On a very rare day I will shoot a commissioned portrait for someone. I am quite a shy gal and get very nervous with interactions so I usually cuddle my kitties and call it a day. I am going to put myself out there to do this more frequently this year. It is something that I have found to be very rewarding when it does come up.

I’m sure that many of you can relate to being nervous with: social interactions, client work, needing to please someone beyond yourself. My number one achilles heal is the fear of letting someone down, so you can imagine my anxiety around this type of situation. I believe it is good to feel some of that fear from time to time and to learn how to overcome it. Or at the very least, to deal with it better.

Every time I do, I come away with an experience that I treasure. That was particularly so with this photo shoot.

Adrienne contacted me with the sweetest email (it is going to be really hard not to say “sweet” over and over in this post) asking if I would photograph her. She had been through a tough time with the death of her parents and she had a story she wanted to tell. After a series of probing questions I discovered she feels most at home in the forest, that she loves blue and cream tones, and that a metaphor she identifies with is searching for the light, or being the light. It was a perfect jumping-off point to begin creating image ideas.

She had the tree roots image all thought up so I played on that idea and helped it come to life. I had three images planned for her, but got caught up in the moment (I feel like I am in a constant state of “caught-up-in-the-moment”) and we created six images together. She was so open to playing and experimenting and fully trusted my process. We spent hours together that day, talking and creating and talking some more.

While she was changing in a bathroom near our shooting spot I struck up a conversation with a woman who was also in the area. It turned out that she was also grieving and that was why she was visiting. What a coincidence! And further, she was an underwater photographer. The next day we met up with her and had tea at my favorite spot and talked for a long while before I had to leave.

These are Adrienne’s images. She is one of the most genuinely kind-hearted people I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with and I’m honored to share her images with you, with her blessing.

Thank you Adrienne for your kindness and willingness to explore.
I’ll be looking forward to the charity you are setting up and to seeing more of your art, life, and soul in the future!

In my personal journey of discovering how I like to create, I formed habits and practices that not only allow me to achieve certain looks, but more importantly dictate how happy I am going to be shooting something. If I can be in nature, I am having a good day! So when I create, I love to be in nature, shooting as much as possible on location. I love having all of the details written out beforehand so that when I create, I know exactly what needs to happen. I would say, with some confidence, that patience is not my strongest virtue. So to be able to go on location and shoot what is needed, efficiently, is a great joy to me.

I have 3 more images from this shoot that I am currently editing, but wanted to share with you, start to finish, how this image was created. It is part of a larger series that I’m still shooting this week, but it is a good representation of the intentions of the series as well as technically how they will be put together. This video explains it all.

Model: Kyna Lian

Assistant: Kelly McGrady

Music by Cyra Morgan “Hummingbird”, licensed from SongFreedom.

When I create I’m often running back and forth between my spot where I’m posing and the camera, checking things like focus and angle and composition. I usually find myself flipping my hair about, or tensing my muscles – bringing the character to life. Sometimes my shooting process is so quick that I invent other things to do while I’m out – a different take on a shoot. Sometimes I collect sticks or leaves to take home with me, though they never make it far into the house.

Editing is always such a journey, and I get lost in it. Hours pass and I have no idea. I forget to look up from my screen until my cat meows for food and I realize darkness has fallen, and the only light comes from my bright screen. I imagine how if I could see myself from afar, my face would be lit blue from the blue fabric I’m editing together. Everything in life is so cinematic, and I draw inspiration from that to go wild with blue in this edit – take it to the extreme.

I love playing with extremes when I edit, often adding a lot of saturation and pulling back later to finesse it. Sometimes I wonder how I find the discipline to do anything but shoot and edit all day long, but when I finish my mind returns to normalcy and I feel fulfilled – transported – alive.

How do you create? I would love for you to share your process with me, either in general or in relation to a specific creation. If you write a comment here, share a blog post on the subject, or record a video response I will be sure to choose one to feature – just make sure you share a link with me in these comments.

I have been creating so many images lately with heavy compositing, and I was loving that experimentation. I have no plans on stopping, either. But in that haze of image editing I decided to try for a simpler composition and shoot in my favorite spot in the forest. I went with my friend Kyna to take some photos. We had tea and chocolate and then sat in the ivy, burning candles and playing with wax.

