LEGO Sphere Las Vegas was one of those assignments that immediately felt historic. Sphere is not just another venue on the Strip. It is a completely new canvas, where the building itself becomes part of the experience. When the LEGO Group transformed the Exosphere into a brick-built Death Star to introduce LEGO Star Wars SMART Play, the result was playful, cinematic, and impossible to ignore.
Watching an iconic Star Wars image wrap the largest LED surface in the world changed how people experienced Las Vegas that night. It also changed how the activation had to be photographed. Scale, light, motion, and context all mattered equally.
LEGO Star Wars SMART Play at Sphere Las Vegas
The activation marked the launch of LEGO SMART Play, a new evolution of play that blends physical LEGO building with digital interactivity. Revealed during CES 2026, SMART Play introduces responsive sound, light, and motion into classic brick play, bringing familiar stories to life in new ways.
At street level, the experience centered around a full-scale LEGO Star Wars X-wing cockpit, allowing guests to step inside and relive the trench run in an immersive, interactive setting. Photographing this meant showing not only the installation itself, but how it existed within the larger environment created by Sphere.
Photographing Scale and Storytelling
One of the biggest challenges of photographing LEGO Sphere Las Vegas was balancing extremes. On one end, there was the overwhelming scale of Sphere dominating the skyline. On the other, the precision and craftsmanship of LEGO builds that needed to feel intentional, tactile, and true to the brand.
Wide compositions were essential to communicate the scope of the activation, while closer frames focused on geometry, glowing elements, and motion. These images often become the foundation for press coverage, brand storytelling, and long-term campaign use.
Detail Inside the Spectacle
Some of the strongest images came from isolating small moments within a massive scene. LEGO bricks interacting with light at night can take on an almost metallic quality, especially when surrounded by LEDs and movement. Capturing those moments required patience as lighting conditions shifted constantly across the installation.
These detail images add depth to the visual story and help support the larger hero frames.
The Human Experience at LEGO Sphere Las Vegas
As visually dominant as the activation was, it was the human element that brought it to life. Guests stepping into the X-wing cockpit, focused and immersed, grounded the imagery in real experience. Those moments of interaction transform a large-scale installation into something emotional and relatable.
They are often the images that resonate most because they show how people actually engaged with LEGO SMART Play, not just how it appeared from a distance.
Night Photography at Sphere Las Vegas
Photographing Sphere at night presents a unique set of challenges. The Exosphere’s brightness, color, and contrast shift continuously, creating extreme dynamic range conditions. Exposure decisions had to be deliberate to preserve color accuracy while maintaining detail across highlights and shadows.
Many of the strongest images came from waiting for moments when light, motion, and composition aligned, allowing the activation and the venue to work together visually.
Why LEGO Sphere Las Vegas Stands Out
I’ve photographed large-scale brand activations in Las Vegas for many years, but LEGO Sphere Las Vegas stands out for how seamlessly it combined imagination, technology, and place. An iconic global brand, a world-first venue, and a concept rooted in creativity came together in a way that felt genuinely special.
Being trusted to document the LEGO Star Wars SMART Play activation at Sphere, and seeing the images live on across major media outlets and LEGO’s own platforms, was both humbling and energizing. This is the kind of work that reminds me why I love photographing brand experiences. When done well, the images don’t just show what happened. They help define how it’s remembered.
Additional reference material
LEGO Group announcement:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2026/january/lego-star-wars-smart-play-las-vegas-sphere
StarWars.com coverage of the first LEGO Star Wars SMART Play sets:
https://www.starwars.com/news/lego-star-wars-first-smart-play-sets
