Dinoczars

Why do I take photographs of toys?

For me, it's pretty simple. There is a very brief and special moment that sometimes happens in my toy photography. If I've done everything correctly, I obtain realism. At least, enough realism to make a viewer pause for a second, look a little closer and ask "how'd he do that?"

I am trying to show dinosaurs in a realistic way. That's pretty much the only thing I am consistently trying to achieve with my artwork. That is my goal and what I view as most important over everything else. That is my own measure of a successful photograph.

As I see it, there are 6 key components of toy photography to achieve a strong level of realism. They are; perspective, composition, lighting, depth-of-field, contrast and colors. To strike a strong balance between them is difficult to do and rewarding to achieve. I attempt 'realism' quite often and feel successful at it frequently enough to keep enjoying the process.

I share my photos on instagram (@dinoczars) and have a number of enthusiastic followers there. I also try to sell prints of my best shots from time to time in art shows and on my easy store (www.etsy.com/shop/Dinoczars). But both the fans on IG and the sales aren't my biggest motivators, I was shooting dinos before I was on IG and if the app crashed tomorrow, I would still be shooting dinos. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the positive reactions I get from people, and that certainly is a motivator, but ultimately, even if they all stopped paying attention to what I do, I'd still be doing it. Because I love dinosaurs and being able to recreate them in a believable way is a joy for me.

Why do I take photographs of toys?

I guess it boils down to this: I saw Jurassic Park at a very impressionable age and have been trying to bring dinosaurs back to life, in my own way, ever since.

~ Jaiken

Bridges

While Shelly is exploring the mystery fields of Big Inc. and wonders if the neocortex powers of the why are not overestimated and we all just need a daily dose of sugar to keep us motivated, I took a break from all these big questions of life and took a walk in the city.

A city walk I have to thank @legojacker for.
He reminded me on his IG feed of his participation downunder in the Melbourne InstaWalk. A walk to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Instagram (you can find the first pictures that started it all 4 years ago from the founders of IG).

I myself joined IG a year later (3 years ago !!!) and it has taken me on a photographic journey that is just starting.

A journey in the fields of digital lightroom and molded plastic.
A roller coaster from digital selfies (my very first post was a selfie on the ski slopes, taken with an iPhone 3) to epic stories of combined full frame pictures that took just a tad longer than a snapshot.

A voyage across galaxies, meeting new friends in the digital world to making a city walk in Stockholm just last weekend.

From smaller art galleries, long discussions on the Parisian boulevards and the peer recognition in the art scene in the fifties (or was it eighties) to IG, Flickr or 500px anno today.

The scene is shifting, the digital platforms are driving us in our journeys and explorations, yet there is nothing new under the sun.

We still want to connect, meet people, share our creative work and see that smile in the eyes when your image hits home and makes a connection.

And this is what Stuck In Plastic is all about.

Building plastic bridges between dinosaurs and young puppies alike.

Building bridges between a small and instant world full of plastic living in your mobile; taking the creativity to the streets of our cities. Exposing those photos on real walls, in a big format, for all of us to enjoy and connect.

Connecting our worlds, one brick at a time.

Why? vs Motivation

"Why?"seems to be the question of the day. We have been asking it here on the blog and have been blessed by a handful of guest posts that answer that question from various view points. I was recently reading Beautiful Lego by Mike Doyle and it is filled with artist essays that directly tackle the question of "Why?" from a Lego builders point of view.

In all the answers I have been reading there are plenty of similarities: emotional connection with the audience, expression of an idea, new ways to interact with a beloved childhood toy and the element of surprise at seeing a familiar toy in a new way. But is "Why?" even the right question to be asking?

Sure it is, if you are marketing to a particular audience; it would be important to know what drives your audience so you can sell more product. But if you are an artist, the bigger and far more important question seems to me to be: "How do you stay motivated?"

How does the creative individual stay motivated to get up everyday and strive to make something new. How does an artist keep creating day after day in relative anonyminity. No matter what your creative tools may be (a camera, lego bricks or your words), how do you keep going day after day pursuing an activity that will bring you only intangible rewards?

Of all the responses we have had so far to the question "Why?" I think that Legojacker was the closest to addressing the more important question: How do you stay motivated?

~ xxsjc

So what DOES it take to stay motivated? 

Legojacker

The Poetry of the Streets

There is 

a thrill to walking 

the empty city

at dawn,

plastic hidden,

feeling the cold

biting your neck

racing the morning light

as it creeps over the tops 

of the buildings.

