Blog on Maëlick in the North

Photography Diary - 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 12:27:58 +0200

It’s been over six months since my last blog post, where I announced I was leaving my job and turning a page of my life. Since then, I’ve been radio silent online about both my life and photography.

Bye bye Oulu

Around the time I posted my last blog post, I actually already knew I had gotten a new job in Luleå. It was already almost certain I would move to Sweden, but I didn’t know yet all the details about when and how I would start the new job.

Turn the page

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 18:50:25 +0300

Today was my last day.

For five years and a half, I’ve been working at the University of Oulu. I’ve spent almost 15 years of my life at a university. Five as a student, and ten as a researcher. I’m now turning a page and closing a chapter that amounts to half of my life.

The situation had become so unbearable that I can’t be sad. Yet, it’s weird.

I went for a last walk around the campus. Just before Midsummer, it’s all calm and empty.

The Magical Creatures

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 15:58:00 +0300

A selection of some of my favorite photos of the LEGO Elves creatures, and a few other intruders that have never been published before.

Fire Lion

Storm Wyvern

Midnight turtle

Turtle Family

On the beach

One small step

25/52 - Eagle in Action

Midwinter Fun

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 19:42:00 +0300

Winter may be dark and cold in the North, but that doesn’t prevent the Elves from enjoying the great outdoors.

The Elven School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 20:42:00 +0300

The Adventures of Faran Potter, Azari Granger and Ron Elfsley.

Any similarity with fictitious events or characters may (not) be purely coincidental.

Bellatrix Elfstrange

The Dragons are coming

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 20:52:00 +0300

A selection of some of my favorite LEGO Elves dragon photos.

The Dragons are coming!

Harmony

Resting in the Lair

Protecting the Lair

Breakfast

Eira at the beach

Atop Festvågtind

Southern Dragon

Elandra the Dragon Queen

Early sunrise

Late Sunset

Laila

Playing in the Water

Atop Flakstadtind

Marmorslottet

Laksforsen

Laila at Saint Anthony’s Chapel

Games in the Woods

Altea

Hide and Seek

Autumn is coming!

Ready to take off

The Elves

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 22:52:08 +0300

A selection of some of my favorite LEGO Elves photos, including some previously unpublished photos.

The Sensuality of the Nordic outdoors

Fiery Azari

There is always hope for light

Azari and her Big Hammer

I shed blood of 4000 Saxon Elves

I’ve recently watched the #LEGOElves Netflix series to learn more about the official background of the characters. Spoiler alert… it’s pretty bad (from an adult PoV) but was still quite fun to watch.

Elven Human Beings

Mon, 30 May 2022 14:10:58 +0300

This is a final selection of the project about human beings I worked on in 2019 as part of Stuck in Plastic’s SiPgoes53.

Any similarity with fictitious events or characters may (not) be purely coincidental.

01 - Tolkien - The Elf

02 - Cleopatra - The Archeologists

02 - Cleopatra - The Mummy

02 - Cleopatra - The Pharaoh

02 - Cleopatra - The Vizir

02 - Cleopatra - The Egyptian Guard

03 - Darwin - Galapagos Turtles

04 - Marilyn Monroe - The Hollywood Elf

05 - Yuval Noah Harari - Emily Jones, the Human

06 - Annie Leibovitz - The Elf Photographer

06 - Annie Leibovitz - Rembrandt Lighting

07 - Wes Anderson - The Adventurer

08 - Marie Curie - Radioactive Elf

09 - Mae Jemison - Space Elf

13 - Socrates - Greek Elf Mythology

14 - Robin Williams - Peter Elf

16 - Einstein - Elven Mad Scientist

17 - Ching Shih - Plundering Elves

18 - Carrie Fisher - The Rebelf

20 - Florence Nightingale - Elf Nurse

22 - Da Vinci - Flying Elf

23 - Christopher Lee - Female Charlemagne

23 - Christopher Lee - I shed blood of 4000 Saxon Elves

25 - Eric Clapton - Laila

26 - J.K. Rowling - Bellatrix Elfstrange

26 - J.K. Rowling - Faran Potter

26 - J.K. Rowling - Eflirus Snape

26 - J.K. Rowling - Azari Granger

26 - J.K. Rowling - Bellatrix Elfstrange (winter edition)

26 - J.K. Rowling - Elfus Dumbledore

29 - Madonna - Poker Elf

30 - Steven Spielberg - Jurassic Elves

32 - Amelia Earhart - Pilot Elf

33 - Hergé - Tintelf

37 - Nicole Kidman - Moulin Elf

38 - William Röntgen - Elven X-Ray

41 - Jane Goodall - Elven Dragonologist

42 - Hitchcock - Elven Birds

43 - Astrid Lindgren - Pippi Elfstrump

44 - Newton - Astronomer Elf

45 - Ingrid Bergman - Elflight

46 - Edith Piaf - Accordion Elf

47 - Magellan - Elf Explorer

48 - Ada Lovelace - Elf Programmer

49 - Disney - Elven Princesses

49 - Disney - Elven Frozen

49 - Disney - Elven Mulan

49 - Disney - Rapunzelf

49 - Disney - Moanelf

50 - Agatha Christie - Elven Detective

50 - Agatha Christie - Murder on the Arctic Express

51 - Magritte - The Son of Man

Love & Fear

Thu, 19 May 2022 19:25:44 +0300

Love & Fear is the final project that came out of SiPgoes52. It’s a selection of 12 images from the original project which was about 52 human values and emotions. When I edited further the original selection of photos, I realized that my images were telling more about myself than humanity. Thus I decided to reframe the topic of the final 12 photos and recaptioned each image using two emotions instead.

