I know we’ve all been led to believe Santa’s just some mythological guy who delivers presents to only those little children who’ve been nice, but I’m here to reveal Santa is definitely Real.
Christmas is only days away, and I can remember as a little kid how excited I was to wake up Christmas morning to see what Santa brought for me.
I quickly learned I must be a really good boy because Santa NEVER disappointed.
I created this Portrait of Santa to bring back those childhood memories of wanting to stay up all night to see if I could catch Santa in the act, and while that never happened, in this Portrait it did.
Now, buckle up so I can take you on a whimsical ride behind the creation of my Portrait of Santa.
Capturing the Imagination
When I was young, and like most kids, I always wondered what it would be like at the North Pole, what would happen if I ever saw Santa, and how in the world was he able to deliver gifts to all the homes throughout the world.
My imagination would run wild this time of year…
For me, Portrait Photography is so much more than a simple two-dimensional representation, documenting a person’s appearance at that moment in time.
Portrait Photography is about waking up that little kid we all have inside us and allowing us to imagine again.
Photillustrator Portraits, like Santa, embrace a world of POSSIBILITIES.
Bringing Santa to Life
I admit I have never actually seen Santa, but if I were to have ever caught him red-handed, I imagine this is what it would look like.
What would you IMAGINE catching Santa to look like?
I’d like to share a few of the RAW images I used to bring Santa Claus to Life in this fun Portrait.
For this Portrait, Santa is played by a good friend of mine by the name of Rodney Jaynes, who did a FANTASTIC job, as you can see in the image above.
While Rodney did put on 25lbs. to play the role of Santa, I further enhanced his figure for this Portrait.
One of the BIGGEST challenges with creating Composited Portraits using various element sizes is photographing each item at the correct angle.
Without going into detail, as the distance from the camera to the subject changes, so must the height of the camera or else you will have angle issues.
I photographed these Christmas lights on the same floor I used in the Composite, thinking it would be easier to blend them into the Composited Portrait.
It was not.
I had to cut out the entire strand of lights, including the small open spaces between the braided wiring, then recreate the lighting effects cast by the bulbs themselves.
Greatness happens in the details.
A really good friend of mine, who I won’t publicly name (Wes), told me, “Santa doesn’t drink Coke, he should be holding a milk.”
Haven’t you ever seen a Coke commercial?
The bottle of Coke flying out of Santa’s hand was created using 3 separate images to get the angle and fizz where I wanted it.
Happy Holidays
Whether you’re a Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Atheist, or anything else, I wish you much LOVE and HAPPINESS throughout this Holiday Season and New Year, or as they said on Seinfeld, “Festivus” for the Rest of Us.
For me, and I hope for you, this time of year is full of friends and family, and imagination and love.