There is a quiet 

that follows

as you slip into

dirty laneways 

dripping with 

brightly coloured 

street art,

and walls 

plastered 

in the scrawl

of invisible souls. 

Choose a spot.

Choose a figure.

Shoot.

Repeat.

At first

you may not see

the poetry 

of the streets 

alive with toys, 

but then it comes, 

tiny drifting souls

echoing desperate 

cries and laughter

among the everyday debris. 

Solitary 

back alley visits

shooting

unfeeling plastic

by the gram

to feel 

a shared humanity

in a world 

turning faceless

by the second.

~ Legojacker

Aqua

An Homage - Michael Phelps - Gold Medal Summer Olympics 2004

The last few weeks we have had our fair share of posts here on Stuck In Plastic looking for the why.

A most interesting question and I really enjoyed reading back from Balakov over Avanaut to East Mountain and beyond, including the fantastic positioning of Padawans and Jedi alike by Shelly.

One thing all posts have in common is a love for the métier. 

A passion for telling stories, painting with light and taking it beyond the instant snapshot of images that are flooding our retina devices continuously.

When I returned from a full week in the catacombs of Big Inc, another picture was crossing my retina on the flight back in. A picture I saw a few weeks ago when I was enjoying a video interview on one of those intergalactic flights back and forth. 

A picture of Michael Phelps, US gold medal winner in the Summer Olympics 2004.
A picture by Dave Black.

A picture that forced me to take a deep dive into the pool this weekend and get beyond my comfort zone and get wet.

A refreshing experience, and for sure I felt it was worth doing ! 

Now, would I stick these Speedo's to the wall ?

Not sure, but we did have great fun ...

The Speedo Look

And here is an extra Speedo shot of Julien for the other half of Stuck In Plastic as it is Shelly Birthday week and Shelly has a special relation with water ...

Happy Birthday, Shelly !

East-Mountain

"Welding" by Christoffer Östberg

Why?

Why do I spend the majority of my free time photographing small pieces of colourful plastic?

I first tried the ultimate answer to any question and realized 42 wouldn’t cut it at all (although going Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with LEGO is definitely a challenge I have to visit someday, without panic). At first this question may have seemed easy enough and the answer self evident, but looking deeper, there’s nothing simple about it. What are our personal reasons for taking photographs? The answer is different for all of us. It can be as simple as love, a story that needs to be told, or a way to revisit childhood.

I have only been active in LEGO photography for a year now, and still my reasons have changed during this time.

My wife is a professional photographer and so I have always had her support and knowledge. I have also found many talented and inspiring photographers out there. Even though I have changed the way I photograph, Vesa Lethimäki will always stand as a source of inspiration. I promised always to challenge myself in photography and find new ways to play with these bricks, to cast away the innate limitations and bring them to life, sometimes with the help of the four elements. Especially close to my heart are those pictures involving fire and natural light. It's about not having control of the situation, acting within a limited time frame with the camera to capture that which is unpredictable, be it fire, wind, water, or earth. What I appreciate about the unpredictable photographs is that they capture a moment in time, impossible or almost impossible to reproduce, triggering a realistic cinematic feeling.

Alexander Rodchenko said, “One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.” There are endless perspectives on the simplest of objects, and all of them tell a different story.

But there are other reasons besides the joy of drowning figures or setting them on fire. The main reason still stands: I am a father of two kids who love playing and being creative with LEGO. Much inspiration is drawn from them; the imaginary mind of the young knows no boundaries.

I found that even though I strive to make all photographic effects in front of the camera, with as little post-processing as possible, my goal now, almost a year later, is to express my emotional response to the scene. This has led me to modify the image captured by the camera. If I did not alter the image, I would be showing what the camera captured, not what I saw and felt in my head. Even so, I still work more with the camera rather than post-production software.

There is a story behind every image, and it is a great feeling when my family and I decide to frame one of them and hang it on the wall. The images may seem uninteresting to people, but to me they are a reminder of what ideas spawned in my mind and what emotion stirred them to life.

So why do I keep doing this, day in and day out, sacrificing sleep and mental health. I think George Bernard Shaw said it best: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” I don’t want to grow old.

 ~ Christoffer Östberg

"Mono Wheel" by Christoffer Östberg

"River Crossing" by Christoffer Östberg

Pluto

Pluto Explorations

What better to do on a Sunday afternoon than taking a hitchhike across our Universe and enjoy a brisk walk into the deep snow blizzards of Pluto.

