9 minute read
A Photographer’s Story: Arvin Coloma
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Lavender Fields.
A Photographer’s Story: Alicia Costalago Meruelo
Article and Photography by Alicia Costalago Meruelo Instagram: @taskera_photography
Allow me to introduce myself. I’m a Spanish engineer currently living and working in Germany. I’ve always been interested in arts and crafts and I have been collecting and building LEGO for years. I love to travel and take photographs of my trips. But with the birth of my son and the beginning of the pandemic happening together, I was kept stuck at home. I started my toy photography journey in 2021. During the lockdown I was searching for an escape when I found toy photography on Instagram. I started building landscapes and scenes on a small table in my house and posted those pictures online. Slowly, I fell in love with the hobby and started learning everything I could about it, from building dioramas and creating MOCs to photography and post-processing. My pictures usually represent outdoor scenes and figures in nature. There are moments of peace and wonder, including both magical and mundane moments. I use fairytales, books, and movies as references. Fantasy is always the best inspiration for my photography, even if what ends up in the picture does not look magical. The Lavender Fields photograph started out as an interpretation of a scene in the movie Big Fish, where the main character gives her beloved a field of daffodils (her favorite flower) in front of her house. I imagined what a special thing it would be when you grow old, to take care of such a wonderful present and be reminded of that love every morning.
The Empire is on the march. Hello there! I’m Richard Henry, aka @tongwars on Instagram. Born in England, my family emigrated to Australia when I was ten years old. I live on the New South Wales Central Coast which is about an hour north of Sydney. I’m 44 years old, married, and dad to four beautiful girls. I’m a Registered Nurse working in a busy hospital and toy photography has been my hobby for the past four-anda-half years. I was introduced to toy photography in late 2017 by a workmate after we watched The Last Jedi trailer. He told me of his friend Jay Heywood (please checkout @budfutu on Instagram) who is a fellow massive Star Wars fan who builds and photographs his own scenes. Jay’s work is toy photography perfection, in my view. I was instantly inspired to see whether I could create similar style shots, but using Star Wars LEGO. At the time I only owned a small amount of Star Wars LEGO, but as you can imagine my collection has grown quite a bit over the past four years. I was instantly hooked!
Attracted to Toy Photography by Star Wars
I started toy photography in late 2017. I’ve always had a creative side, but never really had an outlet to focus on. As a child of the ’80s, I grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy and was drawn back to Star Wars in the early ’90s with Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy. I’ve remained a massive fan since, especially of Star Wars fan art paintings.
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A Photographer’s Story: Richard Henry
Boba Fett with his ship. When it comes to tools, it’s pretty simple. My lights are Manfrotto, of which I have three. I’m a big fan of Atmosphere Aerosol and I also use canned air from time to time to create particle movement. Other items include things like baking flour for snow. I’ll use a tea light on occasion. I don’t use wires, but I do rely heavily on Perspex stands in shots that contain a flying vehicle. I use a number of different iPhone apps for editing, depending on the shot. My standard editing apps are Afterlight for basic colour and tone adjustments. I use Retouch to remove any unwanted items like the stands holding up my flying vehicles. I may use other apps depending on the shot. If I’m using an image ‘stacking’ technique seen in shots such as my invasion series that feature multiple AT-ATs, my go-to app is called Photoleap. For additional effects such as planets, engine glows, etc., I usually use either LensFX or AlienSky. I’ll also add my watermark.
I’ll then do a final edit in Instagram before posting. Given that Instagram is the social media platform I use, using their native editor gives the shot the final touch to best suit the app it will be seen on.
Waiting for Imperials.
