page to see a larger version open in a new window.)

The second one is of my Orient Doll Ji during one of my few out-of-town trips that I took last summer. She is sitting at the base of one of the lion statues that guard the entrance to the New York Public Library at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City. I took this photo at an interesting angle where the lion statue looks more like a tall mountain. (For a doll of Ji's size, that lion statue is a tall mountain!)

For the Fashion Doll category, I only entered one photo. This one is of my Ellowyne Wilde doll in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. I loved how her black "Nevermore" outfit and flaming red hair contrasted with the white building. On top of it, I took this photo just a few hours after a rain storm came and went so I had this nice contrast of bright sun and lots of clouds still hovering over the sky. (I especially loved how the bright rays of sunshine shone ever so slightly through Ellowyne's red hair.)

Here are some of the outtakes from those photo sessions. These were ones that I almost considered entering but I didn't mainly because I didn't feel that they were as good as the ones that I did enter.

Edgar Allen Poe is buried in the cemetery at First Presbyterian Church in Baltimore yet he has two headstones in the same cemetery. In this photo, Ellowyne Wilde is standing next to Poe's original burial place. As the marker in the photo states, Poe was laid to rest in that location for 26 years until his body was exhumed and moved to a different location in the same cemetery where he would be buried next to his wife and mother-in-law. Note the relief of the Raven on top along with the famous words "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'" (It's also appropriate that "Nevermore" is the name of the outfit that the Ellowyne Wilde doll is wearing.)

Here is Ellowyne standing next to the final resting place of Poe's body. A much larger monument was erected when he was re-buried, including a relief of his face on the front.

Here is Ellowyne standing in the back of the Poe monument. As you can see, people still leave wreaths and flowers on Poe's grave despite the fact that he died 158 years ago.

Here is Ellowyne by the fountain in Dupont Circle. Even though I thought it was a nice shot, I didn't enter it since the Dupont Circle fountain is a relatively obscure landmark that tends to be noticed more by the locals than the out-of-town tourists.

Here is Ellowyne trying to act dramatic in front of the Columbus monument outside of Union Station. I decided not to submit those photos because I thought that monument is not exactly one of Washington, DC's more well-known landmarks. Even though Alfred Hitchcock filmed parts of his classic Strangers on a Train movie on location in Union Station, the Columbus monument is sitll less well-known than, let's say, the U.S. Capitol building.

Here are a few alternate shots of Ellowyne Wilde near the U.S. Capitol building.

Here's a shot of my Fantasy Doll Tobias and Volks Dollfie Dream in the Baltimore Inner Harbor with the Baltimore World Trade Center and the masts of the U.S.S. Constellation ship standing tall in the background. I took this shot on the second floor balcony of one of the Harborplace pavilions during a break from attending the Otakon anime convention in the nearby Baltimore Convention Center.

Here is a shot of my Orient Doll Ji in the mouth of a hippo statue located on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Here are my Orient Doll Ji and Soul Doll Kimmy sitting in front of the statue of Albert Einstein in Washington, DC.

And, last but not least, here is an alternate shot of my Orient Doll Ji outside the New York Public Library building in Manhattan.

My Entries and Outtakes From The 2007 Haute Doll Magazine Doll Travel Photo Contest

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