While Pluto is considered a dwarf planet I did not bump into Fredo, his Middle Earth Companions or any of Snow White Seven Friends but was reminded of another Legend when facing the snowflakes.

A Legend that has been exploring the snowy fields of Hoth long before I got suited up and embraced the ice cold planes of Pluto.

A Legend who has many young Padawans out there looking to step in his footsteps and become the Master one day  ...

Was I trying to be one of the young Padawans today when I took this #selfie out in the deep snow ?
Did I seek the glory and fortune some has looked before ?
Was I acting like a copy cat ?
Or did I just took a selfie in the snow ?

Most interesting questions one asks himself when out and about in the ice cold and temperatures are truly below zero (on yet another planet owned by another Big Inc, not the one of the ice cold zero drinks).

A question our Legend himself asked as well not that long ago.

It seems we are all about questions these days ...

Questions on how we are defining us as being stuck in plastic, one snowflake at a time ...

Me2

Past, Present and Future ...

Exposition Universelle - Paris 1900

What started off as an innocent question on why we are shooting plastic has turned into a deep dive of old dinosaur emotions and recognition of our roots and influences. Most probably we will also be taking a little detour back to the future before we are done.

The Eiffel Tower for sure laid the foundations for the "Mechanics Made Easy" play sets found in 1901 and must have played an inspirational role in why some of our LEGO bricks contain holes in the middle.

Nobel prize winner Sir Harry Kroto actually goes as far as blaming the UK railway failures on the younger generation growing up with plastic (read LEGO) instead of perforated metal (read Mecanno).

We don't want to turn this into an epic discussion of which toy is best (remember those epic Nikon vs Canon discussions) but stay on the why we are shooting plastic.

Do we look for capturing that perfect simple plastic smile?
Do we want to create epic movie scenes in our own cellar ?
Do we ...

We will continue to search for the why, in our past, our present and our future ...

Shooting plastic, one brick at a time ...

Me2

Avanaut

"The First Attempt" by Avanaut

Why do I take photographs of Lego? That is a question that took me by surprise a couple of weeks ago. I realized I had never asked myself that question before. Finding the answer was not easy, and it took a brief conversation with my wife for me to see it.

I am photographing Lego because I am a never-was movie director making a living outside the movie industry. That's what my wife said, and it pretty much sums it up. See, I always loved movies. Star Wars, obviously, was huge, but many others as well, classics and contemporary. As a kid I made some movies myself with my dad's Super-8 film camera, but film was expensive and my dad did not allow me to hack the camera's filmport to produce a widescreen format picture. My movies were not very good; a widescreen wouldn't have improved them, but still. I would build miniature sets and models to shoot, but the miserable camera could not focus on anything, since it had no macro. I grew up watching great movies and reading all about them. As a teenager I subscribed to Starlog, Cinemagic, and Cinefantastique. Cinefex, Premiere and Empire came along a little later. I'm soaked with that stuff; it's in my DNA. I sometimes dream in 2.39:1.

That was a long time ago.

When I stumbled into photographing Lego Star Wars in 2009, I quickly connected to those times when I dreamed of making movies. I soon incorporated into the photos many of the cinematic ideas I had toyed with in my youth: widescreen, smoke, aerial particles, snow, blizzards, tight closeups and stories -- the short stories that I like to write to go with the photos. I think this through via cinema; even my "Leftovers & Alternatives" album in Flickr is allegoric to a DVD "deleted scenes" extra. Lego is a perfect medium for all this. It's playful, and there's so much to choose from. You can have a minifigure on a piece of a coloured paper and still make a strong photo with that; yet there's everything from a coffee cup to the Death Star to add, if you like.

This soon became a sort of creativity outlet, a free turf to express ideas I could not use in my day job as an illustrator. I see my photographs as single-frame plays I can write, produce, direct and shoot, but with characters and concepts I grew up with. In a way, I'm exploring an unfulfilled career path, but with Lego and present day tools, like the DSLR camera. It's old but it's new. It's perfect!

~ Vesa Lehtimäki

"Breaking in the Tauntaun (Revised & Rejected) by Avanaut 

"Last Ship to Rendezvous Point" by Avanaut

The Tea Party

Our Friends are having an awesome Tea Party

Most interesting discussions are happening here on Stuck In Plastic.

