Photomark6

[photomark6]

Hello Tumblr! I’m Mark, aka Photomark6. I’m a 33 year old, guitar playing, photo taking, film loving, AFOL from a little village in Leicestershire, United Kingdom.

I have always been fascinated by photography. My father is a keen photographer and I used to love helping him carry around all his lenses and learning about how to use the camera when I was little.

Lego was one of my favourite things when growing up. I used to love just building whatever came into my imagination. From ships to space shuttles, there were some pretty crazy looking models I came up with! I never grew out of it and am proud to say I have a lot of Lego at home!!

It was a couple of years ago that I started to combine my love of photography with my love of Lego. I started taking shots outside with my Lego, but more and more I have started to build my own scenes and MOCs and shooting them indoors in my little home studio.

I’m a lover of practical effects and always enjoy experimenting to achieve the look I am after. I have a soft spot for sci-fi themes and some of the classics (like the Western theme!), but happily use any theme. I think the story is so important in a photo and I try to tell a unique story in each scene I create. I am assisted in my photography endeavours by my cat Smudge! She’s more like my creative director and makes her feelings known if a picture isn’t quite right! She’s the inspiration for the Lego cats that are a frequent feature in my photos!

[photomark6]

It’s been rumoured that ward C was haunted. A strange spectre seemed to appear every night, chasing the staff and forcing the ward to be abandoned. Cleared of all staff and patients, the police could finally investigate. After a long search a strange blue glow started to appear. Will they be able to solve this mystery?

An entry into this months @brickcentral theme #bc_mystery

I think i might have got a little carried away with the blue lights! 😂. There is actually quite a few lights in the setup (5 in total). A face mister was used to give a bit of haze to the scene.

I also used a number of light blockers made from black card. I wanted to stop as much of the fill lights reaching the back of the scene so the corridor and ghost were just highlighted with the blue light. It’s always useful to have some black card to hand!

[photomark6]

Racing down the strip…

I love the speed champion builds! They are great little models and really fun to assemble. The Lamborghini Countash immediately took me back to some GTA vice city nostalgia and I wanted to create some neon light vibe.

Also wanted to play around with replicating movement having seen some cool posts from the community. Was a bit of trial and error and will give it another bash. Main issue was my creative director being very interested in seeing how much she could make the car swing …😂😂😂. Who needs expensive cat toys!

[photomark6]

Cornered in the temple, the evil mage turned to the king and his brave knights; brandishing his staff high in the air he uttered a curse in a accident tongue. Staff glowing red and propelled higher by his magic, the temple doors stared to open. With a deafening roar and shaking of the ground, a mythical monster started to emerge, it’s red eyes reflecting out of the dark depths. Two giant claws appeared, scraping down the temple walls. The king stood firm but even one of his bravest knights fled in the face of this terror…

My entry to the @brickcentral challenge #bc_tipfest this month. The BC tips article have always been such a great source of learning for me! I was thinking about what to create on this month theme and found some inspiration from a post on Pinterest. I loved the mystery of this large monsters hands just emerging from the darkness.

Once I started the build I had an idea of the tips I wanted to focus on. The main ones in the image were

1. Use of coloured lights - i wanted a dimly lit cave/temple vibe for the shot. I used a combination of red and blue lights (normal LEDs with coloured gel covers) to bring the temple gates to life. These were combined with some multi coloured mini LEDs which provided the light for the candles and staff (more very time consuming wire hiding!).

2. Camera angle: we’re quite low down at minifigure eye level and also shot fairly wide angle (wide shot) to give a sense of scale to scene. Shooting low and wide also aims to exaggerate the sense of scale on the temple doors (makes them appear taller).

There’s a couple more tips in there as well such as making lego figures fly (the mage and monster hands are suspended by wires), framing (the cave walls are built to give a natural frame and hide some empty space created through shooting wide angle) and a little bit of humour (our not so brave knight doing a runner!)

Every photo is always a learning experience! This MOC was one of the largest I’ve built and that made things a little tricky at times! Looking at it now, there are things I would do differently if I was to set it up again. But that’s what’s cool about this hobby. Every day is a school day sometimes 😁😁

[photomark6]

Only the bravest knights explored the deepest Temple ruins. Rumour spoke of mythical monsters that stalked the darkness. Even by candle light, you can’t be sure of what surprises await…

My entry into the @brickcentral monthly theme for April celebrating the 10 years of BC

I originally had something quite small planned for this months challenge to celebrate @brickcentral 10 year birthday! However, after a couple of days building, this MOC emerged! Inspiration came from some great fantasy artwork I found (like the below) and I really wanted to create a similar vibe.

