bricktoygrapher

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Superman: The World 🦸‍♂️

Today marks the global premiere of the comic Superman: The World. To mark the occasion, Stevan Subić, one of the authors of this anthology, was signing copies of the Serbian edition.

[bricktoygrapher]

Answering the call of adventure 🌲🧝‍♀️🍄

With a walking stick in hand and a smile full of excitement, the young forest elf sets off on her very first grand adventure. Behind her, her grandfather — the wise old mushroom-hatted elder — waves goodbye, proud and a little wistful. The path ahead is unknown, but her heart is full of courage. 🌿🍄🧙‍♂️🧝‍♀️

While watering some freshly planted grass, I accidentally discovered a few mushrooms in the yard, so I wanted to take the opportunity to create a photo featuring forest folk. This week’s TPC challenge is themed Travel, so I decided to build a scene where an old sage bids farewell to his granddaughter as she sets off on an adventure.

[bricktoygrapher]

New Friend 🐌

While out photographing in nature, NED-B spotted a tiny snail. Since he had never seen one before, he picked it up to examine it, wondering what kind of creature it was. Little by little, he's discovering the world around him — and making new friends along the way. 🐌

These photos were taken the other day when I was shooting NED-B photographing flowers. 🌸

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"On your left!" 👀

You thought the guy on the motorcycle was eggs-treme? 😏 The other one was born to be wild. He installed a rocket pack on his bike, and now no one can match his speed. 🚀

I wanted to experiment with long exposure and use practical effects to make the biker look like he's moving fast. But the day was too bright, and I didn’t have an ND filter. In the end, I had to rely on a blur effect in Photoshop. I think it turned out okay. 🤷

[bricktoygrapher]

Featured in Blocks Magazine #128 📔

I'm proud to share that one of my LEGO photos has been featured in Issue 128 of Blocks magazine! 📖

The image — inspired by nature, camping, and adventure — appears as part of the BrickCentral community showcase. 🌲🐺

Huge thanks to the team at Blocks and to the BrickCentral community, whose monthly themes and support continue to inspire and open doors for creators like me. 🙏

You can spot my photo in the top-left corner of the feature. 📸

[bricktoygrapher]

Hide and seek 🫣

"Shhh! Do not let them know I'm here." 🤫

It's been scorching hot lately, so I took some time to water the grass and plants in the yard. 💦🌱 That’s when I got the idea to hide Ant-Man among the leaves. 🌿

Let's have some fun. Drop your guesses in the comments — who is he hiding from? Wrong answers only! 🤣

[bricktoygrapher]

NED-ture Photographer 📷

Even heavy-duty droids need a moment of peace. NED-B traded his hammer for a camera today—capturing nature, one petal at a time. 🌸

[bricktoygrapher]

New Comic Book Day 📚

I decided to give Hellblazer and the Absolute DC Universe a shot.

What are you reading these days?

[bricktoygrapher]

Selfie time 🤳

Just a quick shot I took for the TPC Discord's weekly challenge. 📸

K-2SO and NED-B are so fun to photograph. 🤖

[bricktoygrapher]

Sirdork Plant Challenge

This photo, taken for the plant challenge, was featured on Sirdork's YouTube channel during a live stream.

You can watch the very last episode of Toy Photographer Reacts to Toy Photography here:

That feeling of being watched 👀

These brave adventurers have traveled the world, explored jungles and ancient ruins, but they have never felt unease quite like this. The air was thick, the silence too heavy, and their instincts told them they were not alone. Hidden in the shadows of dense foliage, barely visible, stood motionless observers. 👀

This is my entry for the #sirdorkplant challenge by Sirdork. The task is to incorporate real plant life into toy photography. 🌱 What may seem like ordinary plants to us is a dense jungle for minifigures. Initially, I just wanted to capture these two adventurers exploring the wilderness, but then I thought of adding two hidden watchers in the background to make the scene more intriguing.

