Behind the Image: Night Visions

The tree, standing alone on its rocky perch, looked more like a gatekeeper to another world than a landmark. I raised my iPhone and captured the scene, not knowing at the time that this image would lead me down a new creative path, one I had never walked before. Back in the quiet of my studio, I returned to the photograph and began shaping it into something more meditative.

Using Snapseed, I stripped the image of its colors, turning it into black and white to reveal its essential bones. A backlight effect emerged behind the tree, like a halo or rising moon, and I added a strong vignette, letting the edges fall into darkness. I wanted everything but the tree to vanish, as if it had grown out of the void.

But I wasn’t done. The image was still too grounded in reality. I wanted to unmoor it, to let it drift into something imagined. I began layering in botanical photographs, delicate leaves, and shadowy florals, each one slightly translucent, almost floating. The effect was somewhere between memory and dream, like a garden blooming inside the mind of someone deep in meditation.

Then came the experiment—Maki-e, the ancient Japanese art of sprinkling gold or silver powder onto lacquerware. It struck me not just as a technique, but a philosophy, this act of honoring imperfection with something luminous. I wanted to echo that spirit. After printing the final image, I took a fine brush and dusted gold glitter over the surface, carefully, deliberately, until light began to shimmer across the dark landscape. Not evenly. Not everywhere. Just enough to suggest a quiet magic.