The London Toy Safari took place last weekend. We had 12 toy photographers in all, and it was pretty epic. I’m writing this a good few days after the safari, and I am still completely exhausted from the weekend, but wanted to share something of the event with you whilst it’s still fresh in my mind!
There will possibly (probably) be more about the meet-up at a later date, but for now, I’m keeping it simple. Here’s a few key things!
Favourite moment: The print exchange. Without fail, always a great part of toy safari! I love getting a set of toy photos to add to my collection! It’s so much fun passing piles of prints round and choosing my favourites!
Worst moment: Discovering that they remove the trolley at Platform 9 3/4 at night! At least it was relatively quiet at King’ Cross though!
Best new trick learnt: Lighting headlamps with torches and cardboard (thanks Tom!)
Total distance walked: 44km (according to my watch). No wonder my feet hurt! That’s a lot of London covered!
The toys
We like to make a point when we plan these events that ALL toys and ALL types of photographers are welcome to come! We had some great non-LEGO photographers come, as well as some normally indoor shooting photographers! It was great to see everyone come together and shoot toys in so many different ways! Over the weekend we had LEGO, Blythe dolls, Danbo, rubber ducks, Playmobil and so much more!
Blythe doll from Pia, something completely new and different to shoot!
Danbo getting to grips with rubber duck photography. All toys really are welcome on photo safari!
It’s a trap! (Photo credit to @nutelasabe)
Behind the scenes
As with all toy safaris, some of the best parts are not the toy photos you end up with, but the opportunity to take a look at the behind the scenes of the photos you see online! Here are a few of my favourite behind the scenes photos that have come out of the weekend so far! You will also find a whole lot more by checking out the saved story highlight over @_toyphotographers_ or looking at the hashtag: #londontoysafari2018! You might even spot some of the results of these photos!
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The guest book
I asked everyone who came to dinner on Saturday night to write some of their thoughts about the weekend down in a little book. (I totally copied this idea from the guys at Stuck in Plastic who did this in Paris.) It’s so nice to have this little bit of memorabilia from the weekend, and I hope it is something we can do at other toy safaris! Take a look at what our lovely bunch of toy photographers had to say about the weekend!
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Thank you
Finally, a few thank yous to everyone who helped this safari come together!
Thanks to Shelly who suggested I do something back in December last year and supported me all the way. Thanks to LEGO for supplying some amazing poly bags for our photographers, as well as some great prizes for our competition winners. And thanks to Dennis of Krash Customs for creating us an army of TV heads!!
And of course a huge thank you to all the toy photographers who took a chance, broke out of comfort zones and made the trip to London to hang out with us for a few days! You all rock, and I can’t wait to photograph with you again!
- Lizzi
If you want to go on Toy Safari, then why not check out the Melbourne meet-up, or sign up to our newsletter to find out about the next toy safari plans!
Lizzi – great wrap up! I absolutely adore the guest book. What an awesome idea! I will be sure to introduce that at our next US meet-up. It’s a great reminder as to why we do these event. Awesome job my friend!! Lets make sure we coordinate better in 2019 so I can some to your meet-up!! xx
What a wonderful summary. I, too, adore the guest book. That’s a fun keepsake to go into the Toy Photographers Museum some day!! I really enjoyed your lens (!) on the meet-up, Lizzi. Can’t wait to hear when it is in 2019. The mother country is looking so much better than the runaway train that is this country right now.
How cool Lissi ????? and what a pity that I could not be there. I Love to read The guestbook ?? it’s great and a wonderful memory. Greetings from Germany Astrid ????????