Passion can be found in various fields and situations. Go to a concert, a classical one with a huge orchestra or a rock gig: if the musicians are passionate about their work you will be able to feel it.
Whenever a cook celebrates his craftsmanship to a certain level you will taste it.
And you don´t have to study arts to understand what drove a painter to create a masterpiece that really touches your heart.
Passion and Toyphotography
To me, Passion is and has always been not only an emotion but also a very special energy. A quick look at Wikipedia confirms that impression.
When asking fellow photographers why they photograph toys, so far most replied with “For the fun of it”.
But what got you started in the first place?
What makes you take the time to set up a scene on your dining table?
What drives you to go out into the streets, the familiar neighborhood or the unknown wild to snap some pics?
What makes you get up before sunrise, while the world is still asleep?
On weekends, when you should recover from a stressful week?
To me, the answer is Passion. The one feeling you get when you spend time adjusting bricks and minifigures until they look like what you had in mind when you had the idea for that certain picture.
You can see it in last weeks submissions:
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Harmonious or obsessive?
There are several types of Passion. It can be the harmonious kind. The one that gives you a good feeling and that may push you to explore your abilities and possibilities as a photographer.
Then again it can be an obsessive type. The one that tells you to get that one set because “you’ve always wanted it so badly” or the latest one because everyone else has it, too. Maybe some of us have experienced that one as well.
I’ve always admired people who are passionate about what they do. Because this driving force led them to great results. And in this case, a result doesn’t have to be a possession. It can be a personal achievement or a creation.
Sports cars
One of the most passionate people I had the pleasure of shaking hands with is Magnus Walker. What impresses me the most about him is not his collection of vintage Porsche 911’s but his passion for the cars themselves.
At the age of 10, his father took him to a motor show where he saw his first Porsche. He then wrote a letter to the sports car manufacturer saying that he wanted to work for them. They replied with a letter asking him to finish school first. He later moved to the United States and became a fashion designer but the passion remained.
Walker is well aware that there are models he will never possess but that doesn’t bother him; he simply enjoys to drive most of them for once. And after a documentary about his fascination in 2012, he became one of the world’s most visible faces of the Porsche and car collecting scene.
When I learned that he´d come to Hamburg for a gathering I knew I had to seize the chance and have his picture taken with the LEGO version of one of his childhood heroes.

My Passion
I may have never written a letter to Billund (yet) but I´d always grab a chance for a single photograph just to see an idea come to life .
Do you also feel passionate about toy photography? And if so what type do you tend to follow? Did your passion ever get you in trouble?
A Non-Belgian living in Hamburg, Germany. Curiosity-driven and mostly to be found on tiny adventures and great journeys.
The discussion about harmonious and obsession passions is so interesting. I tend to only consider as passion the harmonious ones and the obsession ones as something completely different because it seems my life would be so much easier if I could free my mind from them.
(I’ve just realized that the two guys behind Magnus Walker make some pretty funny faces! Particularly the one on the left.)
(I saw the “background” instantly but the man had already shaken my hand and turned around)
I can relate to that harmonious/obsessive thing and must admit that sometimes I do fade out the obsessive truth to make me feel better. Humans are interesting that way. Heard more chapters of “Homo Sapiens” today and can highly recommend it to you.