Promoting Passion Video Blog: Create Your Own Magic
I find no greater joy in the world than believing I can create my own reality. I may not be able to live it constantly, but if I can get lost in it even for mere moments, my life is brighter for it. This is the driving force behind why I create. I want to get lost in those worlds that I dream of, the ones that I have full control over, that I can create with some imagination and fairy dust (Photoshop).
My life centers around believing that impossibilities are simply undiscovered possibilities, and I have the power to find them.
I photographed this snow scene on creativeLIVE, so if you are interested in seeing how it was photographed or more of the editing process in slower motion, you can check that out here. My goal was simple: create a fantasy world that has more meaning and beauty in it than what I saw in front of me. I was confronted with an abandoned room. It was beautiful in it’s own right – peeling paint and debris all over the floor. But for me, it was missing that magic spark.
We threw paper bits and fake snow all around. We covered the floor in flour. I dressed the model in my favorite cloak to finish her fairytale makeover, and then I shot a couple different setups until I felt like I had achieved the feeling in my imagination.
Wonder. Darkness. Beauty. Fantasy.
Everyone has the ability to create a unique reality through art. It may be that your perfect reality is the one you live in and so you capture life as you see it. Or perhaps you’re on the other end of that spectrum and create surrealistic scenes. Either way, we can create our own magic, and it is never further away than our imaginations.
How do you create your own magic?
20 thoughts on “Promoting Passion Video Blog: Create Your Own Magic”
Watched this being created on CL, so it’s wonderful to see you editing the final fairytale image together which looks wonderful. Especially like how you add the glow from the lamp onto the model………..
It was great to watch that session on CL. Loved it. I could already see the end result from what you were doing. 🙂 ADORE
Simply Beautiful, your amazingly talented and creative. One day I’ll reach your heights. Keep grabbing those stars. 🙂
<3 you and your magic. 🙂
I created my own magic this weekend! It was the last snow fall here before spring and I HAD to capture it. I LOVE the winter and HATE the summer..so..I wanted to hold onto that cold a little longer. I dressed a friend of mine in a beautiful white dress and took her into some woods. She was perfect. So lovely. I wanted the 15 photos I took to evoke a peace and a calm with the cold. And a oneness. I even titled it “We Are One”. They came out beautifully (to me. Ha!). I would LOVE to show you and get your feedback if there is any way I could. Let me know! Feedback from you would be an honor. I actually used the photo you took at CreativeLive with the girl against the wall with all the shrubbery as inspiration for one of the photos! I would love for you to see them! Thank you again for all you do…you inspire me so much! ♥
The snow was my favorite part of your CL class, and I just love to watch these transformational videos. When they’re done, I always think, “Ta-da!” 🙂
“How do you create your own Magic?”
I actually can’t wait to discover this myself! Being very new to conceptual photography, I’ve created only a handful of images. Right now, I’m wrapping up all my current graphic design projects so that I can spend April through June building a photography portfolio. So many ideas ~ I can’t wait to explore them as photo composites. I’m especially interested in creating 3-image series that together tell a story. So we’ll see…
I had my magical shoot on Saturday, I had planned that for a long time, and finally I got the model for it and even the stormy wind tried to stop us, we got it done. Now some magic editing 😉
You are magical and kind, do not ever change <3
I had watched on CL & was totally impressed and drawn in. I did buy the course as I didn’t have time to watch it all in one sitting. You are magical Brooke Shaden!
Awesome! Humm! I think I’ve seen this texture (snow) somewhere in a photo! I’m not sure! Maybe something related to travel! 😉
I create magic through my images… I do not think of my work as pure photography. I like to think of it as creating images. I take various photographs from my camera, then blend them together, adding texture and magic. Through creating images in a world from a different time, one far more whimsical and fairy-tale than our own, the emotions conveyed are easier to bear. A dream world where those dreams take on a tangible form <3
I think my magic starts in my head. I see pictures all the time and sometimes they inspire me enough to want to create them in real life. Last weekend I created this (http://www.mmhewittphotography.com/blog/2014/3/6/brave) using your technique for shooting multiple images in a single setting that you shared a little bit ago, and it took me to a place that was completely about the world inside of me. I’m not the greatest at photoshop but that which I see in my head these days requires it of me. So I guess my noggin’ and photoshop is how I create my magic.
Thank you so much, Brooke, for helping the rest of us figure ourselves out with these inspiring exercises.
OMG! This is how I feel when I was I little kid (and sometimes I still feel this way), daydreaming. I have many “magic worlds” like that, that I visited when escape from reality was needed to me. Brooke, you always speaks deeply with me with your work because is true and sincere, and show us that every one has a portion of magic inside.
I love your photography, and it is so incredibly inspiring. I am consistently blown away by your surreal images.
I have a question: I’ve noticed that many photographers that shoot fine art primarily use Canons. Is there a reason why you prefer Canons to Nikons? Do you think that using one or the other drastically effects one’s photography?
To create my own magic I use diferent props or place some usual object in an unusual place.
It all starts with an inspiration, that comes with my life impressions, freams, film, music and people around.
It is so wonderful to realize a concept that has been in your head. In this respect, I feel like the world I imagine my self become a bit closer to me.
Oh Shaden I would never thank you enough for inspiring me this much. Thanks to you I started with conceptual photography and fine art and since then i just cant stop learning and feeling passion about it. I love your work xx
Oh wow this amazing to watch. Love it!!
I love watching you work! So crazy that Andrea was right there, then gone haha! love this finished piece!
Just so you know i became a fan of your work like less than a year. And every time i am in need of some inspiration i turn to your Facebook page! I have learn so much through creative live in like 4 months ago. When i come to your page i love watching the videos bcs theres always something i learn from your process and is very much alike to my way of using photoshop!. and for that thank you!!! you have seriously giving me a way of thinking about teaching once i graduate graduate from graphic design! thank you for inspiring us with your work! 🙂
I wouldn’t normally comment, but after purchasing this Creative Live workshop, and having struggled for so long trying to find meaning in what I’m doing, it hit me in a flash of insight and I find it more than coincidental. I actually wrote a blog post about it, risking complete alienation from my peers:
“It occurred to me, and I wish I could remember what the trigger was, that I am a practitioner of magic. I am the one who journeys into another world and draws a door on the barrier to that world so that others might walk through, too. I’m a sorceress that just happens to break down barriers between worlds by finding the doors, the in-between spaces, using the magic of beauty and the skill of intuition. Yay! So fun!
Although, while I provide the space for casting the spell, you actually do the magic. It’s your brain that sees the image and creates the neurological link between standing in Reality-Land and being transported to the time and place of the image. In reality, it’s just chemicals and electricity, but therein lies the magic: your brain doesn’t know the difference between being there and looking at an image of being there. For all it knows, for all you know, you are there and that is reality. Magic!”