I’ve been pretty quiet on the video front even though it’s my favorite way of connecting. Travel, working through my art, you know, the usual! But I’m back and creating with you and I can’t wait for you to see this one!

The spirit of White Wall Wednesday is being creative in the space that you have. There are three main ways of doing this:

1. Move your subject to a new background by learning compositing.
2. Transform your wall into a different space rather than cutting your subject. Maybe use set design or composite elements in to make it more interesting.
3. Use an interesting prop or costume so that the blank white wall feels appropriately minimalist.

I went with approach #3 today, and I hope you like the result. But it’s not finished! This is part one of a two part WWW series. I’ve gone ahead and printed this image, and next week I’ll share some experimenting (really, really experimenting because I’ve never done anything like this before!) of how we could further transform the image without any digital techniques. We’re diving into alternative processes!

Share links with me here, or tag them on social media with #WhiteWallWednesday.

For a while there (and I mean the past year and a half), I found it really difficult to create. My ideas seem half-formed, and every time I thought I should be shooting, I just didn’t want to. It was a tough period of time. Last week, after I got home from Promoting Passion, something changed. I took a few days for myself, but then my desire and drive came back. I did an impromptu photo shoot for my new series and I loved it. I shot this yarn image and loved it. I ran outside chasing the fog and had such an amazing time. I edited a couple of photos I had left sitting.

Suddenly I had the energy and excitement for the things I’ve always loved but had put aside. And I realized that my problem was not actually energy or excitement, it was fear.

Isn’t it always?

I’m hesitant to use the word fear because of how flamboyantly it gets tossed around. I didn’t have a direct fear of failure or fear of wasting my time. It was more of a subtle, very-difficult-to-notice fear; a culmination of shoots gone wrong, money wasted, time not spent wisely, laziness with my techniques…and that all built up into an anxiety over creating.

I mentioned in my PPC post that something in me broke. And it was a really, really good kind of breaking. A necessary snap to put me back where I was, but better and more self-aware.

Shooting feels fun again. I want to create. I want to fail. I want to wake up before the sun and run barefoot in a field. I want to shoot on my white wall and take back the power that comes from that.

The power that comes from a white wall. That’s why I do these videos. There is a certain power that comes from shooting with what you have and making it work. Even more power from making it amazing. And even more power from doing it no matter how it turns out. White Wall Wednesday is a taking back of creativity and telling roadblocks to move out of the way, politely, because we’re here to create.

So friends, I hope you embrace your white wall this week. Get some yarn and create whatever it is you want to create. There are no expectations here, except to make something. The very act of creating is where inspiration comes from. The finished product is such a small percentage of the process that we can’t put so much stock in it. What if we only aimed to have a great experience making something? Think of how your art would change.

Happy White Wall Wednesday.

I think that there might be nothing more inspiring to me than using a simple space in a creative way. From the first time I picked up my camera I began standing in front of white walls (which was all I had, hence the decision) to make my images. It forced me to think of idea upon idea to try and fill the space and make it more interesting than the last. I found myself very frequently using my body and simple props or costumes to fill the space, paying attention to body form and texture as a means of communicating an emotion.

This lead me to finding the simplest Photoshop tools to be able to make my subject pop. My methods were, as many people would tell me along the way, sometimes inefficient or outdated, but it was mine and it was fun. I loved creating in the way that I did, and still do. It might not be the number-one-best-way-as-trademarked-by-“professionals” but I love creating, so I consider it a success.

This is the point of White Wall Wednesday. It doesn’t matter what you have to create with, or what your methods are. Yes, there are things to be learned by everyone at all levels. Yes, my Photoshop skills have evolved as I have grown as an artist. Yes, I will continue to find new ways of creating. But for now, in this moment, it is important that we embrace who we are and where we are in our craft. Never let anyone make you feel inferior because you haven’t been creating as long as they have, or if your methods are different. Are you having fun? Yes? Good. Stick with it and shine.

Leave me a comment if you found something helpful, interesting,
or if you created your own White Wall Wednesday art!

A blank space provides the perfect canvas to showcase emotion – to let the figure, form, and character come alive through minimalist imagery. I have always loved photographing skin, or natural fabrics, on a white wall. It is uncluttered and lets the story shine through. In this week’s episode of White Wall Wednesday I’m focusing on emotion and simplicity, using the blank space as it is and transforming it slightly in Photoshop to enhance how neutral it feels.

I recorded a video a week for two years straight. It started as a New Year’s resolution to see if I could actually stick with that kind of commitment on a weekly basis and then turned into an obsession…and 100 Promoting Passion videos. I will continue to create videos for that series here and there, but for now, I want to introduce this new mini series of videos!

White Wall Wednesday is all about using what we have to create the work of our dreams. It is about taking that blank and boring wall and making it work for us. It is about compositing, posing, lighting, and more. When I started photography it was all I had. Just me and my tiny white wall. I was too afraid to go outside, too afraid to ask others to model for me. Fear fear fear. So I used my white wall. And to be honest, it was the best thing I ever did. It taught me to see boring things in amazing ways. It taught me how to composite. It taught me how to use my imagination. And so I wanted to go back to those basics and challenge myself with a white wall series.

Leave some love in the comments – show me YOUR white wall shots.
It can be images you’ve already created, or create something new with me.
Next week is an editing video, so you’ve got 2 weeks to create and edit with me.

Thank you for taking this wild journey with me, I have so much respect for everyone here. And thank you preemptively for inspiring me with your white wall creations. This is going to be fun!

This is an idea I am in love with. Imagine how differently we would all see each other if we looked at strangers and saw bodies filled with potential. We all carry a story inside of us, a veritable rose garden of beautiful ideas that, if shared, would brighten the world.

Imagination, for so many of us, is our life blood. It is what carries us through the world, gives us strength and courage to be different, and reaffirms our choices when we are in doubt. It is what defines us, it is what makes us whole, and it is what we so badly want to share with others.

Yesterday I was thinking about these ideas, abstract as they may be, and wanted to make them more concrete. I wanted to represent them in an image. My first thought was of imagination as blood, since it feels so necessary for survival, and what the scene would look like should someone’s imagination leak out of them. But then I realized that imagination does not simply “leak”, it explodes. I had a vision of red cloth folding around my face and bursting up the wall. Then I thought about roses, and the symbolism of something in bloom, and how much a garden must be tended to in order to thrive, much like our imaginations. The combination struck a chord in me, and I went out to create.

This is my challenge to you: 

Create an image with a blank wall and a piece of fabric.

I want to see your imagination explode, theoretically. Let’s show the world what can be done with the most limited of resources and a lot of heart. 

“The Rose Garden” is a self-portrait taken February 2015 in my bedroom.