Earlier in the day we visited a local Goodwill and found many books for the photo shoot. I bought about 25 of them and decided to make do with those. One that we found, which was extra special, was a huge anthology of Shakespeare’s works, with illustrations. It was incredible timing, as I was fashioning the character of the image around Ophelia.

When we got to the forest I opened up the Shakespeare book and turned to Hamlet where I found the page you see in the final image. I put a vine in her hair and posed her quite similar to the woman in the book, and decided to go for a play on characters: one mimicking the other.

To read is to escape; to become someone else; to wish for a new life. So much of reading is becoming, not just imagining. We can feel what they feel, and in doing so, become those characters, even if for a brief time. Escape, release, and imagination. These emotions are what books are made of. Enchantment.

Who are your favorite storybook characters?

Creatively, I watch my own back. I create what I want to create, when I want to create it. And I don’t mean for that to sound selfish, but simply factual and smart. I say “smart” not because I think I’m some genius, but because the only reaction to our art that we can rely on is our own. If no one were watching, it would be all that matters. And so I create under that pretense – that I must love my art first, and then hope that it is embraced by others in some way.

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Time to do something new.”

And so I set out in my imagination to conjure something up I had never thought of before. A technique, an idea, a location…anything.

My mind wandered to an image that I had half-heartedly pressed before, but not truly delved into. I wanted to make it look like I was coming out of a thick fog, or another dimension. Something between the two, as I would later tell my husband. He and I talked it through – how it could be created – and then I continued working on the why.

If you know me, you know I am a stickler for the why. I don’t care how neat a technique is to try if I don’t know why I’m creating. The why came simply: I wanted to create a wall between worlds, to literally step through from one side to the other. I also liked the idea of being sucked back into the world I was trying to emerge from. All of this intention informed how I would pose.

I photographed my body in a kiddie pool that I purchased for the shoot. I rigged my camera on my balcony so that I could shoot with some distance. I sunk black fabric in the pool so that the background would be dark, and then I poured soy milk in the pool for a murky effect. It didn’t take much soy milk, and soon the pool was murky and dark at the same time.

I knew I would be photographing a forest as the eventual backdrop, which is already very dark, so I thought that the murky background of darkness from the pool would transfer well to the forest.

It was important that I photograph myself in water to create believable water lines on my body. It is one thing to blur and obscure fabric and skin behind a wall of fog, but quite another to recreate water lines (or in this case, “other dimension/fog” lines) on skin especially. So I photographed myself in the pool and then made sure to photograph the forest from the same angle. The two images blended nicely, and I sampled the murky color to paint over the forest as well.

With different blending techniques and some cutting my body started to blend into the forest. After some shading, it seemed complete. I wanted the color palette to be simple and striking, so I chose to stick with red and blue as the main colors in the image. Texture only in the background helped to give the fog some grit that I felt made it more believable, and then I was finished.

All in all, this image took me…

3 hours of planning
2 hours of setup
1 hour of shooting
12 hours of editing

…And I had a blast! I hope that you enjoy the finished product, and that, if nothing else, you are inspired to try something new and see where it leads you!

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http://brookeshaden.com/workshops/

From waterfalls to caves and underwater photography in the ocean, we will create adventures together that go beyond a workshop setting. For 4 nights we will live together, create, inspire, challenge, and share ourselves while a new family is born. Retreats are meant to feed the creative spark as well as the creative’s soul. I know that’s how I feel…renewed and passionate, and that is why I love hosting artist retreats so much.

The price is all-inclusive outside of transportation to the island of Maui, meaning that your living accommodations, food, transportation while at the retreat, and location/model fees are included. You show up, we take care of the rest. The “we” I reference are myself (I’ll be leading the event), along with two assistants and a resident model who is there for your inspirational whims.

You need nothing but your favorite camera, a laptop, and a tripod if it isn’t too difficult to fit in your luggage! Read the information packet on my website to get more details, pictures, and a thorough schedule…or to book a space!

October 2-6, 2014
$1,950 per person

My theme song for this retreat!

And all of this is wonderful – my favorite thing to do – aside from the fact that I forgot to bring my remote and had to run across a rocky creek in bare feet while flinging myself on top of a rock to pose in under 10 seconds.

