In February I entered a huge photography competition, The Portrait Masters. This round I decided I was going to push myself in the aria of creative portraiture. I wanted to do something that stretched my imagination, the pushed my skills in photoshop. But more than that I wanted to make something magical for my children who are individually and collectively the source of my greatest joy in this life. I wanted to create a story for them. **What you're going to see here is a collection of Raw images. They have not been edited or retouched. In truth, they were throw together between mealtimes, nap times, and the navigation of excited children. **
My daughter is a dreamer. She loved the sky and clouds and outer-space. She has beautiful thoughts of dreamy, magical things.
She is brave in unexpected ways . . . ways that reassure me that she is going to be a force in this world. And she is scared by things that surprise me.
My sweet boys are kind yet mischievous.
My oldest son (by 6 minutes) is cautious of new things while his brother is content so long as medical persons are not around.
So, knowing my children, knowing who they are and how I see them, I set about to create something magical for them, something as fantastical as they are to me. So many pictures went into this.
A lot of shots taken, a lot of cutting, pasting, searching, coloring, and creating. A few ideas didn't make the cut.
This took many hours . . . over 48 total. Many redos. A bit of frustration. But in the end the the picture came together and a story got told.
I love this picture. I would have loved it without an award. But the award is a nice bit of icing on the cake.
Love, Melinda
Studio in Athens PA.
Serving Athens Pennsylvania, Towanda Pennsylvania, Corning New York, and Twin Tiers area.