Flowers are an incredibly evocative prop. They are rich in color, delicate to the touch, symbolic of growth/beauty/death…and my personal favorite are either: dead flowers, or death flowers, like calla lilies. Did you know that the calla lily was my wedding flower?

I can’t wait to see what flowers you use, or if you only use the theme symbolically!

I’ll pull some of the art that I see this week to feature!
Use the hashtag #PromotingPassionChallenge so I can find you!

Here is some food for thought. Enjoy the challenge, and remember to push yourself creatively!

Fairytales vary from country to country, but one thing remains the same: Fairytales are cautionary tales. Some of them are sweet as sugar and oh-so-cute. Others are rather horrifying. No matter which way you interpret this theme, it is sure to be very, very fun.

Get extra weird this week with it!

I’ll pull some of the art that I see this week to feature!
Use the hashtag #PromotingPassionChallenge so I can find you!

Here is some food for thought. Enjoy the challenge, and remember to push yourself creatively!

Opportunity?

Success?

The right moment?

It is so easy to wait. I fall into this trap regularly. I think to myself, “This isn’t a good time, surely things will get better.” Or I say, “I’ll wait to do this until I have more _________,” insert whatever word fits for you: money, time, energy, hope, help, tools, gear, etc.

There are many things I’ve put off in my life. Making a documentary. Creating a fine art book. Publishing my novel. Just to name a few.

But at the same time, there are many things I have done. I am not someone who sits and counts the seconds on the clock. I ignore the clock entirely, most days. I do what feels right despite the risk. I am, at heart, a perpetual risk-taker.

But even those of us whose brains seemed to be blocked from whatever tells us something is dangerous, it still creeps in.

That is how I know it must for other people, too. I make excuses, though I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t. We all do.

But what if we didn’t? What if we didn’t need the life raft that excuses let us hold on to and instead we swam, for dear life, to the place where our dreams dwell?

Where would you end up?

Where would you end up if you
let go of your life raft and swam?

Oye my loves, am I fired or forgiven?! I went road-tripping to Joshua Tree to check out a venue I might use later on, and I didn’t have internet. And then, my computer broke. So, I took that as a cosmic sign (re: excuse) to unplug and have a grand time with my best friend instead of running around trying to find a computer and internet to edit and upload on! I still got up every day at 5am and I beat the sun and did my shoots and made videos, but alas, I am late posting because of the desert situation. I take challenges such as this July creation challenge very, very seriously, so rest assured I did my part. The posting will just be a little bit late. I’m home now, and ready to share Mondays’ image/video!

I was surrounded by beauty, the kind that makes you move slower and appreciate more. The first morning I couldn’t sleep; I was excited to see the sunrise. So, I went outside when it was still dark and took a walk and thought about my concept, which I utterly abandoned in an attempt to be more present and to use what inspiration was surrounding me rather than what I anticipated. I ended up half naked in a bush, which was alright because I was quite utterly alone.

It only dawned on me halfway through my shoot that there was a silent retreat going on at the venue, so I wouldn’t properly know if someone was lurking about, but then again, they couldn’t say anything even if they did see me, so it was all fine.

I think this simple video perfectly reflects the morning I had and the feeling of the image I created from it. I’m so glad I waited to share, as I couldn’t even see the whole image on my laptop and just knew it could be something better if I could just get home and love on it.

I had the most perfect morning imaginable. I really mean that, even more than other days that I say the same thing (what can I do, I’m an eternal optimist.). I awoke early from a nightmare at 3:45am so I decided to make use of my extra 15 minutes and drive out early to scout. I went about 45 minutes away to find a beautiful forest. As I walked through the trees a family of elk grazed in a nearby field. It was blue out. I felt like the only human for miles. I was completely at peace.

My mind wandered through the forest to the farthest reaches of my imagination and back again as I took a moment to lay quietly on the ground. An ant crawled up my hand and back down again, and I let the tickle linger before wiping it away and going back to my equipment that lay a few feet away. As I set myself up for a portrait I noticed the absence of something. The anxiety that is ever-present in me, be it big or small, was gone. I wasn’t thinking of how much time I had or if my idea was good. Where it would have been there was only calm.

Portrait finished, I began setting up for video. I knew only that I wanted a loose narrative and to learn slow motion. I spent the evening before reading forums and tinkering with my camera until I felt certain I could achieve what I wanted. As I began filming I let the narrative take over and lead myself to different parts of the woods, each shot becoming what it wanted to be. I never forced it. I became it.

I hope your day is as kissed by the sun as mine has been. I’m quite proud of today’s content, and for that I am grateful. Day 8, I love you.

A lot (and I mean an alarming lot) of people I know feel like they have no significance in this world. I’m not saying they are depressed necessarily, but that they simply don’t know what they are meant to do. They try out hobbies here and there but never commit to a passion. They complain about not knowing what they are good at without really trying. And the biggest thing connecting them all? They are unique individuals, but none of them see themselves that way.

