Oh, what a glorious morning! I got to my favorite hiking spot and no one was around as far as the eye could see. I took many moments sitting atop the mountain for myself, watching the sky begin to glow yellow and pink. I did yoga and watched a crow join me for practice. It was truly beautiful. And then I took pictures, and enjoyed every little moment, even the moments in between moments. A beetle crawled up my camera strap and perched, watching.

On the drive over, and the jog to the mountain and sitting on top all the while I daydreamed about this image. The Flight of Imagination. What if more of us tapped into our imaginations and set them into flight? Can you imagine a world where we were all taught to embrace what makes us weird? Where the notion of impossible was the most absurd thing?

I imagine a world where everyone is in touch with their uniqueness and there is no shame in showing it to others. I imagine a world where oddities are celebrated, darkness is explored, and where there are no more unimaginable things, except for the very worst kind. I feel free because I dream. I feel a sense of self because I dream. My dreams are more real than what is right in front of me, more meaningful than superficial interactions and empty experiences.

Today I celebrate the imagination and all of it’s delights and horrors.
I hope that you soar on the wings of your dreams.

When I finished editing the image on air, and the cameras went off, everyone in the room let out a big sigh. We all knew it didn’t really work out but we were happy we tried. When I got home from Seattle I decided to start editing it again. I tried twice more and it still wasn’t coming together. That was when I took a slightly different approach.

I started choosing new shots to work with – a higher angle of my subject as well as different house shots from the kiddie pool so that you could see more of the house under the water, thus adding to the believability effect. Those changes made a world of difference for me, fixing some perspective issues as well as changing what was a very static shot.

I have been on a book kick lately, really wanting to experiment with how books (stories, really) can transport you to another reality. Books are old, universally recognized, and provide an amazing symbol for anyone to latch on to. There are many different emotions attached to books, but one thing remains the same. If you read, you take your imagination to a different level. What an amazing metaphor for creating.

I ended up using all of the same techniques to edit this image when I was home as I did during the CreativeLive editing segment for this picture. Some of the featured tools were the Background Eraser Tool, Curves Adjustment Layers, and changing of the Lighting Dynamics. I think something that brought the image together for me in the end was the choice of clouds, and really creating a light source as well as light variation so that some of the image was in darkness and some in light.

Thankfully the light for this image was quite natural, with no extreme highlights or shadows, so changing the light slightly was not a problem. Of course, I can’t say if the image did ever come together or not, but it did satisfy a dream I’ve had. I always know when a picture is finished when I feel it matches what I saw in my imagination…so I want to thank you for watching and for supporting this photo shoot through your encouraging words as well as to CreativeLive for setting this up for me!

Maybe you’re no good at your craft. Maybe you aren’t as creative as you think you are. Maybe you have no talent. Maybe you’re doing all this work for nothing. Maybe your business will never grow. Maybe your future will be filled with failures.

Or maybe you are good at your craft. Maybe you are creative. Maybe you do have talent. Maybe all your work will pay off. Maybe your business will grow exponentially. Maybe you will find many successes. Maybe you will see failures as opportunities.

Never spend time worrying about what might happen when you can control the decisions you make. Never spend time thinking about negatives as though they are facts. Every experience is waiting for you to choose a side: good or bad. Will you turn your experiences into something inspirational, or not?

You are as powerful as you believe yourself to be, for all of your collective memories, experiences, and dreams are in your hands and yours alone. Do with them what you will, but remember how precious they are. They belong to you only, so treat them with respect and reverence.

Create and dream and live with power. Do so with passion and love. Treat yourself with respect and all of your experiences will be more meaningful. Life is a rich series of events. Do not follow them along or chase them in circles, but build them with your own two hands and believe you can make a life worth living for yourself.

Too often we live our lives in fear of the future because of the maybe that everything will fall apart. But, just maybe you will live the life of your dreams. And if we do away with the maybe entirely and recite an I will,  that is far more likely to happen.

I will live my dreams.

Sincerely,
Passionate