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Run Forest, Run.

Boris - 2 Comments

A few months ago I joined my first ever photo marathon in Stockholm. Not sure what to expect, I started to prepare. And I went a little bit overboard. And here we are. Less as 24 hours before the real deal here in Stockholm starts again, and yours truly got a starting number and is (not) ready to do it again.
No preparation at all.
Not well rested either.
And yet very much excited.

My start number from the previous one. Together with my little other half. Too well prepared.

First things first. What is a photo marathon?

But first, let’s take a step back and look what a photo marathon really is.

Continue reading “Run Forest, Run.”
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Photographing large toys – part 2

Maëlick (aka Reiterlied) - Leave a reply

Last week I talked about how I forced and trained myself photographing larger LEGO sets. Eventually, this led me to the Ultimate challenge of photographing the second tallest LEGO set: the Disney Castle.

This blog post is the continuation of last week, focusing on my two photo sessions with the Castle. The difficulties encountered and the lessons learned along the way.

Continue reading “Photographing large toys – part 2”
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Photographing large toys – part 1

Maëlick (aka Reiterlied) - 4 Comments

I’ve always felt quite uncomfortable when I have to photograph relatively large toys. I’m used to photographing minifig-size toys and when I need to move to a larger scale, I usually struggle. It’s completely out of my comfort zone. Bokeh is an important element of my photography and with a larger scale, it gets more difficult to rely on it. As an outdoor toy photographer, another challenge with large LEGO sets is transport.

For over a year now, I’ve been forcing myself to photograph larger toys, mostly complete LEGO sets and builds. My main goal has been to have photos of the entire build, not some close-up shot of details. (I consider close-ups as cheating as it would amount to going back inside the comfort zone.)

In this two-part blog post series, I want to look back at how I practiced photographing larger toys, in particular, large LEGO builds. Today, I will talk about how I rehearsed and trained myself. This will lead to talking next week about the story of how I ended up photographing the Disney Castle as the Ultimate Challenge. and what I learned along the way.

(And maybe there will be a third part later after receiving the new LEGO Dino…)

Continue reading “Photographing large toys – part 1”
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The Survivor of the Apocalypse

stuckinplastic - 5 Comments

The Story So Far

For the past month, we decided to run a little contest to celebrate the release of the LEGO Movie 2. After returning from the 2019 edition of Floating Bricks, we are overwhelmed to having found more than 170 entries. No less but ALL of them are great! Some may even be a little greater. And while many participants truly sent us into an apocalyptic mood (thanks for some sleepless nights), there was a handful that really surprised and inspired us. We do know that we´ve been letting you all wait for far too long. So grab a bag of popcorn and a drink and let us announce the winner of our Apocalypse-contest.

Continue reading “The Survivor of the Apocalypse”
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Week 4 – Marilyn Monroe

HerrSM - 5 Comments

From last week´s natural scientist and great observer Charles Darwin to this week´s person for our challenge, it may seem a long way- yet it´s just a week. Let´s put our hands together for an actress, a singer, a model and a film producer.

Welcome Norma Jeane

Human being of the week for #SiPgoes53 was born as Norma Jeane Mortensen in 1962. Many will know her baptismal name, Baker, better. And probably everyone will know her as Marilyn Monroe.

Continue reading “Week 4 – Marilyn Monroe”
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Cars and waters

HerrSM - 6 Comments

Classic Cars and where to go to

We have already posted some articles about SiP’s photoshootings of LEGO’s classic Creator Expert cars. Today I’d like to share with you the look through my viewfinder. There may be many ways to approach “the next” photo project.
One simple idea is that it’s all about a vision.

You have an object.
You imagine a scenery where you see this object.
You think of a certain atmosphere, a mood.

And then it is all about finding the right location
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Misadventures on a photo assigment

Maëlick (aka Reiterlied) - 6 Comments

I’m not into cars.
For me, a car is mainly a utility object and not something I find particularly interesting to look at. If there’s one type of car I still find remotely beautiful, it’s the old and classic ones though.

So, when we got the assignment from LEGO to photograph the Creator Expert cars, I wasn’t too thrilled. The only Creator cars I didn’t own were the ones I found the least interesting. And those that fit the least in the Finnish Wilderness. Like the Aston Martin.
Nevertheless, I decided to finally build my VW Camper Van (which I bought more than 2 years ago…) and join the project.

Photographing it was one of the most difficult photographic exercises I’ve ever done. Not only for me but for my subject too.

Here are the (mis)adventures of my camper van…

Continue reading “Misadventures on a photo assigment”

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For Your Eyes Only

Bevvy Thomas - 3 Comments

Some time ago Stuck In Plastic contacted me asking: “We are looking for a creative photographer to join us in a creative challenge…”  It turned out that LEGO was looking to get some of its iconic cars shot by creative toy photographers. Did  I accept the mission? Of course I did. 

Continue reading “For Your Eyes Only”
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Voltron

Boris - 1 Comment

A mysterious telephone call

During the summer we got a mysterious call from an undisclosed number on a faraway island, asking us if we would be interested in collaborating on a top secret project. We had to keep it a secret, but we said yes. Of course! We love top secret projects, especially when they involve our favorite kind of plastic, some serious creative challenge and a good portion of photographic fun.

Continue reading “Voltron”
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And the best wizards are…

stuckinplastic - 4 Comments

Last month, we ran a fun little contest in collaboration with LEGO and Frobricks, Cheepjokes, and Toy Photographers around the Harry Potter and Wizarding World theme. After much deliberation, the four communities finally came to an agreement of the grand winner and the two runners-up of #LEGODarkArts. Continue reading “And the best wizards are…”