01 - Love & Fear

02 - Love & Hope

03 - Joy & Hapiness

04 - Trust & Friendship

05 - Love & Passion

06 - Hope & Faith

07 - Hope & Fear

08 - Fear & Hope

09 - Fear & Love

10 - Fear & Loneliness

11 - Loneliness & Sadness

12 - Fear & Anger

Gallery update

Mon, 16 May 2022 19:47:14 +0300

I updated the galleries of several photo series, including a mix of previously published and unpublished photos.

T-Rap

T-Rap in Paris

Ice Fishing

Mirror, mirror on the ice, who’s the scariest of them all?

Wondering

Watering Hole

T-Rap’s Lair

To The Infinity and Beyond

The Snow Queen

Welcome to her frosty home

The Queen is out

Winter Sunset

Ruling over Finland

Winter is coming

Loneliness & Sadness

On Clear Ice

Woody

Dino Rodeo

On the Road Again

Aria

Never Alone

Mr. Bunny

Marmorslottet

Sunset in Helgeland

In the Streets of Trondheim

Homecoming

Roaming in the Northern Mountains

Ice cream at the top of the mountain

The world is falling apart

Giant Mushrooms

Anton in Brussels

Fishing on The Grand Place

The Atomium

Photography Diary - Winter 2022

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 14:50:33 +0300

Winter is slowly coming to an end and it’s time to reflect on the past months.

The way back to creativity

I’m still trying to go back slowly to photography.

At the end of 2021, I ordered a new “lens”. This decision came after weeks of careful thinking and this new piece of gear was supposed to get me unstuck. It would provide possibilities very different than all the lenses I’ve used in the past and take my photography in a whole new different direction.

Photography Diary - Ending of 2021

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:51:05 +0200

Another four months have passed since my last post. There hasn’t been much to share since. Or at least, not much that I want to share now. But the new year is always a time for me to reflect on the past year and set up goals for the year to come. And this year I want to do this by picking my photo for the Flickr Your Best Shot contest.

At the end of every year, I pick one photo that is dear to me. It’s not so much about picking my best photo but the one that best represents the past year. Sometimes picking the photo is easy and straightforward as I know which photo stood out to me throughout the year. Sometimes it can be a more challenging and time-demanding task.

Photography Diary - Summer 2021

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 08:41:20 +0300

It’s been four months…

Four months without writing anything here. Four months without posting any toy photo on Instagram. And two months without creating any toy photography.

2021, the year of the rut

I can now safely say that 2021 has been the year of the creative rut for me.

Looking back at my own blog posts from 2021, the first part of the year seems like a succession of periods where I struggled with inspiration and periods where I was a bit more active. Four months during which I had ideas for many projects. Some have never been started. Some haven’t been completed yet. Few made their way online.

Photography Diary - April 2021

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 17:40:38 +0300

April started where March ended… In Lapland.

Easter in Lapland

The day after posting my last blog post, I left Kilpisjärvi for Kittilä, where I had booked a small cabin for the Easter weekend. I didn’t really have any plans for doing anything particular in Kittilä though.

While on the way, I wanted to stop in Pallas so I could get lost one last time in the cloudy fells. Then, there was the first of the two Stuck in Plastic Spring workshops, starting on Friday evening and ending in the afternoon on Saturday. That was only leaving Sunday free before heading back home on Monday.

Photography Diary - March 2021

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:28:00 +0300

March is usually the best month of the year. Yet, I feel I didn’t properly enjoy it. At least from a toy photography perspective.

Progress

Last month, I ended my post with a todo list of projects to finish. I’ve been able to check several items off that list. Most importantly, I took my last photo for SiPgoesTT and wrote a concluding blog post at Stuck in Plastic. I’ve also made progress on several other items, but I still have photos to edit and thus cannot tick these items off yet.

Elven Cinematography

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:56:14 +0200

At Stuck in Plastic, our yearly project for 2020 was named SiPgoesTT. Although it started differently, in April we started to explore different movie genres, one for each month of the year.

This page presents my final selection of photos, one for each movie genre. You can find the full blog post about the project at Stuck in Plastic.

Under the Midnight Sun

Notting Helf

Quartermaster Rosalyn

Shaun of the Elves

Into the Wild

Detective Azari

The Birds

Azari Caution

Azari Granger in Diagon Alley

Memento Mori

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 20:42:12 +0200

This could be the most personal blog post I’ve ever written.

A year ago, my father passed away at the age of 56. Ever since it happened, I’ve wanted to express myself about it in some way. The need to create images. The need to write. But I hadn’t been able to do it.

Relief

Describing how I feel is actually hard as the relationship with my father has been complicated for a long time. I haven’t felt sad, not a single time, since my mother called me to tell me the news.

Photography Diary - February 2021

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 11:28:05 +0200

To be honest, I thought I would not write a post this month and instead do one for both February and March next month. The reason was that I felt I didn’t do much (photographically) to have something to write about. Yet I changed my mind.

