My son was sure to include a Luke Skywalker minifigure to our family trip last weekend and asked me to photograph him from behind. With today being such a special day for all those Star Wars fans, I couldn’t think of a better photo to share. May the Fourth Be With You!
Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/250 | f/9.0 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430 EXII | RAW
~signed, Carltonaut
If you’re new to my blog, you probably think all my photos are Lego related. I’ll admit that I have a few photos featuring Legos, but the past few days I’ve been sharing multiple photos of Legos from a trip to southern Utah. Since I’ve mentioned the trip a few times, I’ll just stick to sharing the photo in this blog post.
Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/200 | f/9.0 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430EXII | RAW
I can’t forget to mention that even this photo was the brain child of my 10-year-old son. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
~signed, Carltonaut
I can only claim credit for taking the photo. My son was the creative director. He came up with the idea, built the Lego tree and book, selected the character and packed them up for our weekend trip to St. George, Utah. Upon arrival at Snow Canyon State Park, he reassembled the tree (the trip had not been friendly to the fragile display) and set the photo up in the sand dunes. He even titled this blog post – Lost in an amazing book.
The sun was high in the sky and casting very harsh shadows on the world below. Since I didn’t have one of the portable light reflectors (or blockers), my creative director ran to the van to grab his brother’s pillow and held it strategically over the area so I could get the shot. I think we were both pleased with the final outcome, though a little shadow from the tree would have helped the photo (I think).
Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/320 | f/6.3 | ISO 800 | RAW
I don’t recall why I had the camera set to ISO 800. It definitely was bright enough. I think it was because I was using the flash on occasion to help light things up and reduce shadows, but when I found the shade (i.e., my son’s pillow), I forgot to bring the ISO back to 100. In Photoshop I made a few adjustments to exposure, blacks, saturation and levels, in an effort to bring the guy under the tree out more.
Anyway, I am very proud of my son for serving as my creative director, and I hope you’ll look forward to a few more of the Lego shots he arranged during our trip and asked me to photograph.
~signed, Carltonaut
Had a blast with my family and some friends this weekend while iN St. George. Before making the trek north, we stopped at Snow Canyon State Park’s sand dunes to photograph some Lego stuff. Here’s one I wanted to share quickly tonight, but stay tuned for some other ones that I am really looking forward to sharing over the next few days.
Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/400 | f/5.0 | ISO 100 | RAW
I used a 100 mm macro lens so I could have a narrow depth of field to help highlight the Lego jeep. I had a few shots where I used a flash, but this one worked without a flash.
Both of my sons set up some of the photos I’m planning to share, so stay tuned to see their works of art that I was privileged to capture.
~signed, Carltonaut
My son is a Lego builder and I am a photographer. So when we mix the two together, we end up with photos like this.
Mom and dad Lego are enjoying some time on the family couch reading Junior a book. I know that for me and my family, we enjoy moments very similar to this and have a bazillion books throughout the house. Family story time is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 
~signed, Carltonaut
I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do to meet this week’s photo challenge – Create – which is why I am a little late getting my photo posted.
My son is a BIG Lego fan, so I asked him to create something that I could photograph for the challenge. He created some mini figures creating the doors to what will eventually become a large castle. You’ve got the guy in the door using the jackhammer; the guy with the hammer on the right side; the guy doing cement work above the door; and the guy sanding the wall on the left. Quite the creation for a photo of Create.
Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/250 | f/4.0 | ISO 100 | Speedlite 430EX II Flash
My son did an awesome job helping me out with this week’s photo challenge, so the credit for this photo goes to him. You can check out another design he built and set up, then had me photograph during a family vacation in St. George – click here.
~signed, Carltonaut
I must give full credit to my 9-year-old son for this photo. He knew we were taking a trip to southern Utah and decided to build a Lego lounge chair, table and beverage for his little Luke Skywalker Lego guy to enjoy on the red sands of Snow Canyon State Park. He set up the scene and had me shoot it. What do you think?
Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/250 | f/10 | ISO 100 | Speedlite 430EX II
Once he had the scene set, I hooked up my flash and shot away. I used my zoom lens, mainly just to use it so I didn’t feel like it was wasting space in my camera bag. I took photos from a few different angles, but then my son decided to make the drink look like it was coming off the table and that Luke was using the Force to get the drink in-hand.
So, full credit to my son for this creative Lego shot.
~signed, Carltonaut
My son is so proud of his Lego Battleship, the USS Utah. He built it last summer and has been trying to protect it ever since from siblings, friends and neighbors. He’s also been adding little enhancements, and of course, more guns, to his ship ever since.
Yesterday he took it to school to present at his talent show, and apparently it was the talk of all his class. Even the art teacher of the school stopped in to see his battleship. The talent show almost didn’t happen, because two weeks ago, his younger brother dismantled the upper part of it, and there was quite the explosion at the house when Andrew got home from school and saw the devastation. He was able to rebuild it.
I have been thinking about photographing different parts of his battleship to share on the blog, and last night I put the rubber to the road and took some photos. I used black cloth that I had grabbed from my church building library’s free-for-all. The black drapes worked very well, and now I think I need to go get some other cloth colors for future photos.
Here is what I put together from some of my other photos of the USS Utah.
Manual Settings: Canon 60D | 1/200 | f/16 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II
You can check out more photos from the USS Utah on my Carltonaut Facebook page.
I guess my son loved the photos, because I showed them to him this morning before he headed off to school, and moments later he decided to destroy it so he could rebuild it anew. It is now in pieces all over the living room. I guess in a few more months, I’ll have to photograph his next battleship. Any suggestions on the name of his next battleship?
~signed, Carltonaut
Do I get triple points for this week’s photo challenge post? Here’s the final outcome, and then the story behind how I got to the final product.
Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/8 | f/1.8 | ISO 100 | Speedlite 430EXII flash
My first interest was to see how the bokeh lighting effect changed the further it got from the focused point of the framed photo. After attaching a circle sheet of paper with a shamrock stamped out of it to the end of my 50mm lens, I grabbed my fabric green screen and laid it out on the floor with a strand of white Christmas strung across it. But the strand of Christmas lights were too close together and ended up being a whole cluster of four-leaf clovers.
I decided to use the lights as more of a background and draped one end of the green fabric up onto our ottoman with the lights in front of it. But… what to photograph!
Sure enough, my boy’s Legos were strewn across the floor, and when I stepped on one of them on my way out of the room, I was inspired. I found a green Lego guy, placed it on the gray base and set up the shot.
I quickly found I needed to light the subject, or it was too dark. I used my Canon Speedlite 430EXII and angled it at 60 degrees. It took me a few more shots to make sure my green guy was in complete focus, but when all was said and done, that was my final shot.
Happy “Belated” St. Patrick’s Day
~signed, Carltonaut
I had a few ideas floating through my head for The Daily WordPress Photo Challenge for this week – Contrast. But this afternoon, when I was helping my son fix a giant Lego battleship that my other son had ruined earlier in the week, I found his white Ninjago Lego guy and a light in my head went on.
Rather than doing a Yin and Yang for contrast, I did a Cole and Zane photo (if you don’t get that reference, ask your Lego enthusiast).
Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 0″4 | f 3.5 | ISO 100
I used white and black Lego’s to make a backdrop (which was not easy feet, because my son had used almost all of his Legos for a large battleship). I thought the blurry nubs in the background would provide an interesting, and appropriate backdrop for the Legos. I was interested to see the black nubs didn’t show up as well as the white, but again, it worked for a nice contrast.
I took a few photos, and when I felt I had it right, I shot in RAW format so that I could adjust the white balance afterward. But since I changed it to Black & White, I guess shooting in RAW and adjusting white balance doesn’t really make a difference. Oh well.
~signed, Carltonaut
