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Photographers create magical scenes, bringing Christmas spirit to sick children across Australia

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Last year, The Christmas Wish Project put a smile on faces of sick children in Monash Children’s Hospital in Australia. This year, Karen Alsop and her team did it for children across Australia. With the help of photography, Photoshop and of course, Santa Claus, The heART Project made the holidays happier for children from 56 families.

This year, the project is bigger, and it involved a week of traveling across the country, along with hours of shooting and post-processing. Karen has shared the photos and more details with DIYP, and I’m happy to announce that the project will grow even bigger next year – it goes global!

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12 photographers unite to create a fantasy photo book and comfort sick children

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We’ve featured the heart-warming, beautiful projects of The heART Project before. This time, 12 photographers came together to create a wonderful photo storybook, The Get Well Tree. It contains 14 photos that look like they came straight out of a fairy tale. But the main characters are real-life girls, two little heroes.

Evie Gleeson (5) and Indy Dawes (4) met two and a half years ago in a hospital where they were undergoing childhood cancer treatment. Over this time, they became close friends, and they both managed to fight the illness. Now they want to encourage other sick children through their story. So, they posed for the photos that became a part of the Get Well Tree book. We share these amazing photos with you, together with the video and the story.

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Photographer creates composite that has her children meet their ancestors from early 1900’s

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Using her photography and photo manipulation skills, photographer Karen Alsop created her version of a time travel. When her mother found a photo of Karen’s Great Great Great Grandmother and Great Great Grandmother, it made Karen wonder: what it would be like to meet her ancestors, sit down and talk to them? Even more, how incredible it would be for her kids to meet them? And so, the idea was born.

She had a photo shoot with her two children and photoshopped them into the photo her mom had found, which dates back to the early 1900’s. The final result is incredible, and when she shared it on Facebook, most of her family and friends thought that the kids are the relatives who only resemble her children.

Karen has kindly shared the details about the entire process with us.  From the photo shoot to compositing and colorizing the final image, even some BTS shots. It was a long and demanding task, but it was well worth the result.

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Photographer shoots a paralyzed mom. Hanging off a cliff. With her son. In a wheelchair

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A print or a photo shoot can be a great gift for Mother’s Day. But photographers Benjamin Von Wong and Karen Alsop took it to a whole new level. They gave a quadriplegic mom a unique photo shoot and a chance to connect with her son through an adventure.

Sarah Jay (SJ) Staszak used to be a master rock climber, abseil instructor, and passionate cyclist. After a routine surgery gone wrong, she became unable to go on her adventures. The photographers and the team gave her a chance to experience the same thrill and adrenaline again. Despite bad weather and SJ’s disability, she was hanging off the edge of the cliff of the Blue Mountains once again, together with her son Hamish, for an epic photo shoot.

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Photographer makes a comedian’s dream come true and turns her into a Princess

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Comedian Tanya Hennessy might already be well known to some of you. She posted a video to Facebook last year, titled Things people say to Photographers, which proved rather popular. It particularly struck a chord with Australian photographer Karen Alsop. And when Tanya recently posted that she dreamed of being a princess, Karen was more than happy to help turn her dream into a reality.

Karen specialises in creating fantasy. We’ve featured her work on DIYP before. She’s also has a very busy schedule, as does Tanya. But they managed to find a way for them both to be at the same location in Sydney at the same time. Tanya freely admits that she’s not a “traditional princess”. Her goal is to inspire everybody to believe that they can be the Prince or Princess they’ve always wanted to be.

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

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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.

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How I made a photo to help a child with disabilities fly

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I’m unsure how to even begin this post. To share Tahliyah’s story and my experience in creating a very special art work for her is difficult to put into words. I will precursor this with a warning; get your tissues out. Tahliyah’s story is sure to move you.

This has been a powerful, hope inspiring project. To get to know this beautiful girl and have the opportunity to visually free her from the restrictions her little body has placed on her has been life changing.

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How I Created This Geppetto’s Workshop Photo Composite

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Geppetto’s Workshop is a precious image to me because it features my own father and my son acting the part of Geppetto and Pinocchio. When Child Photo Competition launched their ‘Father and Child’ theme for January, I knew this image was a perfect fit.

I was just awarded the winner of the competition with my fairytale themed photo and I’m thrilled! In this post I’d love to share some behind the scenes of the creation of the image.

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How I Art Directed A CD Cover Shoot Over The Internet

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When Chris Sebastian contacted me about creating cover art for his debut album ‘The Good Old Days‘, I initially wasn’t sure how the scenario would work. Chris was in Sydney, I was in Melbourne, and his photoshoot was happening in Sydney within the week. I admit, I’m a bit of a control freak… In order to create a cohesive composite cover art piece, I normally would shoot every element myself. I need to have control of the light and the perspective to ensure everything fits together.

I asked Chris if I could liase directly with the photographer and art direct the project remotely. I wasn’t sure how the collaboration would work, but I was willing to give it a try.

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