SiP winter workshop

The month started with our first virtual workshop/meetup of the year at Stuck in Plastic. It was once again a lot of fun and we wrote a blog post celebrating the 10 years of Ninjago. This time, I was lucky to have good weather and could take photos outside.

Photography Diary - January 2021

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 11:27:38 +0200

January 2021 has been quite a mixed month photographically. It started well with photography projects and a virtual meetup, but the second part has been quite lacking toy photography-wise.

Ninjago

I ended 2020 and started 2021 working on a project for LEGO for the 10 years of Ninjago. In December, in addition to two of the small Ninjago sets from 2021, I got the big Ninjago City Gardens and produced images for LEGO’s social media channels.

T-Rapped under the Ice

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 13:59:14 +0200

Since I watched last week the second season of Camp Cretaceous, I’ve been feeling in a dino mood. While I was pretty delighted with season 1, season 2 was even better. In many ways, it’s far superior to the two Jurassic World movies and closer to the atmosphere of the Jurassic Park movies. No hybrid dinosaur, no attempt at making this look more like horror than adventure. Just a group of people stuck on an island with dinosaurs, trying to survive.

Photography Diary - December 2020

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 10:39:55 +0200

The year is coming to an end, and I feel like running late on so many fronts. In my last diary post, I wrote about hoping to be able to write a post at Stuck in Plastic about my major achievement of 2020 and a reflection post about my creative journey in 2020. Unfortunately, this will have to be postponed to 2021.

Card exchange

The big event of the month has been our annual card exchange at Stuck in Plastic. During the month, cards arrived in my mailbox. Still, I only opened most of them after Christmas as I was away from home for almost two weeks.

Photography Diary - November 2020

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 13:30:14 +0200

November started as October ended. But the good news is that it got gradually better from a creative point of view. I have hopes that things will keep on improving in December.

Looking back at October

Last month felt like one of the worsts of 2020 photography-wise. But after going through my photos of October, it appears it wasn’t. It hasn’t been as unproductive as I thought. But even though the numbers tell me that October hasn’t been the worst, it still feels like it was.

Photography Diary - October 2020

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 11:09:08 +0200

This year photography has been a long succession of ups and downs. While September has been one of the busiest months of the year, thanks to my trip to Kilpisjärvi, October has been the complete opposite.

October in Oulu

In many ways, it could be argued that October is one of the worsts. It gets darker, it’s often cloudy and there isn’t snow yet. But it’s a transition period between the two main seasons of Finland. And I think it’s that change of season that fascinates me most in the North.

Hiking in Lofoten

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 09:50:14 +0300

Here are a few pictures that I took at the top of a few mountains while hiking in Lofoten. Most of them are from my 2018 summer road trip.

Aria

Sky on Fire

Above the Sea (this one was taken in Spring 2019 atop Festvågtinden)

T-Rap

On Top of the World

RAWR RAWR RAWR I’m a dinosaur!

Woody

Where to go now?

View over Haukland Beach

Photography Diary - September 2020

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:15:25 +0300

September has been busy.

Mostly, busy with work. But in between work, I found time to escape Oulu and go enjoy Ruska in Lapland.

At the beginning of the second week of September, I decided to head to Kilpisjärvi for a long weekend. Just when all the birch started to turn yellow, there was a window of decent weather forecasted for the next few days.

Although the trip felt too short, it was totally worth it. I’ve been able to test the new camera I bought for hiking in a real situation, and confirm that buying it was the right choice as it saves me lots of space and weight in my backpack. (That said my backpack was still as big and heavy as usual as I ended up filling it up with more toys than needed…)

Anton in Norway

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 11:27:13 +0300

Over the past three years, Anton and his reindeer have been traveling with me. I don’t often photograph them, but almost every time I go to Norway, I feel the need to take at least a photo with them.

Fishing in Lofoten (2018)

Anton visited Lofoten two years ago during the summer. I’m not sure how much of a holiday it was for a fisherman to visit fishing villages…

The Most Unoriginal Selfie in Hamnøy

Anton in the fishing village of Nusfjord

Anton in Helgeland (2019)

Last year, instead Anton decided to go to Trondheim and travel all the way North to the Land of the Maelstroms along the Helgeland Coast.

T-Rap fishing in Scotland

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 09:23:57 +0300

Exactly three years ago, I was on the road. In the company of old and new friends, we were on our way to Loch Lomond National Park, with a first stop in Burntisland for a rather cloudy sunrise.

Photography-wise, that weekend in Scotland has a special place in my heart. Indeed, so far, it’s the only toy safari that ended up with photos that are among my favorites. Yet, three years later, there was still one of my favorite photos from this trip that never really made its way online…

Was it all a dream?

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 08:51:33 +0300

I started experimenting with out-of-focus toy photography three years ago, and for the past two years, I’ve been slowly building a collection of such photos. So far, I haven’t shared many of them though. I think it’s time to start fixing that… Slowly.

Photography Diary - Summer 2020

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 09:38:05 +0300

I thought I would start doing a monthly recap here on the blog. Feeling burned out with social media, I decided to re-focus my online publishing effort from Instagram to my personal website/blog (read here).

I thought one way of doing it could be to do a monthly write-up reviewing the past month from a photographic point of view. Some kind of photography diary.

There’s one problem though…

My process has become rather slow over time. This means I usually don’t share photos after taking them. This year, without any real yearly project to guide me such as SiPgoes52 and SiPgoes53 with weekly deadlines, I pushed that slow process even further.

Collectible Minifigures 19 and Minidolls

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 12:00:06 +0300

Last year, I reviewed the LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 19 at Stuck in Plastic. I specifically focused on the new accessories, hairpieces, and helmets. I tried using them with my Elves Minidolls. In addition, it also included a mini-review of the Friends Italian restaurant also released last year, which I used for some of the CMF19 photos. This was quite remarkable as it was my second attempt at indoor photography in a long time. (The first one was my review of the Gingerbread House.)

Pirates of the Abecean

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 12:37:20 +0300

Back in April 2020, I took photos for LEGO of the Barracuda Bay. After being done, I took the real photos: a series of photos with my crew of Pirate Elves. After posting them two months ago on Instagram, and one month ago on Flickr, it’s time to post them on my website.

The Cook

Captain Noctura

The Rum Keeper

Lumia the Gunner

The Powder Twins

Quatermaster Rosalyn

Without project

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 18:49:54 +0200

2019 was such a success photographically. Yet 2020 has been quite miserable so far.

2019 and SiPgoes53

In many ways, SiPgoes53 has been for me an even more significant achievement than SiPgoes52 had been in 2018.

As initially planned, I didn’t take a photo for each human being on the list. But I still took 58 photos for 37 human beings. What makes it better is that the end result of 53 is so much more coherent than it was for 52. All this because I had the Elves as a red thread.

Toys and Human Values

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:32:21 +0200

In 2018, at Stuck in Plastic, we ran a project centered around 52 human values and emotions with the goal of exploring our inner child.

My goal wasn’t necessarily to make 52 photos, but rather to associate one of my existing photos with each of the 52 values or emotions. These are the original photos I picked for each of them and posted on Instagram.

Although all the photos I posted as part of SiPgoes52 are on Instagram, Flickr, and Behance, they are also centralized here for you to enjoy.

Leftovers from Denmark

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 12:13:43 +0300

Here are the (very few) photos I took during the Stuck in Plastic Toy Safari in Denmark in June 2019.

LEGO House and #SiPgoesBingo

Aarhus

Denmark 2019

#ToyPhotographersDoItBetterTogether

A friendly dino fight with @gehrkesven.

A robot jamming session with @sacha1982

Photo Theft and Toy Photography

Thu, 02 May 2019 18:20:55 +0300

I find that many toy photographers (and probably non-toy photographers too) are often prone to complain, if not even make a scene, when their photos are “stolen”. Yet I also see toy photographers do the same… It pisses me off and motivated this rant.

Background in Toy Photography

The two ways of making a toy photo with an interesting background that come to my mind are the following:

Go outside and use an urban or natural environment
Stay inside and build your own backdrop

An alternative is to use an existing photo, and either print it or use a computer screen to display it in the background in front of the camera. Not something I would do, but I admit it can be effective. Unfortunately, this is a sort of uncredited/unauthorized photo usage. Or a “photo theft”, or copyright infringement…

Leftovers from Cambridge

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:40:16 +0200

Here are many of the photos I took during the meetup in Cambridge in March 2019.

This was by far the meetup during which I took the least amount of photos. Less photos to better enjoy the fun… A new trend for future meetup?

Cambridge 2019

Leftovers from Paris

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:40:13 +0200

Here are many of the photos I took during the Stuck in Plastic meetup in Paris in June 2018.

As often before a Stuck in Plastic safari, I had to stop on the way. This time in Lille.

In Paris

I almost forgot that today is Raptor Pack Day. So here’s a photo from #SiPgoesParis2018, taken in a cool location, thanks to our leader @ballou34. (We’re also running a #BrickHeadz contest at @stuckinplastic. If you haven’t yet, be sure to checkout stuckinplastic.com/contests) #SiPgoesBrickHeadz #tds_burtraptor

Paris by Night

Paris 2018

Winter is finally (slowly) coming in the North and now it’s very dark… I can’t wait for the first few months of 2019 when there will be lots of snow and more and more light everyday!

#ElvesDay 24 - There is always hope for light!

Football Match

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

La Défense

Non-Toy Photos

Disneyland

Leftovers from Scotland

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:19:59 +0200

Here are many of the photos I took during the Stuck in Plastic meetup in Scotland in September 2017.

Helsinki

A little stop by in Helsinki before flying to Edinburgh.

The advantage about being a T-Rap is combining the #sip_flexibility of a raptor with the big scary face of a T-Rex.

I decided this week to combine both #SiPgoes52 and Raptor Pack Day (#tds_infinityraptor) with a photo of T-Rap taken last year in Helsinki in front of the Cathedral.

Leftovers from London

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:03:48 +0200

Here are many of the photos I took during the meetup in London in March 2017.

T-Rap

While Woody was the star in Hamburg, in London it was T-Rap.

London 2017

Roaring in London

Roaring on the Bridge

What if the next Doctor’s regenration was some kind of weird dinosaur?

I’ve spent the first morning of #Londontoymeetup2017 messing around with my new buddy.

Dino buddies

Misc

The Moomins in London

Probably the last photo from London I’ll post and probably the one that was the most fun to make.

