It felt difficult to return to the portraits after a month long break, but I love these shots of Krista and the paper lanterns. They make me happy because they’re so wonderful and colourful.

I decided to experiment with processing the series in different ways and played around with a set of Photoshop actions I found on the internet. I’ve never really used Actions before because they lend themselves more to batch processing and I don’t really do much of that. I still had to do a considerable amount of tweaking.

I added a texture to the final shot I worked on last week. In some ways it suits the photo but I think the texture isn’t subtle enough and distracts from the shot. I may redo this one a bit.

This is the twenty-third portrait in the Imaginary Girl series. My original goal was the create twenty-five of them but I may keep going past that number.

I have used balloons once before in a photo shoot, with Siobhan in the studio back in November. I decided I wanted to use balloons again as a prop, this time with Eagranie as the model and with balloons of a different colour. Oh how I do love red!

From this shoot I learned that photographing balloons outside when it’s windy is like trying to photograph an uncooperative monkey that can’t stay still. Other than the tricky breezes, the weather was perfect with a lovely blue sky and fluffy clouds as a backdrop. I count these portraits among my favorites of the whole series (so far).

These are a few of the shots I took of Lauren a few weeks ago, when she came over for a portrait session in the old apartment. We had a lot of fun using the pocket doors as a backdrop and Lauren was terrific in front of the camera.

Since starting this portrait series back in September, when I’m out walking I find myself constantly scouting for interesting locations to do more shoots. I was out on a walk in Stanley Park when I came across this wonderful tree. I knew it was the perfect spot to photograph Jess, who I’d just asked the day before to pose for me.

It’s a beautiful old tree with multiple trunks and you can climb inside and sit amongst them. I explained to Jess that when I use natural settings like this I’m trying to convey a connection between nature and the person posing, not just use it as a backdrop. For me nature is a place to recharge, clear my head, and become centered. I think Jess captured this beautifully.

In mid-April when I took this photo, I ran into Jess in the middle of a two month sabbatical she was taking from her job. She had a wonderful attitude and emanated positive energy. When I asked her what she was up to she said something to the effect of, “hanging out, spending time with friends, learning new things, and just enjoying life.” Her words made me realize I hadn’t been enjoying my own life, and this probably goes back farther than before the art-focused sabbatical I’ve been on for the last few months. Talking with Jess was like a splash of cold water in the face. It woke me up and made me realize I needed be more conscious of taking pleasure in what I was doing, of making time for fun, of letting go, and of enjoying my life. And so I have been.

Nature is a way for me to recharge, clear my head, and become centred, but the influence of good people around me can do this too.

This is my friend Nicole Dextras, a skilled and talented artist in her own right. I consider her one of my mentors and I really wanted to include her in my portrait series. Like most photographers, she’s not a fan of having her picture taken so I’m really glad she agreed to sit for me.

It was Nicole’s suggestion to pose with the Camellia bush in her yard and the late morning light I found myself working with at the time was perfect. We started out with Nicole posed in front of the bush but I didn’t want the flowers to just be a backdrop, so we tucked her into the leaves. The portrait was so much stronger once she became part of the bush and she looks very at home in there.

The title is a play on a quote by Kahlil Gibran – “There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may only be traversed by his longing”.