There are times during the week that you may find a bearded man assembling action figures on the rocky slopes close to the Stennis Lock and Dam in Columbus.

Roy Shephard admits it may be an unusual sight, but he’s often setting the scene for the popular action figure photos that have Columbus residents buzzing.

On his personal Facebook page, Instagram and various Columbus pages, Shephard has shared his photos of unique scenes involving action figures.

The photos feature characters like Darth Vader, Skeletor, Hulk Hogan and Spider-Man in interesting, unique scenarios.

“I have a satchel,” Shephard explained. “I throw a few figures in there, drive out to a park or somewhere, kind of walk around. See an area that gets my attention. I’ll take out some figures, start posing them. Use that as backdrops and stuff.”

The location at the dam is one of his favorites.

“Close to the dam, there’s like a nice rocky hillside,” he said. “It makes great (scenery) for mountainous backgrounds and stuff like that.”

Shephard, 48, has lived in Columbus all his life. He said he has mostly kept to himself, getting lost in the “normal nerd stuff” like comic books and action figures. Music was also a hobby for him, but he drifted away from that as he got older.

He has mostly worked retail jobs and currently works at Walmart, but his hobby of photography began in childhood.

“When I was a kid, my mom got me one of those old — I call them bar cameras — little square things,” he said. “I started when I was about 10 or 11 taking pictures of my GI Joes and stuff. Of course then, you had to take them to the store, get them developed, wait about two weeks for them to come back, and realize, ‘Man, those are blurry.’”

He got back into photography in the mid-1990s, after the re-release of the original “Star Wars” trilogy.

Shephard’s photography is impressive and said it is all done with his phone. “I bought a camera and it’s collecting dust,” he said.

He said he sometimes recreates iconic movie scenes, but he doesn’t usually plan scenes out in advance, preferring the spur-of-the-moment.

His favorite photo is one he created with Skeletor — the arch nemesis of He-Man — at the mouth of Castle Grayskull.

“I kind of added a couple of effects to it, but to me, it’s like my favorite photo,” he said.

Photography will remain a hobby, he said.

“I honestly don’t know how to turn it into a career,” he said. “I just like doing it.”

Shephard said he is also happy to share his Facebook and Instagram profiles with anyone who may approach him while he’s setting up a scene. His photo posts on Facebook and Instagram — which can be several in one day — regularly receive several likes.

“I try to stay positive,” he said. “I try not to have any negative baggage with me. … As you get older, you realize time is kind of running out. You let go of that negative stuff.”

Kevin Edwards is news editor and reports on Starkville and Oktibbeha County government.