Plundering in Trafalgar Square

#Londontoymeetup2017 is over and was a blast. I did not take as much toy photos as I was expecting and rather spent the limited time enjoying the good company. Now I can’t wait to be back home, rest and play with my new toys while waiting for the Toy Safari in San Francisco.

Originally taken for the Toy Photographers Google+ monthly challenge on the topic of “the greatest fear in photography”. Mine is to turn away from photography because of a lack of motivation and/or inspiration. I had hobbies, which in the end I lost interest in, that I was as passionate about as I am now with photography. However I feel I’ve invested not only a lot of money, but more importantly tremendous amounts of time and effort, like I never did before. Losing interest in photography would really hurt me. It’s a fear that never leaves, specially when I’m not feeling in the mood for toy photography as I did during most of the past month. Hopefully I knew the Toy Meetup in London would change that and now I’m back having trouble focusing at work because all I care about is going out to play with my toys. (I hope spending time with fellow photographers and friends will always allow me to be excited about photography again, even when I’m losing confidence for an extended period of time :-))

The first rehearsal of the “PS” band. What does “PS” stand for? And how did those characters ended up together in this unlikely band? Will they ever become famous? Maybe time will tell us…   (By the way you can also check my blog post at Stuck in Plastic about this photo series: https://www.stuckinplastic.com/2017/03/process-and-story/)

Plundering in London

Batman was tired of the big city. He decided to retire from fighting crime to become a Rock Star.

Leftovers from Hamburg

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:55:54 +0200

Here are many of the photos I took during the Stuck in Plastic meetup in Hamburg in September 2016.

A stop in Köln while on the way to Hamburg.

Woody

By far he was the star of the safari…

Hamburg 2016

Whatever happens in Hamburg goes online!

On a Sunday early morning in Hamburg Woody still wants to party.

Woody partied too much in Hamburg. Now he’s sleepy.

Hey look Admiral: it’s a tack!

I think it’s time I start posting the Woody photos I’ve taken since the Toy Safari in Hamburg….

The last Woody photo I’ll post and that was taken 5 months ago durig the Hamburg Toy Safari. Now there is one month to wait before more Woody silliness in London. In the meantime I’ll continue to post the remaining Woody photos of 2016 (and thus will be done posting photos from 2016 too)

Sigfig and Fabuland

The first photo I took of the Fabuland I received from @herrsm in Hamburg. I didn’t achieve to get the result I expected for this photo but it convey to me a lot of what it was like to be there on Saturday early morning.

Coffee Time

I’m almost done with sorting and editing the photos from Hamburg. Now I realize with so many photos (around 40 to publish) it’s hard to decide which one should go online first… So let’s start with a Sigfig photo.

Vision

Am I a different photographer? Two months in the North and I don’t feel the same. Photos I took not that long ago doesn’t seem that special anymore, even though at that time it seemed to me they were taken under epic lightning condition. For example the colors of this photo, taken in Hamburg during sunrise, were exceptional to me and a rare capture. But now it just seems that I shouldn’t except less from most photos I take.   So I wonder will I ever be able to live somewhere else than in the North? Or will I grow tired at some point of the long golden and blue hours?

Yesterday evening we were only three left from the toy safairy in Hamburg, and we decided to take a last photo of our Sigfigs. The background lights are reflections of Hamburg in the water and the minifigs were light painted by Ballou34.   Now this great event is over for me and I will spend my day in trains, feeling nostalgia while trying to select the best photos of the weekend (if my laptop battery allows it).

Yoda & Ackbar

Admiral Ackbar likes the new maps from the CMF Series 16.

Enjoying Life

Road work

This was the photo from the Toy Safari in Hamburg I was keeping for the latest Stuck in Plastic contest in case I couldn’t come up with something more elaborate. Hopefully I managed to make a photo in which I put more thought and effort so I can publish this one online.

Another attempt at replicating one of my favorite photo of the year with Yoda and Ackbar. This one was taken in a pond where I needed to build a structure underneath the boat to prevent it from sinking down. It was fun to build this with the help of @davirasm but I knew I wouldn’t be succesfull in my attempt to make a photo as good as the with pirates in Tokyo. However I’m sure I’ll eventually achieve to get a good enough photo.

Floating away

Dinosaurs

Since I got these Schleich dinosaurs, I’ve had the idea of the Therizinosaurus scratching the back of the T-Rex. But because they take so much space in a backpack they always stay at home and I never took the photo. The toy safari in Hamburg was the perfect opportunity to take it. I’m not too disappointed by the result, considering that I only carried them during a few hours on the first day.

RAWR RAWR RAWR, I’m a dinosaur!

One of the things I wanted to try in Hamburg was making a toy fly. I decided to give it a try with my Quetzcalcoatlus figure. First with @davirasm, we tried to let it fall and catch a photo. I quickly came to the conclusion that my camera was too slow and that it wouldn’t work for me. Still it was a lot of fun to throw the Quetzcalcoatlus in the air dozens of times.   I also asked @shtacyp to hold the figure by the tip of its legs and took a simple photo. I wanted to try to remove her fingers with Photoshop once back at home. Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the result. Next time however I’ll try not to forget to take a second photo without the figure: most of the lower left corner had to be entirely recreated using other parts of the background.