Everything is practical with only a tiny amount of post processing. The all important candles where lit using some micro orange LEDs and they provided most of the light for the scene (a long time was spent hiding wires from the camera!). There are also two small LEDs used as ‘fill lights’ just to bring out the dragon and our brave knight a little more. Some slight haze was added with a face mister to help add to the vibe (also gave the added benefit of making the LED candles look a bit more realistic).

Safe to say, I’m am very happy to have stumbled across the @brickcentral community a couple of years ago. Without the amazing friendships made and inspiring pictures taken each month (and useful tips and hints) by the community, I don’t think I would have had the motivation to push my Lego photography forward. Happy birthday @brickcentral.

[photomark6]

Containment breach! With a deafening roar, the mysterious space monster had managed to break free from the lab. Alarms ringing, the research team did there best to get away.

I started building this with no particular plan in mind. Just see where my imagination took me! Ok, technically that is a lie. I was watching some amazing old sci-if films and thought some type of alien/monster escape would be cool (particular favourite was It came from beneath the sea - 1955😁). I didn’t start building with a plan though and just started adding some bricks. We ended up in a dark corridor with a massive space monster on the loose! The poor classic space men didn’t stand a chance!

Lighting came form a couple of LEDs set around the MOC. I used two face misters to add that hazy effect. The final shot is actually a couple of images blended together to provide that back to front focus.

[photomark6]

Play time is much better together with a friend. There was so much space in the kings garden to run around. Their dad had made them their own castle guards uniforms. It was if they were already members of the brave knights guard that followed their dad wherever he went.

Another entry into the @brickcentral monthly them for February.

I’d been playing around with this castle garden MOC for a little bit it time and finally got a story from it. Two siblings enjoying some playtime together! I think I has few more stories to tell as well!

I shot the scene in front of a monitor with a sky picture on. I wanted to go for a sunset vibe and the lighting comes from two LEDs with a yellow/orange filters in front.

[photomark6]

They tracked the skeleton king deep into the catacombs. This mystery mage with his torn red cape had been terrorising the lands with his army. Only together with his bravest knights could the king defeat the skeleton king and his undead army.

An entry into the @brickcentral monthly theme on togetherness.

Let’s face it, you should never go into the deep dark catacombs without a team! I saw this fantasy picture of some catacombs bathed in blue light, it was concept art from the game Shadow of Mordor (a blast from the past - was a great game!). I took inspiration from this to create something similar. Height was a bit of an issue for the angle I wanted to shoot. The MOC just had keep getting taller.

I picked up a load of skeleton minifigures from a seller and have been looking for a scene to use them in! The blue lights are from two LEDs and I used a reflector to bounce some light back into the scene. A little bit of haze was added with a face mister. If you look closely, you might be able to spot that evil skeleton king…😁

[photomark6]

I don’t normally post old shots but I found this one when doing a bit of ‘sorting’ on my hard drive. It’s another version of an image I took back in 2021 for a @brickcentral monthly theme (on framing). The one below is the version I posted at the time - one of my favourites of all the images that I took that year! I was really happy with the lighting and the shadows in the room.

I was going for a film noir, detective story vibe for the image and was clearly playing with some black and white versions in post. I kind of like this angle and vibe! The shadows seem to pop a bit more and the black and white gives it that slight my gritty, contrasty look.

Its quite satisfying looking at test shots and other images taken in the past. You can almost see different things in the image that you didn’t see at the time. I probably would make a few tweaks to the composition if I was to take it again but I still like it. Just seemed a shame to keep hidden on the computer…

[photomark6]

Training starts early under the watchful eye of Master Wu. The path to being a master Samurai is discipline and practice.

Another shot from the Dojo MOC. I feel this model has a couple more stories to tell yet before I break it down! I couldn’t quite decide which was better, close crop or the slightly wider view. I love the wider expanse you get from the wide angle view, but there is a little bit of ‘empty space’. The closer crop does give the action a bit more focus. I’ll let you decide which you prefer!

[photomark6]

My entry into the @brickcentral monthly challenge How it started vs How it’s going. Really enjoyed this theme from @brickcentral. Being so focused on the next image, you can sometimes forget how far you’ve already come. There is still so much to learn and every image will always be a journey to being a slightly better photographer.

How it started (2021): So technically this isn’t the first Lego photo I ever took but it is the first MOC that I ever built and photographed. I didn’t really have much experience building my own scenes then and my knowledge of lighting, composition and story telling was still developing. I was inspired to start building my own scenes having found some of the great work form IG Lego community. I was really proud of this photo at the time but feel 2023 me would take it a bit differently! Looking back, I didn’t take nearly as much time as should have at planning the scene (from a story & composition point of view) and making sure the lighting fit the story being told.

