Toledo Botanical Gardens
Back to the Garden

      We went back to the Toledo Botanical Gardens. These are also called "Crosby Gardens" after the man who donated the property to Toledo. For some reason, I kept thinking about Crosby, Stlls, Nash, and Young ... and Woodstock. :) youTube lyrics

      I have been experimenting with the way my camera meters light (this controls the apeture, the shutter speed, or both). The camera has three ways to read light, depending on the area of the sensor where the light falls. For the last few sets, some of my pictures looked overexposed. For this set, I changed the gamma setting on most of the pictures during post production (on my computer). Everything up to now has been exactly as it comes out of the camera, except that I resize all of my pictures for the internet.


If this is a bee's nest, I hope it is not home!


      "Woman with Birds." This reminds me of the pigeon lady in Home Alone 2 :) The last time I had a model on this side of the gardens, she was my younger daughter. It was hot, and she almost melted before we quit.


      "I do not know if this is supposed to be a planter, a horse trough, a really big bird bath, or a boat!"


Archway on one side of the Knot Garden.


The Knot Garden.


This fountain sculpture is next to the Knot Garden.


There is a fountain in the pond near the gazebo.


In some of these pictures, the late afternoon sun washed out the colors from Feodora's clothes.


I do love a gazebo!


"Arches". Are we in Saint Louis, or at MacDonald's?


Inside the "Arches".


Feodora is standing inside the "Arches" while I fiddle with the camera.


The flowers near the cottage are labeled for easy identification.


The Toledo Botanical Garden administration building in the background.


A closer look at the flowers and their labels.


      There was an elderly couple (my age or older) seated next to this statue of a mother and a daughter. The gentleman asked if I wanted them to move, but I said no. I had enough room to shoot around them. We talked for a long time about Feodora, her sisters, and her brothers. I gave them one of my business cards with my website on it so they could look up Feodora's photo shoots.


      By the time my daughter and I got here, she had given up on modeling and ducked inside where there was an air conditioner running.


After all that modeling work, Feodora was ready to relax with a cool drink.

      We were here late in the day, and the light was very strong in Feodora's face for a lot of the pictures. We may go back again toward the middle of the day when the sun is more overhead. This is part of what caused her outfit to be washed out in some of the pictures.



Feodora's other photo shoots can be accessed from this index.



      Feodora Verochka Tychovich is a life-sized platinum-cured silicone rubber doll. She was produced by Oleg Bratkov (a gifted sculptor) and his beautiful wife Irina (excellent makeup artist), at Anatomical Doll in Vladivostok, Russia. Feodora has Face 3 and Body 3 of their product line. She has a fully articulated skeleton and can pose in most natural ways that a human can pose. There are 'stops' on the skeleton that prevent her from posing in unnatural ways. This also helps to prevent damage to the silicone.

      Feodora is wearing the "no boundaries" printed top (tan), the Comfort Waist White Pant, the Lace Drop earrings, the Lace Pendant Necklace, the Lace Motif Stretch bracelet, the Sparkling Flowers Cuff watch in pink, the Heart of the Crusade pin, the Silvertone Marquise Ring, and the Plum Gorgeous lipstick all from Avon. Her tennis shoes are from Wal Mart.

      Her wig (from Forever Young) was given to her by Irina at Anatomical Doll.



For more information, e-mail:
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