While exploring the most innocent question of Why we are shooting Plastic, I mentioned that for me (read me as in me, myself and I) the touch with the working class reality aka big Inc. is a key driver and influence.

I mentioned that escaping from the Big Inc. Madness (be it cubicle, production line or board room) into shooting Plastic was one of my drivers, yet I could not see me abandon this and retire on an undisclosed empty island with only sun, sea and hopefully some fresh water to pursue my love of photography.

I mentioned I needed both in my life balance.

Nothing special, and artists have gone before us who find their roots directly in the working class blue jeans culture or office cubicles from big Inc. corporations.  From Bruce to Dilbert, from U2 to song of innocence on the latest Apple keynote (ForceTouch anyone ?).

Yet, Shelly reads it completely different (or not) and posted her view here and turning it in a discussion of Independent Art vs Big Inc.

A most interesting road I for sure want to explore in more depth.

What is most satisfying ?

Releasing a new song to millions of users on iTunes through big Inc. Apple or going Indie ?

Most probably an unfair question, but what if we start to explore an art exhibition in the board room of Shell ?

Would you refuse or take the window of opportunity ?

Food for thought I will be thinking about more the coming days, but first we have a top secret visit to the HQ of another Big Inc. ahead of us ...

Balakov

Why?

Why do I take photographs of small plastic figures?

Well, I'm not doing it to change the world. Neither am I bringing attention to worthy causes, or highlighting injustice with my photographs. I do it for the same reason most people do most things, I do it for me. I want to take the sort of photographs that I'd like to see. I want to look at my photographs and say "that's cool, I want to hang that on my wall."

The limitations imposed by LEGO minifigures are a big part of the fun of photography for me. Bernard Suits famously defined a game as "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles". That perfectly sums up my approach to LEGO photography. I rarely use anything but standard LEGO smiling faces, or the expressionless helmets of Stormtroopers or Darth Vader. Trying to create an emotive photograph with a barely-posable, inert chunk of plastic is a challenge that I never seem to tire of trying to beat.

I take pleasure in the whole process. Combining ideas together within my own set of rules for what makes a good photograph. Finding angles and interesting lines in the viewfinder. Moving the composition around to balance the scene. Changing the lighting mood as I shoot. Playing with hues and saturation curves to add some life to the clinically clean digital capture. It's all good.

Sometimes it works, and sometimes everything goes in the trash can. As I make more photographs I'm getting better at knowing when an idea doesn't translate into a good photograph. Over the years I've tried to weed out poor qualities and work out what the essence of a good photograph is to me.

I read an excellent quote from Magnum photographer Constantine Manos today that summed up something I have never been able to eloquently put into words - "Try not to take pictures which simply show what something looks like.". That's why I take the photographs I do. To try and take LEGO photography above mere "photos of things" and make a story, evoke an emotion, or at least raise a smile.

Mike Stimpson

Autumn by Mike Stimpson

A guest post for stuckinplastic com by Mike Stimpson - mikestimpson.com
You can find Mike also on the following great social media platforms:
flickr
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Why

A most hectic week is coming to an end.

From crazy staff meetings with Darth on the latest flavor of the marshmallows being served in the Canteen on the Death Star to visiting other big Inc. headquarters near the origin of mankind in Europe in the surroundings of Heidelberg.

One question has been brewing in my mind since our epic journey came to an end and new adventures are kicking in.

A very simple question™.

A question™ that goes back to the old philosophers in the ancient world and beyond.

A question™ Simon (re)introduced and made easy in the corporate world when he spoke at TED a while back when he talked about the golden hour circle.

A question™ that we should all ask ourselves.

A question™ Shelly and I do talk often about in our posts and in our talks.

Why ?

Why are we shooting little plastic pieces most people call toys ?
Why are we going to great lengths in getting that right piece of brick ?
Why do we put our friends and family in awkward situations when we go to great lengths to get that fantastic shot ?
Why do we give selfies to our close friends and believe our pictures should be stuck to a wall.

We are not the first to shoot plastic.
We are not unique in our photography.
We are not the rich and famous.

Yet, both Shelly and I believe that being stuck in plastic here with you is the right thing, even if we don't have all the answers yet.

Why ?

That is indeed the question™.

A question™ we will be exploring in more details the coming weeks.

From neocortex to art statement.
From limbic to printing big.
From IG to RL.

Stay Tuned.