It was so much fun though. I couldn’t imagine, in that moment, spending my time any other way.

And I’m pretty sure the fly fishermen couldn’t imagine why I was spending my time that way. Tehe! But I loved it. I live for that. Adventure and fulfillment excitement so much, and that day, I felt both tenfold. To be able to inspire yourself for an image is an amazing feeling, but to inspire yourself in life is invigorating. To me, that is what keeps the passion alive. It isn’t so much about what the picture looks like, but what it took to take it. To run out in the forest barefoot and feel at peace with my surroundings – that is my happy place.

I hope you find it to be just as comforting. Now…go live your passion!

So, how do I make time to create whenever I want to create?

It isn’t always as simple as that. I am a full time business owner and photography is my main schtick, but I do a lot more than that. I love teaching and writing and trying new things. And this is the story of most people. We have love for a diverse group of things, and I am no busier than anyone else; yet still I sometimes have trouble finding time to take pictures. I feel certain that others have this problem too.

When that happens, I have one solution that I work for whenever times get a little too busy: I shoot multiple images at once.

This requires pre-production, or planning on the part of the artist to make it all come together. Chances are, no matter how busy you are, you can find one hour a week to dedicate to yourself. There are obligations we have that are 24/7, but finding that one hour a week can be all the difference in pursuing your passion or letting it sit on the back burner.

So, whenever I’m having one of those weeks, I stock up. I plan multiple shoots and I go out and get it done all at once. I will typically use the same model, easy to change wardrobe, and a location that offers a different scene per image.

An example is that I used to go to a park early in the morning with at least 3 images in mind to shoot. The light would be good longer because it was nestled in between mountains, and I would shoot one against the rocks, one in the stream, one in the forest, etc…The first time I did this the 3 images below were the result.

I did that recently with my friend Kelly and her husband Chris. They came out to visit and we went shooting in my favorite forest nearby. In the span of 30 minutes to an hour (my allotment) we shot two different pictures. I was showing them around town and doing touristy things, and I didn’t want to force them to do shoots with me the whole week. So instead I budgeted my time and we spent one hour shooting together, from setup to tear down, and it was a blast.

It was fast-paced and exciting and everyone had a job to do, so no one felt left out. Because the setups were so similar, yet with very different results, we could move quickly with little confusion.

Alternately, if I know I’m moving into a particularly busy time, I will get a lot done the week before and then pace out how I edit it or release it. For example, I am about to fly to India and then Dubai for three weeks. I have not a single day of down time in those three weeks, so I know that I need to be prepared. I want to be able to release content regularly, plus I have a weekly Monday video to keep up with! So I have already shot all of that before leaving, and I simply have to press the UPLOAD button when I am ready to share (on days that I have specified on my calendar, because I’m that much of a nut).

So if you find yourself short on time and you’re not sure how to get your ideas out, try to plan carefully so that you can shoot multiple images all at once without wasting time or energy. I love being productive like that!

Will you be searching for versatile locations and try out shooting multiple images all at once? Have you worked like that before?

In the few times that I have photographed industry models, I have had a much harder time getting what I want. Most people aren’t used to modeling, and that is what I count on when it comes to taking a picture. I don’t want the model to run through 100 poses based on practicing in front of a mirror. That has it’s time and place, but that time and place is never when and where I’m working. I need someone who can become a character. I need someone who has no preconceived notions about what a model does or does not do.

When I shoot, I shoot quickly and decisively. I tell the subject how to pose, often times demonstrating what I mean, and if that doesn’t work, I pose them myself. The great thing about friends is twofold. Usually they are very open to the weird ideas I have and strange poses I pull sometimes. The other good thing is that you have less pressure when trying to get a shot. They are will to go above and beyond for you because they care about you.

In this video you’ll see two different photo shoots. One is with Olivia Clemens, who has been modeling “unofficially” for the last 4 years or so. The other is with KD Stapleton who has had next to no modeling experience. Even though one is very experienced while the other is not, I believe the images, as far as final intent goes, turned out quite equal and I adore photographing them both equally.

I hope that you’ll feel encouraged to create no matter who it’s with. Every person has the potential to be a model, or a character in your story.

Every story is worth being told.

So create…no matter what. Challenge yourself and others to be something more than what meets the eye.