Motivations and Audience Response
When it comes to my photography, it’s simply a case of hoping that people like what I’ve made. Hopefully I’m creating something that is as unique as possible and nice to look at. You can’t make every shot epic looking. I don’t put pressure on myself that every new post has to be better than the previous, but I do have a standard that I like to at least maintain.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive during the time that I’ve been doing this. It’s impossible to single out a specific memorable moment. Any feedback is great. For me, I’m lucky to cross multiple communities as feedback comes from LEGO fans, Star Wars fans and toy photography fans. I’ve displayed my work at some conventions over the past year, which has also been very rewarding. There’s a big difference in seeing face-to-face reactions as opposed to online feedback, both of which are incredible. From an Instagram perspective, it’s great to get a follow from the top accounts. While a large following is great, I think it’s more rewarding to get a follow from my peers who I consider to be the very best in the genre. Some of these guys and girls are beyond talented and truly inspiring. For them to consider my work worthy of a follow is a very satisfying feeling.
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Building
Minifigs in Motion
Article and Photography by Shelly Corbett
Transparent bricks are used to help stabilize minifigures.
The final photo. Tools of the trade.
I’m here to show you how to get your minifigures off the ground. Your minifigure will be walking, running and even flying before you know it with these simple tricks involving wire, miscellaneous LEGO parts, and common household objects. When you master the art of toys in motion, your figures will come to life. As you’ve probably already figured out, minifigures only stand on their own in a few simple positions. When you start placing your figures in nature, keeping them standing can either be an exercise in patience or incredibly frustrating—or both. Once I watched a cute little BB8 roll over a cliff, never to be seen again (by me) because it wasn’t properly secured with tac.
Tac / Poster Putty / Adhesive Dots
Tac or the equivalent is your first line of defense when it comes to keeping your toys in the proper position. A small ball of tac placed on one or both feet of a minifigure can keep it in place on most dry, hard surfaces. When I’m able to anchor one foot down, it gives me the ability to angle the figure forward. And when I push the other foot back, I create a feeling of forward movement. These subtle adjustments are the difference between a static looking figure and one living a full and active life! And don’t forget to position the arms in opposite directions from the legs for even more believability.
Technic Pins / Light Saber Hilts / Custom Stakes
Okay, now that you’ve mastered tac, what happens if you’re outdoors and the surface you’re working on is either soft or wet? Moss, sand, dirt, snow, and ice all need a solution other than something sticky. This is where having a few Technic pins comes in handy. You can push these into porous material and then attach your minifigure. Using any ridged LEGO part or material that can be pushed into sand, dirt, or moss, gives you the ability to pose your minifigure on a variety of
Building
Coming soon to a theatre near you: Kermit the Frog in No Time for Flies.
Toying with Light!
Article and Photography by Scott Murphy Instagram and Twitter: @toyingwithlight www.toyingwithlight.com
We’re living in a golden age of photography. It’s never been easier to take a picture and share it with the world. With over six billion smartphone users worldwide, most of us carry imaging technology in our pockets that we didn’t dream of even ten years ago. Along with the latest cameras, lenses, and software available to us, it’s truly an exciting time for photographers. On Instagram alone, over a thousand pictures are uploaded each and every second of the day. And yet, some pictures still stand out from others. How? Why? With LEGO photography, where we can often control almost every aspect of the scene, I believe that investing time and energy in the creative process can help make that difference.
Let me share my approach, which I’ve adopted from photographer Ming Thein. He teaches that there are four things to consider in making an image that ‘works’: • The Idea • Light • Subject Isolation • Composition
The Idea
It all begins with the idea. Before I pick up the camera, I aim to have my concept or story clear in my mind, along with a pretty good sense of what the final result will look like. But where do ideas come from? Some of the best advice I’ve read was Stephen King’s memoir On Writing. This may sound unlikely, until you remember that the word photography come from Greek and literally means “writing with light.” And what advice did I find applicable to me as a photographer? King said that when creating a story, the situation comes first, and the characters come next. Once these are clear in mind, the story itself can begin to unfold. And the most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a what-if question. For example, what if Quentin Tarantino directed a Muppets movie? Or, what if machines were alive?
Henson 25:17 The path of the righteous Muppet is beset on all sides by hilarity and the laughter of humankind. A mother’s love is like nothing else in the galaxy.
Creative work is at its best when the imagination is having fun. Shoot the things you enjoy, bringing them to life in LEGO form with your own personality and experience. As for me, I enjoy books, music, movies, and Gen X pop culture, and you will see this reflected in much of my work.