Banana Hug

Misc

This is what happens after a visit to the LEGO store and having Hamburgers for lunch in Hamburg. Thanks to @davirasm for te help with the fry and the raining salt!

The photo was taken at sunrise in front of Hamburg’s central station, in a very weird and uncomfortable position.

Biking in the streets of Hamburg

In July I took a portrait of Shaak Ti against the cloudy Belgian sky. I really liked the result but unfortunately her headpiece was not set right on the photo. In Hamburg I decided to try retaking that photo by using a shoot-through reflector to fake the cloudy sky. Even though the original photo was framed very simply, I struggled trying to get the same photo without being able to look at the original on location. Also when I compare the original photo with the new one, I realize how I didn’t take care enough of my Shaak Ti minifig. When I bought her three months ago from Bricklink, she was in an almost perfect condition. Now her cape is all worn out and her lekku prints have faded away. While I like the cape’s worn out effect, I decided to order a new head piece from Bricklink. Hopefully this time I’ll try to better take care of it, and at some point retry to take the photo with the right composition and a Shaak Ti in good condition.

A few months ago, when I bought the new Spider-Man LEGO set with the section of the Brooklyn bridge, I felt intrigued by the presence of some Spider-Man-like minifig I had never heard about before. Digging for informations on the web (pun intended?), I’ve learned a bit about the different “Spider-Verse” characters. The one I’ve found the most intriguing/interesting is the Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman. I quickly gave in and bought online a third-party custom Gwen minifig, despite being an expensive minifig. (Actually she might be the most expensive minifig I’ve ever bought.)   Since then I’ve wanted to take a great portrait of her but still haven’t succeeded. Anyway I finally decided I had to post the photo I took during the SiP toy safari in Hamburg, even though it’s still very far from the photo I wanted (and still want) to make.

Pirate Batman

Contrarily to my Halloween photo, here the mist hasn’t been created digitally. Instead by combining small depth of field and low angle, this white fog appeared in my viewfinder as a result of ground behind out of focus.

Skating in Hamburg

I was quite happy with autumn until the weather came back to its usual rainy mood. So maybe it’s finally time to post, in remembrance of the nice sunny days we had since August, one of the very last LEGO photos from Hamburg.

This one is another photo that required some tricky construction. In order to make Marty and his hoverboard float long enough to take photos, I built some sort of plastic raft. I attached two transparent bars under the hoverboard, and at the tip of each of them a few black plates that come with the CMF.

Catching Spiders

Dewback Kiss

Instagram Story Rant

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 13:00:53 +0200

I’ve struggled for a while with Instagram and social media in general. There’s too much content. After so many years, it seems to me most photos are the same. But in the past months, I’ve enjoyed using Instagram again because of the stories.

First, when Instagram released the story feature, I didn’t understand it. What was the point? Then I tried it (was it during a toy safari?) and eventually understood what was the difference with regular posts. I also started to be more interested in stories than IG posts. But recently I’m struggling again. Stories are getting boring… when they’re not simply annoying.

How did I end up Stuck in the North?

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 15:00:35 +0200

I am stuck in the North, but how did it happen?

Belgium

I’ve spent most of my life in Belgium, in Charleroi. It’s the 5th biggest Belgian city and is located 50 kilometers south of Brussels. Partly because of its past coal mining and siderurgy industries, it’s the ugliest city in the world according to the BBC.

Maxime Delvaux, Charleroi-panorama-thy-marcinelle-Maxime-Delvaux, CC BY-SA 4.0

But whether this is true or not, I’ve always thought that Charleroi was such an interesting place to photograph. Even before taking any interest in photography. But although I’ve always dreamed about a big photo project centered around my hometown, I’ve never found the inspiration to actually create images in Belgium.

Stuck in the North

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:00:38 +0200

Last time I updated my blog, it was to question whether I should keep Reiterlied or not. 6 months later, it seems I will. With 2018 coming slowly to an end, I thought I could wake up this blog by telling about how I’ve felt during the past year.

Stuck in the North

I am Stuck in the North. I already mentioned it last year.

Originally from Belgium, in December 2016, my job led me to move to Oulu, Northern Finland. Being Stuck in the North is the result of the feeling that quickly invaded me during my first year spent in Northern Finland.

The Fate of Reiterlied

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 09:23:26 +0000

Inactivity

A bit more than a year ago, I joined a new Adventure at Stuck in Plastic. Although I had no idea where this would lead me, I accepted the challenge. I got hooked and eventually became a member of SiP. After a successful 12-word Adventure in 2017, we went for a 52-word challenge centered around human values and emotions this year.

In the meantime, my personal website has suffered from it. Not that I’ve ever been really active here, or have had (as far as I know) any real audience. But each time I had an idea for a more personal post which would feel right at home here, it never came to life.

The year I got Stuck in the North

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 14:06:37 +0000

My best photo of 2017?

Recently the Flickr group “Your Best Shot of 2017” has opened. It’s usually an excellent opportunity for a few days/weeks/months old photo to get some visibility again from a rather large audience.

Last year, selecting my best/favorite photo of the year was easy. Since my trip to Japan in March 2016, I had known which one I would choose. It simply was the best photo I had ever taken.

