A Healthy Start

There’s nothing like waking up Sunday morning to the smell of breakfast being cooked over the stove. It’s a great way to start the day and let us not forget that it is the most important meal of the day! -Little John has given us a delicious appetizer for his new series of builds that will probably make me hungry every time I look at them. But above all, this moc shows that every one deserves a healthy and fresh start, even those broken pieces of brown Lego.

Rockin' In Wonderland

Talk about eye catching. This musical scene from Alice in Wonderland is as much about the photography as it is the build. Julius von Brunk brings us this colorful and whimsical scene, showing Alice, Hatter, March Hare and the White Rabbit absolutely rocking. The shot was accomplished with the clever use of multicolor party spotlights, a great effect expertly done.

Small Moments From A Galaxy Far Far Away

I'm really enjoying this series of pictures inspired by Star Wars: A New Hope by builder CozzD. Some are recreations of iconic shots, some are fanciful interpretations, all are top notch lighting and photography. There's even a few with some additional visual effects like smoke, blaster bolts and impacts, all very well done. Click through to see several more pics.

Do You Choose the Light?

Whether you like the light or the dark, this picture by the always excellent Avanaut has both. The multiple sources of light as well as the slight bit of haze make for a beautifully atmospheric picture which totally captures the sinister, moody feel of Jabba's Palace. Avanaut says this picture is one of many in his new book, so if you want to see more goodness like this, go check it out.

Ready

I don't know who this guy is, in fact I don't even know it's a guy. I don't know where he or she is, or what they're doing. But the title of this pic is "I AM READY", and I have to agree, whoever it is they do look ready indeed, ready for anything. Unless that is of course we're talking about showering, then I don't think that helmet is going to be very compatible with shampooing. Or brunch, this uniform would not be very comfortable for dining on copious amounts of shrimp at a buffet. Or playing Wii Bowling...

An excellent MOC and photograph by SweStar.

The Circle Is Now Complete

I love this, for a few reasons actually. First of course it's Star Wars original trilogy, so that's pretty much an automatic. Second, I can appreciate how difficult it was to do, lighting and photographing a super dark set with dark figures is really hard. And lastly, it's just a damn good shot, great lighting, great editing and great composition. Nicely done Andrew JN!

Setting The Mood

I realize that cinematic lighting isn't appropriate for photographing most MOCs, but when it is, this is how it's done. LEGOMINDED perfectly sets the mood in this dark and dank place using a principal of lighting that is often overlooked, negative space. Sometimes what you don't see is just as, if not more, important than what you do see. Can't you hear the sporadic water drips, the faint hiss of steam from a nearby boiler, the white noise of the pipes overhead, the scurry of an unseen rodent. This is how you set a mood.

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.