[bricktoygrapher]

Behind the Scenes: Brave Little Knight 🗡️🛡️

Want to see how I used Nikon Z5II’s focus shift shooting and focus stacking in Photoshop to create one sharp, dramatic frame of a LEGO knight facing a dragon? ⚔️🐉

Then head over to the ToyPhotographers blog, where I shared the full behind-the-scenes process and explained how this technique helped keep both subjects crisp while the background stayed softly blurred and unobtrusive. 📸🎬

[bricktoygrapher]

A Visit from an Old Friend 🧔‍♂️

Robin the Forestman was visited by an old friend from a distant, long-forgotten land, so he decided to give him a tour through the streets of the new, modern castle. 🏰

This is my attempt at creating an entry for this month’s Timeless Companions theme hosted by BrickCentral. I like the colors and the overall mood of the image, but the scene itself isn’t particularly strong in terms of storytelling. Honestly, I just didn’t have a better idea. 🤷

Below you can see a few BTS photos. 👇 The side LED light is meant to simulate the glow of warm light coming through the doorway from inside. 🔥

📸 Nikon Z5II +Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 G2

[bricktoygrapher]

Medieval Muppets 🏰

In a quiet village deep in the forest, the Muppets have taken on medieval roles—Gonzo the brave knight seeks a new sword ⚔️, while Beaker the messenger arrives with news from the kingdom 🏰. At the forge, Animal the blacksmith hammers away 🔨, crafting weapons to defend their quirky little realm.

If you look closely, you might spot a few other Disney faces in the scene—like Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice ✨ or Robin Hood 🏹—though, technically, the Muppets are Disney characters too.

Below you can see a few BTS photos. 👇 You’ll notice I used an Ulanzi LED light behind the house to illuminate the forge from the front, creating the effect of a glowing furnace, which is further enhanced by the face mister on the right side. 🔥

[bricktoygrapher]

I wrote this article two years ago, but the tips on lighting and combining photos to create the right mood and atmosphere are still very much applicable. 📸 💡

Combining photos to achieve the desired mood 🖼️

What I've learned over the last two years doing toy photography is that lighting is extremely important, but not only to make a good picture in low light conditions – it can drastically change the look and mood of the photo. However, the images don't always turn out the way I envision them.

Fortunately, I found a way to overcome this problem – by combining photos in Adobe Photoshop. I wrote about it in a new article for the Toy Photographers blog.

[bricktoygrapher]

Brave Little Knight 🗡️🛡️

Who says dragons are scary? Well, not this brave little girl. Even seasoned knights run at the mere mention of the dragon’s name, but she doesn’t fear a face-to-face encounter with the beast. 🐉

For this photo, I used the in-camera focus shift shooting feature to keep both the knight and the dragon in focus while maintaining a softly blurred background. Since I used a pico LED to light up the fire in the dragon’s mouth, I had to shoot two separate series of images. 🔥

In Photoshop, I blended the first 10 shots (where the wire is visible) into a single image, and then did the same with the other 10 (without the pico LED). I combined those two final images to create one where the dragon’s mouth is lit, but no wire is visible.

One small tip—don’t be like me. Always dust off your sets before shooting. I spent nearly an hour removing dust from the dragon’s head. 😅 I liked the colors straight out of camera, so I didn’t do any additional color editing.

Here are some BTS photos. 👇

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Artist Spotlight: Bricktoygrapher 📸

What if alien tourists visited Earth back in the Middle Ages? 👽🤳

It’s been a few years since my last interview. Since then, I’ve grown a lot and refined my photography skills. If you’d like to learn a bit more about me, my interview with @brickcentral is available at the link below.

https://brickcentral.net/artist-spotlight-bricktoygrapher/

[bricktoygrapher]

Kermit’s Day Off 🐸 🪕

It’s a beautiful day, so Kermit decided to skip work and head out into nature to play his banjo. 🪕🎶

I have quite a few minifigures I haven’t photographed in a long time—or ever—so I’ll try to start using them more in future shoots. Maybe they’ll spark some new ideas. 💡