If you’ve ever wondered if you could change the world with your photography, let me tell you straight away – yes, you can. You can help others, make their lives easier, and consequently make this world a better place to live, even for just one person.
In case you’d like to use your photography for a cause, Karen Alsop’s “Christmas Wish” project is just the inspiration you need. She and her team have made holidays happier for sick children for years now. What started as an Australia-only project has spread worldwide, and it keeps growing every year. And just like before, Karen was kind enough to share more about the project with DIYP, as well as plenty of amazing photos she and her team took and edited.
The main idea of the Christmas Wish project is to create magical portraits of sick children. Karen and other photographers team up with Santa to visit them in hospitals and take some portraits. And then, little elves turn their photos into Christmas Wonderland artworks which are then printed and gifted to these families. Just kidding, it’s not elves, it’s skilled Photoshop artists – but there’s magic and Christmas spirit involved nonetheless.
This year, Santa visited locations across Australia and the USA, and some new solutions were used to make him get everywhere. The team flew Santa to some of these regions. And if you’ve always wondered how he manages to visit all homes in the world in one night: it’s thanks to AR. :) When he couldn’t be there in person, virtual Santa appeared at photo shoots using augmented reality technology.
As you can probably imagine, the purpose of Christmas Wish is to bring a little Christmas joy to families who are having a hard time due to their kids’ health challenges. For some, this was even their first professional photo of their child, which added a bit of extra magic. And for others, sadly, this may be their last, as the team photographed some gravely ill young people.
The Christmas Wish team is quite a big one. It’s made up of a couple of hundred volunteers, including team members, photographers, Photoshop Artists, and of course: Santa Claus. And as the project grows, so does the team! You can probably guess that each of these artworks contains many layers and require many hours in Photoshop. Thankfully, some fantastic editors gladly donate their time to craft an image for each child. They take care that it incorporates the children’s interests through information the team gathers during the photo shoot, so each image is personalized.
And now, I think it’s time we saw the artworks Karen and her team created. There are plenty of them so I made a selection, but make sure to visit Karen’s website The heART Project and see more.
Edited by Karen Alsop
Edited by Samantha Vandeyar
Edited by Melissa Hellend
Edited by Bren Slade
Karen Alsop
Edited by Melissa Helland
Edited by Angela Sacarano
Edited by Colin Smith
Edited by Bren Slade
Edited by Callie Crawley
Edited by Kelly Clark
Edited by Karen Alsop
Edited by Kate Mudge
Edited by Magaly Tomianpos
Edited by Angelo van der Klift
Edited by Magaly Tomiampos
Edited by Magaly Tomiampos
Edited by Cristina Menor
Edited by Callie Crawley
Edited by Kate Mudge
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