Every month, we pick a LEGO photographer active in our community and share some of their work and a little about themselves. This month we flight to the USA to meet sillylittlebricks

Hello. I am Chris and I post photos as Silly Little Bricks. I live in California (US). I started LEGO photography a few years ago. While looking at piles of neglected LEGO bricks (my kids are now teenagers), I thought: “wouldn’t it be funny if there was a Christmas party with all the Disney media characters?” That became my first set of LEGO photos.

My photographs typically are either humorous (at least to me) or “quiet” — some warm or serene moment. But each photograph is an experiment, where I am trying to learn a new technique or explore a new idea. (I’ve done a lot of photographs with The Mandalorian as Grogu’s dad and the shenanigans of parenting.)

I use a Fujifilm X-S10, mostly with either a Fujifilm XF80 Macro lens or a TTArtisan 40mm Macro.
I always shoot mounted on a tripod and almost exclusively indoors. I started with flash, but quickly switched to LEDs, so that I could see live lighting.
I have a series of LEDs, but I commonly use a few Ulanzi cubes and a Weeylite panel. Making a photo usually takes a few days to a few weeks.

I start with some idea — a joke or a caption, or a “feeling” I want to capture. I will look for “real life” examples to get a sense of lighting or scale, in the hope my photo looks authentic. I will start with some element: location, furniture, character, and take very rough photographs, with placeholders, to see how the lens might see the photo. (Reality and my imagination rarely overlap.)

Sometimes I build a MOC. I will iteratively build a scene, taking photographs, revising and repeating. Eventually I am ready to build the first draft of the actual photo.

I will then experiment with lighting and camera angles, looking for shadows and reflections. I will try different minifigure expressions/heads, clothing, colors, etc. Maybe a water mister. Adding bounce cards or flags, etc.(modificato)

Eventually I have a photograph. I make my edits in Lightroom. My edits are usually pretty simple: tone and exposure, sometimes simple radial masks for dodge/burn. In the first draft, I sometimes notices something I need to improve: the turn of a head or an error in lighting. I might reshoot right away. But I will leave the scene setup and check the photo in a day or so. I often notice new things when I’ve had a little time to consider the photograph. Sometimes I reshoot and tweak, sometimes I am done.

The exclusive photo

I really liked LEGO Mystery Series 25. In particular, the Fierce Barbarian.

I have two and I call them the “Warrior Sisters”. I’ve made multiple photos of these characters. I’ve been mulling an idea with these two minifigures for some time: The Warrior Sisters at an arcade.

I started to build skee-ball machines, pinball, air hockey, and I started my first test shots.
And I had a revision on the idea: a claw machine where the “grumpy” sister is ready to attack the machine and the calmer sister is exasperated.

I shifted to building this photo, not needing most of the arcade. I made several claw machines, trying to get the scale right for the photo, so you could see both characters. I switched lenses, faces, head and body positions.

I settled on the 40mm Macro, an overhead key light, background blue and red lights (for the arcade) and a handheld spotlight to accent the two minifigures. After a lot of tweaks and photographs, I settled on the one you see here.

Thank you to BrickCentral for featuring me. I am very grateful, as BrickCentral, and its community, has been supportive, educational, and inspiring as I pursue LEGO photography