Once Upon a Time...(The Process Part 1)

Once Upon a time... there was a young photographer named Ashe who traveled all over the world gathering fame and fortune. She created beauty and happiness everywhere she went however,she herself was so caught up with materialistic things and wealth that she could not see the simple pure beauty that was right in front of her...

For those of you just joining me on my journey this winter this is a condensed snippet from my scribbled journal writings that I have recently done for my first Once Upon a Time book that will (fingers crossed) be out this spring.

I am not going to sit here and bore you with all the details of my creative process however I thought it only fair to introduce to you one of my rituals and a handful of working images that will eventually help in the telling of my main heroine Ashe's travels through wanderland.

For the last 2 months nightly before bed I have made lists of mocked up "scenes" to be shot for part of the story to coincide with images I have from Burning Man Arts Festival. Being a film minor in college I have a tendency to see still images as frames from a movie. Thus, when creating the storyboard for these scenes I like to rehearse them as mini motion pictures to the point where the action takes place and the mood is naturally set that is when I take the shot. I am not a fan of posed images that have a tendency to look over done or fake. My style is more photojournalistic than fashion.

Here are a few sample working images from my experience at Burning Man Arts Festival this fall. Stay tuned for more insight into my writing, photos and process of creating Ashe's Wanderland.