Leftovers from San Francisco

Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:57:36 +0000

With too many photos I wish to share and not enough time, I decided to gather here the photos I took during the Toy Photographers meetup in San Francisco. These include the ~50 photos that have been posted on social media in the past six months, but also a few unpublished photos.

Yoda and Ackbar

Stcokholm was a blast! The Admiral and Master Yoda are ready for California!

Yoda’s first steps at Google+ headquarters!

Yoda stumbled across this familiar face in San Francisco…

To the beach!

Surfing USA

Foraging

“Three Margaritas and a Taco! Let’s go to Mexico!” El Señor Ackbar ready to hit the road in the car he borrowed in California.

Look out! Here comes the Spidersquid!

If you’re going to San Francisco… Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair!

Spreading peace and love in Haight Ashbury.

It’s a shark!

Alcatraz

How did the Admiral ended up in Alcatraz?

It seems like the Admiral has been captured by the Empire…

There is no hope to get out soon… If only someone could come to the rescue of the Admiral!

“This place I fear not! " said Master Yoda to himself while putting on his highwayman outfit.

Let’s run away while these tourists distract the stormtroopers of Alcatraz…

(…And this concludes my little story in Alcatraz)

HDR Toy Photography with Lightroom and Photoshop

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 16:30:17 +0000

Following a discussion on Google+ related to the monthly Toy Photographers community challenge, I decided to write this blog post about HDR in toy photography. Here I compare the result of different digital techniques to cope with high contrast scenes such as shooting directly against the sun.

My goal for using HDR is to manage to get details both in the highlights, such as the sky, and the shadows, such as my toy subject or its surrounding landscape. I want the result to be as realistic as possible and avoid the cheesy kitsch look that is often associated with HDR.

Woody's Ethylic Love Story

Mon, 30 Jan 2017 17:42:02 +0000

In western countries, drinking alcohol is not only largely accepted but also largely encouraged. I do not blame the act of drinking alcohol and understand how and why people do it. I myself often enjoy giving in to drinking a few beers. However, having witnessed people close to me falling into serious alcoholism, I can’t stress enough the dangers of its long term effects.

This blog post contains a photo series about alcohol, initially made for Stuck In Plastic “make it seem” challenge. The remaining of this blog post consists mainly of aggregated content of the photo description posted on Social Media in September 2016.

On 2016's goals and projects, and on perspectives for 2017

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 18:41:38 +0000

Reviewing 2016’s goals

Last year I tried to set goals to improve my toy photography. My two primary goals were forcing myself to take more outdoor photos and find a story I could develop as a long photo series.

From where I started: one of the first photos of 2016, one of the few indoor photos taken in 2016 and the one photo before I began to focus on outdoor toy photography.

The first one has been fulfilled more than I ever expected. I did take more photos outdoor to the point that I’ve almost stopped doing indoor toy photography. There are different reasons, that combined, led me to this situation. Even though in the year to come I’d like to go back to indoor photography (and working with strobes), I don’t know if this will end up with photos I consider successful. And it doesn’t matter. What matters more is the second goal.

Nostalgia

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 18:00:49 +0000

Swooshing all around

This is the photo I took for the Stuck in Plastic challenge on nostalgia. It’s not very challenging for me to take a photo I feel nostalgic about: most LEGO sets or minifigs from the 90s’ fill me with sweet memories from my childhood. So to make it more challenging I forbid myself from using a “vintage” LEGO set or minifig. I quickly found the perfect shot for the challenge while building the latest LEGO version of the Naboo starfighter but probably have to explain why.

Working with colors

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 14:36:01 +0000

Since I read this post on Stuck in Plastic, I’ve continuously been thinking about colors. Around the time the post was published I was just starting realizing how much photography changed me and how I’m now looking in a completely different way at light. Since then I’ve also started to look at colors differently. To force me to pay attention to colors, I decided to try to challenge myself and take photos of Ninjago minifigures paying extra attention to both their color and the color in the environment. During the past weeks getting these shots has been my main focus. I wasn’t satisfied with the photo of the green ninja I initially shared on social media, and now after having made a new version, I finally decided to share the four pictures of this “colored shinobi series” in a blog post. Yet I know there is a lot of room for improvement and it’s not impossible I’ll continue to work on these in the weeks to come. (I’m also thinking about a fifth shot with a missing silver shinobi).

Monochrome vs. colors

Wed, 11 May 2016 14:23:38 +0000

I love colors and thus I have a really hard time creating monochrome photos. I can easily appreciate a good black and white photo from someone else but when it comes to my own photography, most of the time I prefer the original in color.

The many black and white pictures I saw on social networks of the new collectible spaceman inspired me to make one myself. I thought it would be a good opportunity to force myself to work in black and white. Unfortunately I still prefer the color version over the monochrome one. Maybe the only thing that could force me to work in monochrome is a film camera?

Sum of the parts

Tue, 23 Feb 2016 19:32:49 +0000

Folks at 100% Stuck In Plastic have started this year to propose photo challenges and I decided to follow them on their adventure.

Here is the result of the third challenge “sum of the parts”. More about them can be found in a blog post at SiP.

Yoda and Master Uggla

This is how Yoda captured the mouse to give to the old owl, with the help of Admiral Ackbar.

Can photographs tell the truth?

Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:44:50 +0000

Folks at 100% Stuck In Plastic have started this year to propose photo challenges and I decided to follow them on their adventure.

