Preface: Even though this project didn’t wind up where I was hoping, the images and story are still worth sharing. Let me make it perfectly clear that these images are not for sale in any form whatsoever.

Back in April, 2008, I had this brainstorm for a photo project – Star Wars Lego scenes. I’ve been collecting the Lego minifigures from the Star Wars sets since production began in 1999 and have amassed quite a few. At present, I own over 200 figures and a few of the smaller sets. Anyway, the basic idea was to recreate scenes from the movies using Lego figures: the speederbike chase through the woods and a platoon of stormtroopers lined up in the Death Star were the initial ideas.

First I had to work through some technical issues. The figures are only about 2 inches tall so I needed to make sure I could photograph them clearly. My lens of choice was a Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro lens with a Cokin close-up filter in most cases. Next was lighting. I set up a Lowel Ego light on the left side of the figure and the reflector on the right. Lighting also necessitated changing the angle on occasion to reduce hot spots on helmets.

My first round of test shots proved very good. I was satisfied with the level of detail and started shooting more figures. Official Star Wars posters provided inspiration to create various posters. The time-consuming part was removing the background from the studio shots. As I continued working on the project, that part of it did get faster. Also experimented with making the light sabers glow. Depending on the image, that sometimes became problematic, mostly because of marks within the translucent bars.

By July, I was interested in pursuing a way to sell the designs as posters and cards, etc. I contacted the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and contacted the lawyer I was assigned in August. The lawyer indicated it would be a good idea to get a license from Lucas Arts before proceeding further. As I was preparing to buy a house, this part of the project sat on the back burner while I packed up the apartment and later unpacked my belongings at the house.

I went ahead and created a 2009 calendar to give as gifts to my parents and a cousin as well as one for me. At the end of January, I finally wrote to Lucas Licensing, requesting a license to use the images on various products and included several examples – some were individual characters, others were more involved designs.

Sadly, my request was denied.

And in one fell swoop, the Star Wars Lego project ended. Granted, I think Lucas made a big mistake and that these images would have sold quite well. But I will honor their directive and repeat that they are not available at any price.