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 Poland to meet edgy_mando!

My name is Patryk, known as Edgy_Mando.
I’m from Poland and I am a 90s kid. During the day, I work as a graphic designer and in my free time I am a LEGO freak.

LEGO was my favorite toy in childhood. I received my first sets from my grandfather, who initiated my passion to bricks.
Back then, we loved building the first Pirates and Castle sets together. I have many wonderful memories from those times.

My return to LEGO happened two years ago. As a huge Star Wars fan, I stumbled upon the Razor Crest set from Mandalorian in a store and fell in love with it.
I thought, why not buy and build it? Since then, I have started collecting LEGO again and have been enjoying myself.
Additionally, I have always admired toy photography by other creators.

I decided to join this community by actively managing Instagram and regularly taking photos of scenes I come up with.

At first, my photos focused only on Star Wars, but I quickly realized that it limits my creativity, and I wanted something more.
In my gallery, you can find photos from Pirates, Castle, City, Marvel, and my own imagined universes. Currently, I enjoy photographing the amazing world of Castle and the daily life of City residents.

Most of my photos are taken at home. I feel the most freedom in creating when I can calmly analyze and set up everything I need in my own space.
A big advantage is the control over the light and the possibility to create my own scenery using elements such as sand, gravel, moss, artificial grass, etc.

Equipment I use is a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 smartphone as my camera, RGB LED lights, a tripod, and paper cards for light reflection.
As for editing software, Lightroom helps me with color correction, while Photoshop is used for retouching (removing dust and unwanted scratches on a minifigures).

I try to make my photos as natural as possible, but as a graphic designer, I sometimes add minor special effects, mainly in themes like Star Wars (lightsabers, blaster shots, etc.).

I find ideas for photos everywhere! From my everyday life and surroundings, which I use in the City series, to pop culture, movies, games, or even art, which allows me to create my own themes.
I have plenty of ideas, and when I decide one, I build MOC (My Own Construction), set up scenes, and turn on the lights to realize my shot as it looks in my mind.

The exclusive

For the exclusive photo, I decided to create something that is close to me lately – the Castle theme.

I chose a brave knight who is fighting a dragon.
I wanted the shot to be very cinematic, my idea was to place the characters of this photo in a dark dungeon surrounded by flames.

The photo was taken in a dark room for a better result.
I used two lights – one neutral, the other orange, which allowed me to achieve the effect of being heated by the flames.

The biggest challenge was to get the perfect shadows that would bring some dark mood to the photo.
Placing a box in front of one of the lights allowed me to get an additional shadow on the scene. I wanted to show the determination on the knight’s face and his sneaking pose.

The dragon searching for its prey is surrounded by columns that I made from gray bricks.
I used dark gravel for the base and black paper card for the background.

Finally, after minor retouching and color correction, I added sparks texture in Photoshop, making the photo more exciting.

Thank you BrickCentral for the opportunity to showcase my creativity to the world.