DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Boy with a rare brain disorder lives dream to be an nba basketball star

May 4, 2016 by Karen Alsop Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

JoshWeb

Joshua was born with a Vein of Galen Malformation. He has a malformation in the blood vessels of his brain that steals blood from the rest of the brain.

He has had 6 strokes, left weakness, epilepsy, intellectual disabilities. He is the eldest surviving child with his condition in Australia. Joshua’s condition is now considered progressive as he began deteriorating in 2012.

When Mette, Joshua’s mum, shared his story and Joshua’s dreams to be a basketball star, I knew immediately that we could help Josh live out that dream in picture form.

Josh-Scene-Final-3

Joshua joined us at the first ever heART Project workshop in Melbourne in April. The plan for Joshua’s image was straightforward enough; give Joshua the ability to jump and dunk, and teach his helper dog Jess, how to fly through the air like a super hero dog.

Knowing the restrictions Josh faced with his movement, I needed to plan carefully how we would achieve all of the captures that would come together to make it look like Joshua was dunking like Michael Jordan. With the help of the other Photographers, there to learn how to bring dreams to life, we worked through each individual limb pose with Josh. Due to Joshua’s condition, he struggled with some of the movements on his left side, so in order to capture his arms at the right angle, we switched him over to the opposite side and I flipped the final shot in Photoshop.

joshua_shooting

Planning how to achieve the end goal with these heART Project images is a big part of establishing success. Ensuring that the subject is at ease and comfortable is so important. In order to make this an experience to remember, we undertook the photo session at the local basketball court, opposite Jacob’s Estate where we ran the workshop. Cardinia Primary School kindly allowed us to utilise their facilities to make this a special experience for Joshua. He even got to play ball while he waited for his photo shoot.

Following Joshua’s photo session, we went out to the oval area to capture photographs of Jess, the super dog, jumping for the ball. A selection of these photographs were used to create the final image of Jess jumping up to block the dunk.

KAZ_0533

The background of Joshua’s image was created from 3 photographs, the sky (taken at Magenetic Island in Queensland), Melbourne City, taken as we crossed the Westgate Bridge, and the basketball court. The court was actually Cardinia Primary, captured several days before when Stuart (my husband) and I went to scout out the location and map out Joshua’s project.

composite_animation

 

Following Joshua’s photo session, the group had the pleasure of witnessing his reaction to the news from The Sebastian Foundation about his gift. Joshua was given special tickets to a Melbourne United NBL basketball game (corporate box), and even now is still talking about that gift and what it means to him.

Yesterday, I presented Joshua and Mette with his Story Art portrait. The response of joy and excitement has left me smiling from ear to ear. I feel extremely blessed to have the opportunity to create these special images for families that go through so much. Seeing their reaction, knowing how much these images mean to them, makes it all worthwhile.

I want to encourage those of you who would like to get behind The heART Project to head over to the official website and register your interest.

Screen_Shot_2016-04-28_at_12.04.44_PM-ID-5f2013ed-9763-4960-9458-b09945468ae1

If you’d like to find out more about an upcoming heART Project workshop (where you can learn how to create these photoshop composites and make a difference in lives), please visit: http://storyart.com.au/items/the-heart-project-workshop-canberra/

Visit The Sebastian Foundation

TSF-Families-Logo

This project was made possible due to the contributions of many partners including:

  • Shot by Peter John (Behind the Scenes Cinematography – Documentary coming soon)
  • Triple Scoop Music
  • EIZO Australia
  • Wacom Australia
  • Kayell Australia
  • ProTog
  • Canson Infinity
  • Better Photography Magazine 
  • Going Gourmet (Catering)
  • Jacob’s Estate (Workshop Venue)
  • Art Defined (Framing)
  • Suzanne, Aimee and Daniel for helping with The Reveal

Equipment used:

  • Canon 5Diii
  • Canon 24 – 70mm 2.8 and 16 -35mm 2.8
  • Wacom Cintiq Companion 2
  • Tethering cables and stands from Tether Tools
  • Lighting from ProTog (Jinbei HD600’s and modifiers)
  • Westcott Green Screen from Kayell Australia
  • EIZO monitors from EIZO Australia, distributed by Kayell Australia
  • Wacom Cintiqs and Intuos Pros

About the Author

Karen Alsop is an award winning Australian, Melbourne based photographic digital artist and educator. Expanding on two decades of photographic and graphic design experience, Karen brings photography and art together to create stunning artworks that tell a story and take the viewer into another world. you ca see more of Karen’s work on her website, portfolio, and 500px. And you can also catch her on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. This article was also published here and shared with permission.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Instagram removes photos of boy with rare disorder NBA star Stephen Curry names his son Canon Default ThumbnailOn Assignment: Girls Basketball Team How New Measurements By The NBA To Promote Player Safety Will Impact Photographers

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Basketball, Brain disorder, compositing, Fantasy, heART Project, Karen Alsop

« Cinematic Color Grading With Lightroom
Strip it back: The art of simplicity »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • How I took challenging Aurora photos on a steep “platfom” cliff at -20 °C
  • How I shot abstract light orbs with a 360 camera and camera rotation
  • Color theory, RAW files, and RAW developers
  • Freewell K2 is yet another magnetic filter holder system
  • Apply to this Maldives resort to ‘win’ a 3 week job as Honeymoon photographer

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy