Letting Go with Alana Lee

StellaPro™ Champion of Light, Alana Lee creates an incredible heartfelt composite with her daughter as the subject. “Letting Go” exemplifies the grace, fragility and emotion of a mother witnessing her child blossom into a young adult. Take a closer look as Alana explains the inspiration behind the image and how she created it.

For me, this image represents love. But not always the happy part. The kind of love that sometimes hurts. The kind of love you sacrifice anything in the world for. The kind of love that can break your heart when you fear you may lose it. My daughter faced having to give up competitive dance to ensure I stay safe and healthy during the pandemic. Her willingness to unquestionably sacrifice what she loves so dearly for sake of family is forever captured in this image. I said to my daughter. ‘I love you for all that you are, all that you have been and all you’re yet to be.’

Sometimes we lose sight of our goals. We are held back by fear, by self-value, by what we think others expect of us. I’ve recently been re-exploring educational content from some of my mentors to reconnect with my vision. I recalled Sue Bryce telling us to create what we love and serve others from the heart. The amazing composite artist Richard Wood encouraged me to create what I fear...that even if I fail or can’t figure out how to pull an image together, I should try and I will at the very least learn. Felix Kunze taught me to use and master the light I had and not yearn for new equipment just because other photographers use it. Pratik Naik and Bella Kotak gave me the tools to tell my story through color. So many members of the community are by my side cheering for my wins and offering meaningful support and encouragement when things don’t exactly go the way I had hoped.

Looking back on my journey I’m so grateful for the education, support and new friends and colleagues I have met through the Sue Bryce Education platform and I’m submitting this image to the Canon #canontpmlove contest which was part of The Portrait Masters #tpmlive2020 Virtual Conference. Creating fine art composite images from a simple studio portrait. Can you imagine giving your child or grandchild a beautiful portrait like this as a gift to cherish forever? Angel wings from my new digital wing overlay collection were used to add a magical touch to this composite image in Photoshop. 

Lighting was simple using my StellaPro™ 5000 continuous LED light with an Elinchrom umbrella. Shooting on a grey background makes compositing this type of image simple — just add a digital sky overlay as an adjustment layer set to overlay or softlight blend mode. To learn more about Alana Lee visit https://alanaleephoto.com/