TONY SPENCER: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND

As you might have guessed, my name's Tony. The 'Big Tony', well that's a throwback to my Italian heritage. All 20.7% of it, if 23 and Me is to be believed! If you ask me, they jipped me! I'm one of those people with more interests than time to actually explore them. Jack of all trades, master of none suits me pretty well. The obvious downside of this is that you never truly master one thing, but the way I see it, there's just too much interesting shit out there, and I want to do it all! I also absolutely love having diverse interests. My perfect day is Dungeons & Dragons in the morning and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the evening. I hate labels and try to avoid them like the Plague, I once had a friend call me a 'Biker' because I ride motorcycles. Much to his dismay, I loudly disputed this and any and all other attempts to label me as a singular one dimensional thing. I play video games… not a 'gamer'! While I do have a ton of fun with a label maker, and usually get them taken away from me, I despise any attempt to label whatever the hell I am. My interests and personality traits vary far too widely to fit neatly into a one dimensional description. I think this is the case for most of us! I haven't met a personality test yet that I didn't want to douse in kerosene and send it to the Afterlife. Want to pin down a gender, fine, then I'm a Gender Outlaw! I'm not trying to be difficult, just being myself, which is something that changes constantly, and if I'm being true to myself, can be pretty unpredictable.

I've long been a Lego nerd, since I can remember. Building and rebuilding epic bases that spanned the household and often the backyard was a norm. Cataclysmic battles that inevitably broke out between two previously peaceful factions in the living room that turned each base to rubble and provoked the ire of barefooted parents was a regular Wednesday night. This eventually turned into my first attempts at stop motion photography, ever so slightly moving the Lego figure little by little, until I had a ten second clip of a Lego zombie being cut in half by a Jedi Shock Trooper. Thus the marvelous idea of combining multiple interests into one was born. Multiple horribly directed and voice acted Lego movies followed and eventually, many years of painful evolution later, I got into Lego photography. For me, photographing Legos became the perfect way to grow up with them, and to justify being the oldest person in the Lego store not with their kid. By photographing Legos, I still get to play with the Legos, but I get to tell a story, and even better, I get to share that story with others!

Similarly, combining my love for motorcycle riding and exploration with photography and videography, has been another gloriously accidental creation of fate. Sort of like silly putty, or napalm! It gives it another level of depth, that otherwise wouldn't exist. I've been riding motorcycles since learning how to ride in the back of a K-Mart parking lot at 18 years old. With the joy of riding, comes the bug for travel! There's something much more immersive about traveling on a bike instead of a car… you're out in the elements, feeling the temperatures, smelling the aromas (riding in Vietnam was an assault on the senses!). Sharing these experiences with friends makes it an even more memorable experience. And like all incredible experiences, you want a way to remember them and a way to share them. Thus, with the help of my amazing wife, Ashley (aka Thug Rose), bigtonyproductions.com was born! Thank you Ashley for helping me to share my interests and experiences with the awesome people in my life, and thank you brave wanderer for happening on my site and taking the time to read. I love you all!

I leave you with my favorite quote from the late, great Bruce Lee. This has become a Mantra in recent months and has guided me onto some truly amazing paths, may it help to guide you as well!

“To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities.” -Bruce Lee