My online gallery:

www.wix.com/joskytw/Josky-Figure-Gallery

A couple of Q & A's with the man from THE OTHER SIDE.

1) Can you tell us some background info bout yourself.. name/age/profession/country?

Hello everyone!

My name is Luke Zou, I alos use "Luka" or "Josky" as my screen name. I'm 34 years old, works as a software engineer in IT industry. I live in Taipei City in Taiwan.

2) What got you started into toy photography? How long have you been doing this?

I started toy photography about 7 months ago, before that I was mostly taking landscape shots and portrait shots for my family. One day while I was surfing e-stores, I happened to see an interesting figure - a 12 inch WWII German soldier. As a big fan of WWII FPS games, that figure easily caught my eyes! bought it at once and the rest as they say is...history, =)

3) What equipment do you normally use for taking snaps? any other special equipment?

My primary weapon is "Nikon D80 + Tamron 90mm", the secondary weapon is "Fuji F100fd", a consumer digital camera. Besides those, I have several lamps for indoor shots and a little film studio that I rarely use.

4) How many toys do you have right now? Any particular character or set you like most?

I recently started collecting 12 inch figures, and now I have... about 15 figures I guess!

I was first into WWII figures, like DID and Dragon figures, then I started collecting cool girls and also HT's new series like Predator....I think I'd prefer to have variety in my collection, the more the better! :p

5) where do you normally get your stuff (mean toys)?

I mostly get my figures from e-stores, the real toy shops are much expensive and there's not much 12 inch figure shops to visit in my city.

6) Which do you prefer, tabletop photography or outdoor? why?

Both! When I want to make figures to look more real, I'll take them out. if I want to take some closeup shots, I'd rather do it indoor with my macro lens. Both are fun and also challenging. Outside you must keep your figure from falling and ignore the "look" from other people. Indoor you must control your lights well and that's really a big challenge for me!

7) Which do you prefer, digital background or props/dio ? why?

Talking about background, I'd rather go outside and find a place that suits my figure. Digital background is really cool, that's what I'm learning from other great toy photographers now.

8) Do you make prints of your toy shots? or just stored them digitally.

Now I only save them in my Harddrive. Maybe I'll print them out as a photo book someday.

9) Any particular light setup you prefer using?

That's my weakness! I don't have a preferred light setup!

But recently I like the setup to be as simple as possible, maybe just two (2) lights. Sometimes too many lights would erase the shadows, which is as important as the light! I also hear some amazing light setups like rim lighting and light painting... but I've not touched them yet.

10) Any preferred lens for toy photography? Can you advise which lens is ok to use?

I like using macro lens for figures, like my Tamron 90mm. It gives sharp and clean images, helps me focus on the subject where I want to. for outdoor shoots, I'd like to use my little digicam because its zoom range gives me more flexibility . I'm lazy ? =P

11) When taking shots, which element of photography you normally try to achieve? ie., sharp image, great lighting, etc.

I think sharpness, though Exposure is one basic element which i also consider. I want to make my image look more "Powerful". That's a little hard to describe, probably to "Pop Out". and for it not to be like, a model/figure snapshot. I'd rather want them to jump out of the screen!

12) Have you entered any contest using your works with toys? Did you win any awards?

Ha, no!

13) Aside from taking photo's of toys, any other hobby you have?

Like my profile picture, I love playing softball. I'm in a softball team with my friends and we practice every Saturday morning. And I like video games(FPS/SPORTS/RACING/RPG...) but my time seems getting lesser and lesser since I started toy photography. =)

14) What would you like to show or say with your photography?

I'm still learning from all of you! So I greatly appreciate if you give me any advices for my images. =)

15) Any tips you can impart for those newbie in this type of photography?

Try to learn more about the toy/figures character. What story are they telling you? Are you listening to them? Find it and you will succeed.

16) How long do you see yourself doing this?

I like photography like all of you! As long as I could pay for the toys I guess! haha!!

17) Any other things you'd like to add or say to all toy/photo enthusiast?

Practice makes perfect! And helping other is like helping yourself. =)

Thank you for viewing my profile =)