How it’s going (2023): I have really challenged myself to improve my images both technically and compositionally. To focus on a story, a clear vision, that comes across in each image I take. To really show that progress, I thought I would retake this original 2021 concept (plus Lego Ninjago is super cool!) as the photographer I am now. 2023 me has a bit more knowledge on lighting and atmosphere as well as paying a lot more attention to everything that’s in the frame to ensure it all contributes something to the story being told. Plus, 2023 me also includes the customary cat to my image, a homage to my ‘creative director’ Smudge the cat!

[photomark6]

Left alone in the dungeon deep below the castle, the brave knight awaited his fate. He longed to see his love again one last time. Suddenly a ghostly apparition appeared, reaching out he could almost touch her hand…

To create the ghost of the brave knights wife, I took two images (one with her in and one without) and then blended them in photoshop. There was a little bit of extra photoshop to make her more ghost like!

[photomark6]

The morning after the night before. The New Year’s party was great, but there were some sore heads in the morning. No better way to sober up than a cheeky breakfast at the blacksmith. The healing powers of his forge croissants were legendary…

I’m loving the Lego blacksmith at the moment. I’ve had it on the build pile for a while but finally got some time to build it at Christmas (courtesy of being poorly). After the party post, I felt the black falcons needed some sobering up.

The snow is some baking powder, with the falling snow is a bit of photoshop.

[photomark6]

After a long year, the Black Falcons castle guard started the New Year party early. Time to see in the new year in style!

A final post for the year. Currently laid up with a bout of Covid. It was interesting trying to build a MOC and take a photo when feeling very rubbish! Think I skipped a few steps of my normal process but the party still looks pretty good. Wish I was there for new year!

[photomark6]

Bringing home the tree…

Staying on the Christmas theme! I reconfigured the Lego holiday main street set for this angle. It was originally a landscape shot, but it just didn’t have the right balance. Switched to portrait and it seemed to just work a bit better.

The snow is baking powder and flour with the falling snow being added in photoshop. I tried another experiment with practical falling snow but it looked a bit rubbish so back to photoshop!

Normally my creative director and I agree on our photos but today she just didn’t like the set up! Full meowthra at one point; she spend the rest of the time just glaring at me 😂😂.

[photomark6]

After some last minute Christmas shopping, it’s time to take the tram back home.

[brickcentral]

Monthly Roundup

Hello everyone, it's time again to look back at the last month and summarize the happenings in the monthly roundup 👋

At first we gave shoutouts to these community members:

@andi_nugroho.art @legohabit @ness_bricks @nicky_sunsun

Monthly Theme 🏆📸

This month things got adventurous! @monsieurkek took us on adventures in his #bc adventurer theme. 🔦🗺🧭

There were a lot of great adventurous photos to look at and @monsieurkek picked a great winner! 🔍

Congratulations to 🏆 @photomark6

Also, the community vote is open, so don't miss your chance to vote for another winning photo on our Discord.

Tips

Also, this month @thebrickdwarf gave us some great tips about creating effects by placing objects in front or at the back of the main subject. 

You can find the tips on our Instagram account Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

and soon on our blog too!

In line with this, there will be a small challenge on our Discord again next month, so go ahead and read the tips. 

More info about this soon on our Discord!

Features

Also, @sarouxbastoux did his best this month to bring you some beautiful images and photographers in the features. 

At this point I would like to remind you that you should tag your pictures with #brickcentral or even better, share them on our Discord too, so that our feature mods have a change to find your pictures.

Artis Spotlight

@theaphol also introduced us to another great LEGO photographer this month and featured @archiminibricks in our artist spotlight. 

Photo Essay

We also had two wonderful photo essays this month. 

First, @photomark6 showed us a great story about the LEGO CITY 60347 Grocery Store set. 🛒🥕

Second, @alexandrecoelho conjured up a great setup around LEGO CITY stunt sets and presents us the "Lunacy Wheels stunt show". 🏍🏁

Furthermore, he has shared an exclusive BTS with us!

Thanks to all of you for your contributions this month!

For the next month i’ve thought about a great topic for the monthly theme and i’m looking forward to see your creations. Charge your camera batteries, get your LEGO bricks & figures ready and get excited! 📸

Also, @monsieurkek will be responsible for the features and show you some great photos from the community. 

See you next time! 

@joschka-vanderlucht, Community Engagement Mod