Gravity. Love defies gravities of life and helps the “dream” of a relationship endure against impossible odds.

Introduction
Are we dreaming our life or living our dream?

On a regular basis, ask yourself, “Am I doing fulfilling work? Do the efforts produce results that make me happy?” and realize where these questions lead you may not align with traditional avenues to “success” in the competitive marketplace, yet serve an important role to the artist on a personal level.

Investments in personal photography projects, while self-indulgent, foster learning and growth in the pursuit of artistic passion. After all, there is no such thing as hitting a plateau in life. Either you are getting better, or worse. The moment you think, “Okay, I’ve got this figured out” is the moment stagnation becomes a threat and skills slip away like a distant friend.

As an emerging photographer, I value personal work. Joining many hands in the mix of creativity, when done right, often results in a genuine, rewarding, and enriching experience money can never buy. This personal project was no different and I am excited to share this long-awaited blog post!

Background
Create one impossible image on each shoot. That’s my theme for 2013.

Days into 2013, Emily & Martin approached me about shooting an engagement session the day before their wedding in Portland, Oregon. I promised them something not just different, but ‘differenter’ while encorporating my “impossible” theme. Stage set.

With little hesitation, I called my good friends Jos and Tree who are talented wedding photographers in Portland. I’ve known Jos and Tree for several years and we’ve shared in some incredible experiences, including light painting with fire in New Orleans (it’s possible) and shooting with David Beckstead. I shared with Jos my enthusiasm for collaborative personal projects like Mad Men: Inspired By Light and Flatland: A Wedding, Deconstructed. The gears started cranking. We set our goals:

• 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

“The Impossible Dream”
We all dream. We all share the pursuit of an authentic life. We need to feel loved. Yet we are all human with challenges or what seem to be impossible obstacles.

This became our theme.

Allegories served as symbolic narratives and powerful visuals, requiring the viewer to look further and ask questions. Smoke, mirrors, shadows, Moroccan artifacts, and couture finishes inspired our project from the inception.

Catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the experience created by Skot Coatsworth (direct video link here):

The Images >>

Imagination. Stillness and peace creates a space for imagination as the gargoyle protects and the owl offers freedom.

Melody. A musical surrender between those in love, deconstructed.

Entrance. Standing at the doorway of opportunity and choice, fear (sword and antler) and ego (boar) may prevent an exit.

Enigma. A woman in the shadows of a man’s dream, an enigma of temptation, doesn’t block focus and he stands at the doorway of love and life.

Inception. A combination of dreams is possible, no different than paintings grouped on a wall.

A Painterly Look
What does it mean to make an authentic, honest image? How is this different than a painting? How would we create a photograph of a dream? These questions that kickstarted our project also informed our approach to light. We used a large Octabank with a Profoto D1 Air 250 for the main light while a ring flash served as our on-axis fill fill, essential to achieving this painterly effect (images courtesy Matt Steaffens).
It is easy to build up too many rules and expectations about any project: fearing the unknown, fearing failure. Uncertainty can be uncomfortable. After all, planning a production requires calculated time, patience dealing with gear, logistics, and travel. No different than the romantic ideal of a wedding, with calculations of time and money informing a string of decisions.

Using the same PhaseOne Capture Pilot and Capture One to remote trigger from an iPhone to view on an iPad proved equally helpful as detailed in my Mad Men portrait of Lester Wunderman blog post. Viewing the images at 100% on the iPad provided help when working in tight spaces to share the images with stylists and other collaborators.

Uncertainty serves as a spark of creativity with a limitless supply of inspiration which starts with living and creating in the present. Jos and I collaborated to previsualize the setup of Martin defying gravity in a tight attic space.

To see more images and hear more from Jos’ perspective, check out his blog here.

A special thanks to Capture Integration for providing the Schneider Kreuznach 28mm LS f/4.5 lens to use with the PhaseOne 645 DF / IQ 140 digital back / V-Grip Air. This new leaf shutter lens features amazing, sharp optics with a very wide angle of view suitable for interior spaces. In addition, one of the reasons this leaf shutter lens matters is it can keep up with the 1/1600 sync speed of the PhaseOne rig to help control the light by balancing ambient conditions with the strobes. While $6,000 is a chunk to invest on this beefy, specialty lens, I wouldn’t hesitate to rent it again given the right job.

Our amazing cast of characters who collaborated on this project:

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