4/5/17 ~ This is the second edit to the shoot last week with Adrien. This was a super intensive edit that made my head spin and make me feel like I was about to go crazy. (Which seems to be the norm lately when deep in Photoshop-land). What made it so tricky was the many duplicates of the exact same layer (cherry blossoms) with the same exact cut-out layer mask (cut-out of Adrien's image). This made it super difficult to keep track of what part of which layer I was working on as each layer at first glance looked almost identical. This final image was the 5th try as I wasn't completely satisfied with the 4 other edits leading up to this one. I still feel like this one isn't 100% perfect. But if I keep going, I'll go crazy for sure.. To make it even more difficult was the search to find the exact cherry tree blossoms I wanted to use. It's a very specific tree; the one that I grew up with in the front yard of my childhood home. I have so many fond memories of the beauty of its petals each spring. I remember my Mom always admiring its full bloom every year, and since it's coming up on the 10th year anniversary of her passing, it was really important for me to use these exact petals in this piece. Lucky I found the tree of my DREAMS in FULL bloom on my way to work a few days ago. Yet since I was in such a rush, I took as many quick photos as I could yet only later did I realize there was no SD card in my camera. So all the amazing stock images I thought I had never even existed in the first place. It was a rush against time to find another of the same type of tree in full bloom. I frantically drove around my neighborhood and hit the jackpot only a few blocks from my home (thank gawd!) There's just so much that goes on behind the scenes for any type of art. For just one edit from a shoot, hours pass in no time. I'm guessing this edit took around 7.5 hours, not including any of the time for the actual shoot, nor the time taken watching countless photoshop tutorial videos online, nor the time taken for the previous four mistake edits or the time spent looking for the perfect tree. But, this is the work that speaks from my heart and brings me true joy, and at this point, I can't even begin to imagine my life without it~ Hair/ makeup/ henna/ photography/ edit: Julia Miho Nakamura Model: Adrien Burch