Interview vol.2 Fabian

My name is Fabian R. Wijnekus. 46 years young. 
I’m from The Hague in the Netherlands. 

 So Fabian when and how you started taking pictures of Lego?

I’ve been a Star Wars fan all of my life! I used to have a lot of toys from Star Wars. 

Then when I grew up, everything ended up in boxes. 

And I kinda lost track of everything. When I finally got my own house,

 I asked my parents the box with all Star Wars toys so I could display them in my own house. 

But they had some bad news, because they said they gave everything away for charity since I was not playing with it at all.... aaargggh!!!

I was “devistated” that all my vintage original Star Wars toys were lost! Getting it all back was gonna be an expensive and hopeless task.

Then a decade or so later I became a father myself and I saw that there was a lot of Star Wars LEGO. 

So I bought some for my son so we could build them together. And that started a LEGO fire in me!

 I wanted every character I had when I was a child, but this time in LEGO. 

So I had lots and lots of LEGO figures that were standing proudly on my computer desk at work and in my house.

But then there was a moment in my life where I wasn’t getting the creative satisfaction I wanted from work,

 so I started thinking about creating my own creativity. 

I liked photography (just bought a new camera) and I had all these LEGO figures lying around. 

So I thought, why not combine the two hobby’s! And that was the beginning of something new for me.

  How does photoography affect your life?

I’ve always been interested in photography. Always trying out new things, and I can make some good photos, 

but I wouldn’t call myself a good photographer! 

So this toy-photography was more of a challenge for myself to try and make better photos,

 learn more about lighting a scene and learn more about my camera.

What is your favorite photo and why?

My favorite photo is a remake of a digital drawing from @zherebinix. It’s Yoda against a bunch of Stormtroopers. 

I really enjoyed this photo because I did less to none photoshop editing.

 I went to the forest to get some real wooden branches, glued them to a board, 

added some sand and rocks and played with the lighting ‘till it was perfect. 

All practical effects! It took me some time to make it and get it perfect, 

but the end result was totally worth it. Only cleaning up after was a bit of bummer... haha

And I also like this shot of Kylo! It is my most liked photo on Insta. 

But the fact that this was a really really simple set-up and the photo I made on my smartphone during my work lunch break, 

that makes it interesting for me. That shows that sometimes you don’t need the best equipment 

or expensive attributes and lights! You just need a good idea and a creative way to get the end-result.

- - - exactly ! / Lukas - - -

What advice would you like to give beginner photographers ?

Look at reference and inspiration from others. See what they are doing and how they are doing it. 

Try it out. Make lots of mistakes and try to find out how to make it better. 

Then try to find a style that’s your own and go for it. The best way to start, is to actually start!

Think about a concept, find out what you need for that concept to make it real. 

And then make it happen. 

The equipment is not important, you can make good photography from just your smartphone. 

What’s important is your own creativity! Try to find that and then everything is possible.

Any New Year's resolutions for 2020? 

Make more photography of course. But even more so: keep challenging myself to try out new things.

 That is what started this journey and that is what I will continue to do...

...and I have a wonderful wife 
and I’m a father of two kids. 

Thank you Fabian for great interview 
and for being an inspiration to us...

... definitely for me!

CHEERS LUKAS aka LEGODATA!