I have Lightroom!

I am immersed in learning enough features on this software to make the cost effective! And relieve my mind if disaster strikes one of my devices.

My iPad screen is smashed. I am completely reliant on my iPad with its photo sorting capabilities. If my iPad stops working, will I have everything backed up? I lie awake at night...

I have notes dedicated to my photo process. My process has changed a lot as my photo stories demand more features...comic bubbles, transfers between devices, moving photos to create stories from my photo shoots, flagging favorites....

The process is pretty labor intensive. Daily photos means daily attention, so I have to choose sometimes-sweep or photo sort, clean the attic or create a photo story.

Several months ago I asked my photographer daughter how she organizes her photos. Photoshop, mom, she said-with "of course" in her voice. Not me, I thought. It is too challenging for me right now.

So I used the album sorting feature on my iPad and downloaded CopyTrans to get my sorted albums over to my laptop, where I could then watermark them and add story bubbles in Comic Life.

But I had to go back to my iPad to move my photos around for a story, then hunt each photo down in its laptop file to upload them to my Hiya Dolly, or to Comic Life, then Hiya Dolly. To be sure the photos were in order. But it was working! Well enough.... And then the screen smashed. Thank goodness the screen protector has kept the glass from falling away, and the iPad itself still works, for now...

After a couple of weeks of photo-process-uncertainty, I explored Photoshop, and researched Lightroom capabilities, felt stirrings of excitement at the possibilities, and took the plunge. And now I have a year to make it all worthwhile.

As I spent my weekend listening to and reading Lightroom tutorials, and tried out some of the features, I began to understand how it could be of use to me.

And just like the people who buy a laptop just so they can email their family and friends, I have found the one feature that will make the whole purchase and hours of learning time worthwhile. And that was just in one weekend. What can I do in a whole year? I am trying not to get dizzy.

As I write this I am double tasking by setting up Lightroom on my iPhone, where I take all my photos. And I am "importing" my most recent photos into Lightroom where I can set them up in Collections, manipulate them, flag them, and export them to my hard drive ready to watermark and add talk bubbles, and upload for you, dear reader. 

This possibly magnificent photo tool acquisition will probably not even be noticed by you...

But, maybe, just maybe, it will change my life. Or, at least shorten my photo process by a step or two so I can get the attic cleaned before the snow flies.

And if my smashed iPad screen causes that device to stop working one day, my work might not be sent into a confused upheaval accompanied by deep emotional upset.

I might be all right. I have Lightroom...

PLEASE! If you use it I would love to know the feature you can't live without! :)

Choosing dolls for your collection is a personal thing, but we have reasons...

Once we identify why we are collecting dolls, or what we love about it, the choices we make can be based on a variety of factors:

• the age and era of the dolls we collect
  
• the designer or company
  
• the look of the doll
  
• the material the doll is made of
  
• the size we want
  
• the handle ability
  
• the use it will be put to
  
• the source
  
• the cost
  

And we may ask, how will the doll fit in to the collection? Are we filling a gap? Are we adding variety? Are we buying yet another favorite? Are we buying at all...maybe it's a trade. Perhaps you are creating your own doll. 

For some of us, there is a lot of excitement when we are choosing, or waiting for a doll to arrive, whether it's a vintage doll, a ball joint doll, a Smart Doll, or a Little Darling, or another Little Darling...

Think about your process as a doll collector!

How do you choose a doll?

On Doll Collections...

Doll Collections create a space challenge. And questions of doll protection...

Do you keep your dolls in their boxes? in glass cases? in darkened rooms?

No matter how careful you choose to be here are a few good tips:

*Keep your dolls out of direct sunlight

*Keep pets away from the areas you use to store your dolls, or use your dolls.

*Prevent small children from unsupervised play with dolls you choose to preserve (keep crayons in a separate room!) If you choose, bring the dolls out for special times to develop respectful use of certain dolls. Great teaching time! 

*Be sure your hands are clean when you handle your dolls.

For more careful handling:

Use cotton gloves to handle dolls if you have fragile vintage dolls, or any doll you want kept in pristine condition.

*Cover dolls with a soft cloth or keep them in enclosed shelves to keep dust off.

There are a lot of creative, attractive and unique ways to store or display your doll collections.

Check out my Pinterest Board for ideas. Doll Collections

And check this link I just found with some great photos of doll collection displays that add to a home's features. Doll Collection Home Design Photos, on Houzz

The best advice I have been given is to be sure you love the dolls you pursue, or enjoy the process, or both.

Doll lovers all have particular reasons why they gather these little (and not so little) replicas of humans and creatures.

For some collectors the value is important. For some it is "vintage", or "modern" that is important. For some it is the dolls by particular doll designers they pursue. For some it is the motivation to express a skill-such as sewing, knitting, repainting, or photography.

Doll collecting can be the way to a career, a method of supporting a family, a legacy for your children, a reason for social interaction, or a simple hobby.

Whatever is the reason we do it, doll collecting offers a promise of some kind of satisfaction.

And if we are good at it or enjoy it, the promise is fulfilled...