I think there are two problems at play: laziness and lies. The biggest lie is that we are told we are meant to do something special. How is this a lie? Because it indicates that we are meant to do one singular thing with our time; we are meant to find our greatest passion and the thing we are best at and transform that into a life-changing event. It puts pressure on us to narrow down our being into a singularity, when in fact no one is so one dimensional. We should be encouraged to find anything that makes our hearts sing and to pursue all of those things no matter if they ever change the world or not. Success takes momentum, and we get there by acting on even the smallest things that give us joy and letting it build.

How are we lazy? Simple. We rarely really and truly try to find what makes us special. We are spoiled into thinking our talents and passions come to us rather than us having to chase after them. We have hobbies that are fun but we don’t ask ourselves how we can take that further. We have things that we love doing but we assume we can’t make a living at it. We are chronic low-ballers. We choose a life free of risk in the hope that safety will provide us with what we want. We expect everything on a timetable, and that isn’t all our fault. We are taught what we are supposed to do by certain age brackets and if we don’t make it, we think we failed.

There is no time limit to finding your worth. Take as much time as you need.

The biggest life-changers are those who are multi-faceted. They channel their interests into serving a greater good.

Take Oprah for example. Would anyone believe that her greatest passion is hosting a talk show? Of course not! Her passion seems to be bettering others through honesty, healing and health. She has a greater mission, one that all of her endeavors aim to satisfy.

I won’t put myself in Oprah’s category, but my interests are photography, writing and filmmaking (so far!). Are those my great life calling? Definitely not. I want to inspire others to create the lives of their dreams through imagination and fearless art. My interests serve my greatest passion.

If you are someone who feels insignificant, you might be questioning right now how anyone gets over that hump and feels that they have something to offer. I promise you I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, being told that I was going to change the world (still working on that, though). For me, the proof is in the action. I can talk about doing, or think about changing, or want to be different, but until I do it the rest is just folly. The moment I started creating the art I wanted to create, with the message I wanted to send, people started responding. When we find our authentic voice it is not easy for others to ignore it.

My biggest fear in life is not living up to my potential. I would rather fail countless times than get to the end of my life never truly having tried. People lead by action. You doing something that takes risk or moves you closer to your passion is a mirror for everyone around you. It makes them want to take action and achieve their passions. The best gift you can give to someone is to simply do. It is the most powerful word in the English language to me. DO. It is an action, a command, a calling. It is what happens when we stop making excuses or believing the lies we’re fed. It is our journey. Chase it.

—

Image: “Finding Your Place Among the Stars”, self-portrait, May 2016.
Available as limited edition prints on fine art paper, 20×20 inches & 40×40 inches.
Contact for more details about print purchases or image licensing.

I was thrilled…until I saw how the light looked, and realized I didn’t have much time to experiment. So I had my friend hold up a sheet in front of the light to diffuse it. I played with distance of light to subject, tried a rim light, and kept playing. As I was shooting I knew I didn’t like the pictures, but I thought it worthy of continuing. I recognized, right then and there, that if I stopped, I would get nothing from the shoot. Yet if I kept going, I would teach myself valuable lessons.

My pictures are not images that I’m proud of because I like how they look. Quite the contrary, I very much dislike looking at these images. I would not put them in my portfolio. But they are among the top images I have ever learned from, and just how much I dislike them tells me how much more I have to learn. Humility is a great gift, and I welcome it with each failure I endure.

Share with us an image you feel was a failure, or share a tip that you learned from messing up an image!

Mistakes are successes that we learn best from, after all.

I shot this on top of a rock and wasn’t very concerned with the background as I knew I wanted to create a separation of sky and fabric. It went very quickly, taking about 15 minutes from the time I parked to when I cleaned up, and I was feeling really good about the images.

When I got them into Photoshop that night, pieces started coming together. I went through a process to create a more painterly effect, and when I was finished…I didn’t like it at all. I felt like my vision wasn’t coming together despite the fact that I did everything I had planned.

“The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry…”

And such is life. You have a plan, you execute that plan exactly, and then you wait to reap the rewards. But sometimes they don’t come, and that’s okay. That is not failure but instead an opportunity to do more, to do better, to create something more fulfilling for yourself.

I slept on the image and decided to take a fresh look the next day. And when I did, it all made sense. I had to alter my vision slightly, but only a nudge from where it had been. I added just a couple of details and it started to come together. My imagination was feeling very happy.

And that was when I decided to just let go and have fun. I created 5 new layers of the same image in Photoshop, and then changed the colors drastically on each layer. Slowly I peeled back the colors to see which I liked best, and landed on red. It was the opposite of what I had envisioned. I specifically bought a certain color parasol and fabric just so that I could execute this calming concept, to create an ocean-like effect.

Yet when the red popped up, it instantly felt more painterly, as if it flowed more naturally. I felt I understood the character better, because even if you are the creator of a character that person can still change and grow if you allow it. And when I settled on the red, and let the red become the new image, it felt finished.

Allow your life to lead you where it will. Have goals and desires and wishes, yet know when to trust your instincts. If something isn’t working, ask yourself why. If you don’t know why, come back to it later. And if you never come back to it, be confident you will move on to bigger ideas that let your heart pulse.

Everything is a process.

Enjoy it.

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