The last week I completed a 7 day assignment of “reading deprivation” for the creative circle I’m a part of. This cleanse from reading also included a break from being on social media where others’ ideas, words & opinions are constantly thrown at me, blurring the line between my creative energy and what I’m being told by the world to create, (and sometimes HOW to create). Even though I work darn hard to avoid letting other people effect my creative decisions, it’s near impossible to be perfect at it. And after 6/7 days of this assignment, I can see pretty clearly how much more I was effected than I even knew.
During this reading cleanse, (where I also was unable to read books, blogs, newspapers, etc), I found myself with extra time to fill and the energy to try something new with my creative process, which I had been meaning to do for quite some while; find a new preset and play around with editing, just for fun. Coincidentally, VSCO presets lowered their prices this week and was offering an extra $20 off making buying new preset a pretty much given. The color edit below is from VSCO pack 6: C-400H+1. I adjusted saturation, hues of oranges, greens and yellows, contrast, etc. I found a look that fit this series perfectly. It’s a little softer than our old edits, and I’m not sure if this particular edit will fit any other session, but it was fun to find extra time to create and try something new, without anyone else’s words or thoughts creeping up inside me. It also was interesting to find an edit that worked for Rachael’s session in particular and work to modify just right, to fit her personality and energy. During the editing process there must have been a hundred times I stopped in my tracks wanting to share Rachael’s images with the world, but the process of taking a break from social media helped me hold on tight to them, and also take the time to find the ones that spoke to me the strongest after a week of finishing them.
With that, I am so excited to share these select few images with you. Rachael was one of my senior reps for 2017 and I am so honored to be given the chance to work alongside such a sweet and soulful girl. Her calm, cool and collected nature is reflective in the images and I can’t help but feel I didn’t have to do much to create these images but transfer her energy to something tangible. I am going to continue taking small breaks from reading and social media in order to tune out the noise more often- so if I am not as readily available on social media or other outlets, this is why. I am always available face-to-face and love true connectedness, in person. I am booking a limited amount of senior portraits for 2017 and have 7 spots available this summer starting in July. If you’d like to book one, please e-mail me at info@shawphotoco.com.