Making New Worlds

Nikon D600
Lightroom 5, Perfect Effects, Photoshop CC

So many things are bubbling through my brain that I would love to share. It has been an exhausting and exiting few days. But I will contain myself and stick with one thing at a time. Setting up this shot was such an incredible experience! Bringing my own world to life was surprisingly empowering. And well, the solitude of the location was just what my soul needed to prepare for the shoot.

When I pulled into Duck Lake State Park to start setting up the site my heart sunk. The parking lot was packed, and cars were parked along the roadside well into the park. I was sure as I drove to the back of the park I was going to find people trampling around all over my selected location.  Normally not a huge deal, but I was short on time and did not want to explain why I was hanging paper birds in the forest to everyone that asked. I must admit there was a tad bit of a hangover following me in… I made the left turn away from the lake to head over to the pines I had chosen, and all the sudden the cars were gone. Just me and the pines and 2 hours to get things set up.

As usual with me, there was a small delay as I second guessed my location and wandered around the woods some more, even lugged my heavy a$$ chair further down to a spot with more interesting light, only to haul it back to my original location. Reminder to all of us, just go with your gut and tell that nagging second guessing voice to bugger off… Finally I started hanging birds and building my world.

I guess I was about 2/3 of the way through. At the point where I needed to start thinking about balance rather than randomly hanging to get it done. As I stepped back to judge the scene it hit me, I had created my vision. I had created a world. It was almost overwhelming to be standing in the middle of it as a solid, real thing. The desire to replicate that rush drives me to want to do more and more of my creating in camera rather than in post. Albeit, there was plenty done in post as well, but it was restricted to tone, color and texture enhancements. I left all the elements within my world exactly as they were. What a wonderful sense of accomplishment to see a vision through. Especially one that took so much work. Not sure how long before all of the paper cuts heal 😉 I am guessing I folded about 80 cranes before all was said and done. It was worth every single crease!