The Original LegoLand – Denmark

One of the big tourist attractions when you visit Denmark is to see LegoLand where it originally started. It’s on the same scale as the Taj Mahal or Petrus but it is one place that you should visit, especially if there are young kids or you have not quite left that mind set.


Legoland is all about colour and even these carts for parents to place their kids are brightly coloured.

While most of the day was spent with the family and the young kids running around looking at scale model of buildings, train rides and amusement activities, I thought I would also see if I could use my camera to render parts of the park interestingly.

Reproduction of Nyhavn tourist harbour in Copenhagen, Denmark


The lego trains ride around on the tracks and the old locomotives even exhausts steam.


Under the water are tiny cables and the boats move on a course through the canals.


There are models of Fredensborg Castle were prince Fredrick Henriksen (hey that’s my name but no relation) lives with his wife Mary. The Danish royalty only use their first name and it was when prince Fredrick lived in USA that he was forced to take a last name. He chose Henriksen, an old historic Danish name.

A photo of the real castle is shown below, but at a more realistic street angle.



It’s not all about Denmark as throughout the park are many other models such as the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, 4 US presidents and many others and of course, the NASA Space shuttle and launch pad.


Legoland is just not about the recreation of famous locations in Lego blocks. There are also marching bands

and fun water events at least if you are standing and watching.



From the top of the rotating tower, there is a view of one of the Lego sets.



Thanks for viewing today and through all the year.


To all, whether just up-coming or recently past, have a festive and joyous Christmas, Hanukkah, Islamic New year Muharram and to all other events I may have missed.


Niels Henriksen

There will be no article next weekend but the following in the start of the New Year.

Your Body of Work or Life Long Project

How many of you are aware that you might be creating a Photo legacy, a Body of Work or Life Long Project(s) by documenting what may appear to be ordinary and commonplace today?

There are several reasons I ask this.

The first is what got the idea going when I was reading one of the photography book reviews on the blog The Online Photographer , I came across a sentence “

His elegiac black-and-white images of America's heartland railroads, bridges, small towns and farms quietly document a world that is passing out of sight.


These people were documenting the places and moments frozen in time, that they love and most likely did not envision at the time that the life they were depicting would disappear in the future.

I suppose maybe some were visionaries and did foresee the disappearance of certain qualities of our everyday life.

With the images of trains I took in Norway I came to the realization that I was collecting images that maybe in the future, many years form now, would form an extensive collection on a specific mode of transportation. The Train. Not that this was original, but for my own pleasure, I was collecting a body of work.


The 2 train engines above are the same model as the 2 that sank in the bottom of this deep lake. The ferry was blown up in WWII by commandos as the Germans were transporting their heavy water back to Germany for nuclear research. At each end of the lake were ferries and at this end there was also a collection of old train cars from the same time period.


It did not start out this way. My first goal was to create a sixptych (3 over 3 images) of trains. I haven’t yet exactly determined the final composition. It will mostly be whole cars and sections of trains. The final mix is not there yet as I still need more to choose from.

It occurred to me since I was compiling and collecting train images that if I were to continue for many more years that one day I might have a good assortment of images that would form a good gallery collection or a photo book on the subject.




There are many things around us today that in 20, 30 years from now, maybe even sooner will disappear or not be in the same mode that we presently enjoy.

I think the traditional gas station might be such an entity. If we continue with the development of alternative source of fuel and if one day we all plug in our electric cars at home, then why the need for gas stations.

What about the music record stores? Especially the old media formats with the LPs, tapes and now CDs?

Do you have any ideas for such candidates for life long photo projects?

Please share your ideas. It might help inspire you to discover a hidden interest.



Take the time to look at the images you have already been collecting and see if there are any subjects and trends that might be a possible theme.

If you’re just starting out compiling images and no project identified, I don’t think that trying to second-guess our technology landscape should be a primary driver in your choice of theme. It should be just plain old curiosity about the common nooks and crannies that we see around us. It should be the need to explore how you or others interface, communicate, ignore, or adapt to the ever-changing society we find ourselves in.






Niels Henriksen