Merry Christmas From Hoth

This is a delightful holiday surprise. One of the most celebrated alternative LEGO photographers, Avanaut, is back from his hiatus. And what a lovely return it is. This tells the story of TK-24/7 on a lonely, but quite agreeable patrol mission on Hoth. Who would have thought a AT-ST could be so tranquil?

Emerald Star...In Glorious 3D!

I got a kick out of this MOC. One of my jobs not related to LEGO is supervising stereoscopic (3D) aspects of movies and visual effects. Yes, I get paid to wreck my vision and make artists cry, but it's for the better good and to save your eyes (you're welcome). So to see a really well composed 3D picture of a MOC is quite a treat. To see the 3D here, just cross your eyes to merge the images. Nice work infrapinklizzard!

Forced Perspective FTW

This shot tickles my visual effects fancy. Not that it's not a pretty excellent build, but the shot itself is a classic VFX trick of forced perspective, carefully arranging models of varying scale to imply distance (it's Star Wars related too, double trouble). Yes, it's a bit of a spoiler to see how it was done, but that sort of thing has always revved my engine since an early age. Nice shot Brickwielder.

Batcave

Scale lighting is a crucial component for a properly displayed and lit large model. Especially an interior and even more so when it's cinematically inspired. This Batcave by Brent Waller is a fantastic example of scale lighting, with super dramatic results. Notice how a sense of depth and scale is accomplished by using numerous small sources of light and how there's a good balance of darkness in the image ( Batman would approve). Sometime what you don't light is just as important as what you do.

Spooky

The timing of series 12 and particularly this Minifig is perfect for Halloween. I spent a happy few minutes manhandling all the packages at Wal-Mart looking for this one (to no avail, I did score a gamer and pizza guy though). This shot by DigiNik13 is superb, with perfect composition, excellent lighting and an interesting but non-intrusive background. Well done!

Vampire's Castle

It's an amazing thing when phenomenal building, great photography and serious Photoshop chops all come together. I've been watching the progress on this piece by CASTOR-TROY for months, and I'm so excited to see it's not only done, but mindblowingly great.

It's All In The Reflections And Highlights

This MOC by Moko is really cool, but not as cool as the presentation of it. It was a risky move shooting a dark green and black MOC against a very dark background, but this is how it's done. What makes it work is careful lighting. It's the reflections and specular highlights that you're mostly looking at here, and that's the secret of dark model photography. Beautifully done.

Magnificent Desolation

My first childhood memory is sitting on my dad's lap watching a NASA mission unfold on TV. I've always had a fondness of the brave men and women of space exploration, and I'm also fond of this picture by tiler. The MOC isn't particularly fancy or spectacular, but it's clean, well designed and evocative of the lunar rover. But this is all about the excellent photo. The composition, lighting and editing are great, but the subtle touches like the registration marks and the reflection of the astronaut in the helmet truly make it.

Siths On Stage

This shot by samsofy speaks to me. I've spent SO much time in the past 25 years on green screen stages, but never with a group of Sith lords. I love that this is lit, not only with some cleverly built Lifelites, but that there's a grip holding a reflector, classic. Now, what are we going to do about that heinous green spill on that helmet?

Turkey Day Is Almost Here

Everyone's getting ready for the holidays. Traditionally Thanksgiving kicks things off, but I was seeing Christmas crap in Michael's in August. Anyway, if you like football, drunk distant relatives and copious amounts of food, Thanksgiving is your day. And you only have a little more than a week to wait. Mr. Rancor couldn't wait, but thanks to DigiNik13 and this awesome picture, we can all look forward to a little gobble gobble.

Painting With Light

It's been a long time since I've done any long exposure photography, and seeing this shot makes me miss it. The premis is pretty simple. Lock the camera off and using the bulb or similar setting, open the shutter and leave it open. Then paint with light. It takes some practice to get it right, but when it works it's magical. Nice shot Jonathan.

Holy Competing Comic Hero Batman!

Ah, the good old climbing the wall gag, classic campy Batman. It's amazing what you can accomplish with simple camera tricks like turning it on it's side. And this is exactly how this cheesy effect was accomplished. Nice photography InkBlotPhoto.

Spacestation 2

This is a nice little bit of photo editing. The composition and aspect ratio is excellent, feels very cinematic. I'd love to see this same shot setup with the background image displayed on a TV or monitor, so that the reflections and lighting would carry through to the MOC. A smaller aperture would increase the depth of field too. Nice work Tobigo.

Saddle Up Apone...

I just watched this movie the other night. Still holds up beautifully 27 years later. This MOC depicts the scene where they discover the location of the colonists.  This brilliantly detailed and lit interior comes from Missing Brick, who has a whole series excellent scenes from Aliens. Custom minifigs by Matthias.

Thanks for the head's up Pete 

Ace Granger Space Ranger

There's so much about this I love I'm having trouble keeping my composure. Actually, who's going to care, the puppies? (does little happy dance, no one knows). This is an excellent little bit of Photoshop and photography. It hits the mark for total retro look, right down to the Brickarms ray gun. There's some great subtle humor in the text too. I want to watch this series right now!

*Whonk*

I'm required by the 1997 CNC (conventions of nerddom council) provisions and guidelines to blog this. In strict compliance and adherence to policies under sections 42, 1138 and 3.14. Nice one Gothamscene.

I'm a nerd, so sue me.

A Matter Of Light And Depth

Time for another photography post. This picture grabbed my attention while scrolling through Flickr. Not because of the elaborate or clever build, but because of the photography. I can't emphasize enough the importance of taking good pictures of your work. I love the depth of field and light blooming in this shot, as well as the lens flare. I know it may all be happy accident, but when all the elements drop into place like this, the results are awesome.

Moody Hoth

Flickr user j5k makes some beautiful images, and get this, it's all done in camera. Using simple lighting setups, a water tank and baking soda he achieves brilliant imagery. While the principal is simple, I can't imagine pictures like these come easy. But his patience is our benefit, and we can all admire these shots.

St. Gwydre's Church

This is gorgeous. Excellent building, excellent photography and excellent processing. This is the total package people. From a thumbnail you would swear it's just a picture of an old church. Not that this is the true goal of any MOC, but in this case it just doesn't get much better.  Outstanding work.

Polishing His X-Wing

This photo by DigiNik13 makes excellent use of depth of field. DOF typically haunts MOC photography by diminishing scale or losing detail. But when used correctly, like this, it makes the shot. It's a simple trick that's hard to master. See how you have no problem identifying the ship he's standing next to, yet Luke is set off the background by focus. The lighting is also great, with just enough reflections and highlights to sculpt and model the contours. Nice shot.