Promoting Passion Week 88: Create Your Dreams

Promoting Passion Week 88: Create Your Dreams

I was on a trip in Iceland. It had been five days with my friends, driving around in RVs, our little homes crammed with people we hadn’t seen in a year but filled with love. Homemade dinners, everyone swapping motorhomes to taste some of each. Pitstops at inspiring places when the mood struck. Sunsets and sunrises that made us all squeal with joy and then immediately stop, and quiet ourselves, and reflect.

It was our last evening. We had been taking pictures for hours in the lava fields. Night was coming for us despite our resistance. We had one more campground to find. One more sleep until we all left the next morning. I called a stop to the shooting so that we could pack up, but I didn’t listen to my own command. As I stood in the lava field, watching everyone slowly pack up, I didn’t want to go. I had an overwhelming, all-encompassing feeling that I should not be leaving – that I belonged there. I stood for what felt like seconds but was certainly longer, staring out at the bleak yet beautiful dropping sun, almost hidden entirely through the misty clouds.

I had been gone for three weeks. I would be returning home the next day. A trip back home is sometimes a welcome thing. I love being home. But on a trip like this one, something changes in you. You see the world more profoundly, and when you do, it is hard to leave. So I stood there, while everyone else did all the work of packing up, and I let it wash over me. It was that feeling of understanding, like your entire person has expanded because of a deeper connection with everything around you. I felt as though I was being spoken to through the bottoms of my bare feet resting easy on the soft moss.

It was cold, but I hardly remember shivering. It started raining, but I don’t remember the drops. It was getting dark, but I only remember the light.

I called out to Jen. I told her to quickly, and discreetly (before anyone else could see that I was shooting even longer despite telling others to stop) put on a dress and meet me over in the field. In about one minute I had her jumping on bouncy rocks, flicking her hair about, swooshing her dress…and then she was running back to the camper to get warm.

I stood there wondering, before she came over to pose for me, what would I create? If I could do away with what was cliche or what anyone expected of me, what would I create. And that was when it was obvious, like the image was burned there in my mind already. I would create what I felt. I would create what cannot be, yet is my truth. I would photograph her floating, being lifted by the light that didn’t exist but in my mind. I would create an image indicative of my experience there in that lava field, utterly surreal in that surreal place, completely elevated by that experience.

6 thoughts on “Promoting Passion Week 88: Create Your Dreams

  1. Aah the magic of travel and the inspiration it brings. I feel some sadness at not travelling this year as I promised myself a few years ago I would do each year… but this year I am not travelling to make other dreams come true… but yes, one comes back so much richer for the experience. Strangely enough I just posted something similar in theme – taken a year ago in the UK – and also floating: https://www.facebook.com/MargheritaIntronaPhotography/photos/a.165320056962586.1073741828.165302450297680/478481548979767/?type=1&theater

    1. My dear Margherita! Do not be sad! It is always good to travel, no doubt, but this year you could not for a good cause. As you said, it was to make other dreams come true. And I’m very happy for you, for become these dreams into real life. The dream commands life. Stay well! xoxo

  2. this is beautiful. A true testament to your skill having been in the location myself. You managed to capture the magic at that place and enhance it to such a degree that has become new. It’s as if I hadn’t seen it before. A better and amplified version:)

  3. I made a similar image last year, although with very different concepts and final result 😛 yours is very beautiful. I love the colours.

    Mine was to tell the story of a nightmare, to fall off the face of the earth. I got up at 5am to shoot it – outside my apartment, I set up my tripod and leapt around, trying to be quick in case of cars. Some man stood on his balcony, talking on the phone, and watching. 😛

    This was my result http://xceteraphotography.com/#jp-carousel-58
    🙂

    Hope your day is magical!

  4. Totally immersed myself in this post! I was not there, but your image and words, have meant that I was! This work is stunning! I love it! If someone asks me which of your works I like most, I start to have trouble answering. It is fantastic, Brooke! Congratulations! Well done! So many and good livings you have lived to never forget. I am so happy for you! With me it’s always so hard to leave behind these livings to return home! In the first minute of return, I already miss what is left behind. In fact it is good to return home, but there are trips that really mark us and transform us. I’ve had trips like that. Well! I had a trip recently that also had that effect on me: London 😉 Stay well! *

  5. Wow, that would be a incredible trip! This photo really really clicked for me, I just love it in every way I just think this is wonderful. And thanks you so much for showing the edit work, I love that too!!! 🙂

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