Lessons from photo staging

I learn a lot about layout improvements when I stage photos. Yesterday being Boxing Day, I got to thinking about Toronto Boxing Day sales in the '70s and '80s, especially at A&A and Sam the Record Man. Given that I have an A&A model, the die was cast, so I took some photos of the lineup outside HO A&A's on Ocean Boulevard and posted one to Instagram. 

Setting things up made it quite clear that I don't have any figures dressed in cold weather clothes, and that my figure collection skews towards older people. When I sorted out the figures I did have, I found a few that wore some sort of cool weather clothing, but I didn't really have enough to stage a proper Boxing Day lineup, so the lineup is a bit sparse. And the street looks a little too barren. It needs things like fire hydrants, newspaper boxes, trash cans and so on. So, lots of improvements to make in the year ahead.

The lighting's not quite right in this one, but the bigger problem is the gigantic camera lens reflected in the window ! With so many 'glass' surfaces on these city buildings, checking for stray reflections requires constant vigilance :-) I like the framing along the bottom provided by the two parked cars and the guy leaning against the fender, but the rest needs improvement. 

I found this one in my files from back in the fall soon after the Mortimer Park overhead was installed. This picture also looks a bit barren, but I do like the feeling of depth and openness. Also, I'm going to build some moveable background flats made from foamboard with photos of high-rises stuck on to provide some view blocking to the background - things should then not look like the edge of the world is just behind some model :-)