Here is the result of the second challenge “can photographs tell the truth”. I doubt photos can really tell the “truth” or be objective because they’re always taken from a specific point of view. Moreover I’m not interested in telling the truth with my photography.

The only way I found to “tell the truth” was to take a picture of myself. After having received the LEGO WALL-E model and having built it, I was in a hurry taking some photos. However it appeared to be harder than I initially imagined: on each photo there were some disgraceful reflections in the eyes of WALL-E. Sometimes these reflections included me. I fixed this by editing the reflections to make it look natural.

Make an exact copy of a photograph

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 19:47:33 +0000

Folks at 100% Stuck In Plastic have started this year to propose photo challenges and I decided to follow them on their adventure.

Here is the result of the second challenge “make an exact copy of a photo”. I replicated three photos for this challenge: one from Marmotuca, one from DigiNik13 and one from Peter von Kappel. More about them can be found in a blog post at SiP.

A Tribute to Peter von Kappel

A Tribute to DigiNik13

A Tribute to Marmotuca

The Computer Science Lab - Update

Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:48:27 +0000

I don’t often take pictures of my MOCs and upload them on the Internet because I have a bad tendency of not finishing them. It usually involves waiting for pieces to arrive from Bricklink and as soon as I have them and am ready to iterate over the construction, I have another MOC idea in mind.

However it’s been a rather long time I wanted to build a science lab. In September I started making something out of some white bricks but I quickly realized that was not as easy as I thought. After a few tries I ended up building the science lab I know best: the one in which I work. After a first prototype I posted a picture on Flickr. It was the first time I posted online a photo of one of my MOCs and I have been quite surprised how people reacted to them. It kept me motivated enough to not abandon this MOC and continue to work on it.

About projects

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:27 +0000

Previously I mentioned that I tried to complete a project around the (LEGO) Star Wars Advent Calendar. My goal was to see if I was able to hold on a tiny version of a project 365.

A project 365 is a photographic project where the goal is to take a picture each day during a whole year. Harley Quin and kevinmboots77, who are going to complete respectively their third and fifth consecutive 365 project, are probably the most famous 365 toy photographers. This year I have followed multiple toy photographers that completed a full 365. I really admire those that are able to complete such a project because there are some days where it seems so hard to find time, motivation, inspiration or energy not only to shoot but also to take a decent picture. In particular I’ve felt greatly inspired by the work of Lost Star and dr_spock_88.

Star Wars Advent Calendar 2015

Thu, 24 Dec 2015 16:18:09 +0000

It’s been weeks I wanted to try to complete a project around the Star Wars Advent Calendar. The goal was to take each day a photo of the daily gift of the calendar. I wanted to see if I was able to keep on shooting at least a picture each day for a few weeks.

I knew in advance that it was going to be hard. Indeed at the beginning of December I had to attend a 3-day seminar for my job. It meant that I was going to stay in a small hotel room, with a limited amount of toys and almost no free time for photography. It turned out it was even worse than what I imagined: I only had each day 10 minutes in the morning to take my daily picture. There were also the uninteresting gifts of the calendar, such as weapon racks for which it is hard to do something interesting, in particular if you want to avoid using minifigures from the following day.

The Sigfig Update Dilemma

Wed, 07 Oct 2015 16:42:45 +0000

It’s been a while I’ve been thinking about updating my sigfig. Originally I mainly wanted to update it because of the head. It doesn’t look like me at all (for example I don’t have a mustache) and I would like it to look more like me. However at the same time I really like the current head I’m using because which, in my opinion, is the best LEGO has ever made. The only faces I found that would look more like me are the most generic ones. After a few tries with different faces, I chose to use a classic smiling face. I also ended up changing most parts of the sigfig:

On Austin Kleon's "Show your Work"

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:31:55 +0000

After having read “Steal like an Artist” by Austin Kleon I wanted to read the follow-up “Show your Work”. Overall I have been even more enthusiastic about it than when I was reading “Steal like an Artist”. Indeed the first one was rather simple, there was not a lot of text and a good amount of pictures crafted by the author. Not a bad thing in itself but I preferred the second one because there was more content I click with.

On Austin Kleon's "Steal like an Artist"

Sat, 03 Oct 2015 08:58:32 +0000

I first heard about Austin Kleon and his book “Steal like an Artist” it was while reading 100% Stuck in Plastic. It looked like one very interesting book full of great ideas. Now that I have read it I can say that it is such a book. Even though there were a few parts I found less interesting because they do not fit with my personality, I think it is a really great book. The title is controversial and I fully agree with the message the author wants to convey. The secret key to creativity is being inspired by many things. There is no genius that will come with a great idea on his own because we are not the result of ourselves but of the influence of others.

Why I don't like Instagram

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 11:18:41 +0000

On the Internet I have seen a lot of critics about Instagram. However most of those critics were not about Instagram itself but how people use it. Whether those critics are valid or not, I don’t care because I have a more basic issue with it. It’s about simply considering it as a photo sharing medium and how it technically works. I don’t like Instagram and I haven’t since the first time I heard about it. I think it was a little before it was bought by Facebook. I learned about it when reading about a photo sharing social network that was only available as an application for smartphones. Because there is no valid reason from a technical point of view for not providing a website, this was why I did not want to learn more and have had a very bad opinion about it from the start.