The Idea behind this shoot was to create a series of Impossible Images. We ask ourselves, are we living a dream or are we dreaming our life? It’s fun to ponder these ideas. I feel very fortunate to be living my dream.

As creative people, we thrive on inspiration; creating something new, different, and hopefully inspiring to others. We often forget to keep pushing ourselves and become content in our style while we keep doing the same thing over and over. We become stagnant, and eventually, burnt out. There’s no middle ground in the creative field. We are either constantly getting better or getting worse. When you think you’re plateauing, this is what I call dead man’s land. Here we eventually start falling behind.

Enter, The Impossible Dream.

For this shoot I headed out to Portland, Oregon with my good friend, RJ Kern, who is a constant support and inspiration in my life. There, we meet with some of Oregon’s most talented creatives, Jos and Tree Woodsmith never ceased to amaze me with their ideas, as well as Skot Coatsworth as our videographer (see the complete list of vendors and creative’s at the bottom). We spent the whole day stretching our creative minds and pushing this shoot to create the impossible, to create our dreams, to make a piece of art like none of us have seen before. Working on test shoots with other amazingly talented individuals is so important to our minds and careers. We can discover new techniques, new way’s of thinking, pulling each other out of creative slumps and finding new inspirations, all the while, making new friends with honest and real connections. I would encourage everyone to find people that inspire them and create their dream.

When I originally got into the creative field, I wanted to work as an image editor working with incredible talent to creating amazing images. I started this journey 7 years ago. While walking this path, I went to school for graphic design where I found a deep passion for photography. I lost my way a bit, when I thought that I’d be mostly working with advertising, branding, marketing and page layout. But my dream never died. I continued on, teaching, learning, inspiring to create inspiring images. Now, while I am dead focused on becoming a great photographer, being the Editor on this project help open my door into something that I once saw as my Impossible Dream.

Ask yourself, are you living your dream or dreaming your life. What is your impossible dream? Make that your reality, whether your in the creative field or not.

Our end goal:

• To have fun with friends, old and new
• To create six gallery quality images we both sign
• To share a behind-the-scenes video to inspire and educate

Please check out this behind the scenes video made by Skot Coatsworth and enjoy the images.

The Images

imagination. Stillness and peace creates a sense of serenity, and a space for imagination as the gargoyle protects her in the dream world and the owl offers freedom.

Melody. We wanted to capture the musical surrender between two lovers. Notice how the only clear parts of the image are the couple in love, this symbolizes how music can connect people and block out distractions. 

Inception. The idea of inception is people coming together in a dream and sharing their dreams with one another. You might notice the paintings on the left, these represent the dreams that people have had. 

Entrance. We find lovers standing at the entrance of a door. We all have things that hold us back, we have temptations, and have barriers. Do we take a chance and walk through the door of opportunity or do we simply turn back. Notice the man walking away. This to me represents the choice.

Enigma. A woman in shadow’s appears before a man representing temptaion and distraction. Does he hold focus a the doorway of love and life, or will he be weakened and give in to his temptation.

Gravity – the image shows the strength of love and how true love can defy the strongest of powers, including gravity

The Impossible Dream from skot coatsworth on Vimeo.

Photography, Lighting, Technicals 

Jos Smith :: JOS photographers
RJ Kern ::  Kern-Photo

Cinematography / Editing
Skot Coatsworth

Venue
Julie Olson ::  julesmorocco@yahoo.com

Graphic Artist // Post-production  
Matt Steaffens :: Mathieu Ryan Photographers

Boom Operator
Marie Baker
Giovani Knox

Dress Design, Headpieces, and Jewelry
Sonia Kasparian :: Urchin Redesign

Men’s Suits
Michael Allen Clothier

Styling / Accessories
Tree Marie :: Love and Sass

Hair & Makeup
Nicole Wagner / Powder, Inc :: nicolewagnermakeup.com

Model Couples
Emily Mantel & Martin Wilson
Leonie North & Karim Alarddine

Models
Alexandria Scott
Danyel Scott
Scotty Wilson

Just one frame from this weekends wedding!

It’s a rarity to find a love and connection as beautiful as Julia and Steven share. I had the privilege to experience their connection first hand on their Downtown Denver Engagement session and WOW, did it bring a never ending smile to my face. I truly feel blessed to capture their Wedding the end of the month.

And a huge thanks to my friend Daylene Wilson for bringing your creative energy to this shoot!

As a creative individual, one of our biggest ongoing struggles is keeping our creativity and inspiration flowing. This process can be daunting at times, especially near the end of wedding season where the inevitable burn-out starts to set in. Some photographers will just accept it and roll with the process, but others will find ways to cure it. I prefer the latter. One of the absolute best ways I’ve found to over come this has been starting personal projects and taking chances on jobs that may not necessarily be your speciality. Pulling yourself out of your comfort zone and taking chances forces you to evolve creatively. Yes, the biggest part about taking chances, especially with paying clients, is the chance of failure.  Being up front with your client, setting expectations, doing your research, and being prepared are must haves in a new situation like this. While failure is always a possibility, the reward of success often out weighs the chance of failure, such as finding new creative ways to think on your feet, improvise, or evening finding new styles or ways of shooting.  You may discover things that you may not have thought of before.

I recently took one of these chances. My good friend Shae had asked me to capture some images for her company, Shaelyn Suites. A cold, borderline rainy evening, and rapidly fading light, which really made me think outside of the box. Changing how I would normally approach a shoot and has pushed me to think of ways to creatively shoot with no available natural light in my final frames shot. We had an awesome time creating these images! A huge shout out goes to the beautiful models Laura, Abbey, and Sarah.

Ladies, if your looking for an incredible stylist for your big day, check Shae out, you won’t be disappointed.