Ron Howard Project Imagin8ion

Tonight I attended a lecture thru my Civic Art Group, Alpha Rho Tau about photography and the mind-blowing imagery that you can create with bracketed photos.  All this time my angst at my own photographic abilities or lack there of, turns out to not really completely be my fault.

Chris Wehner was the guest speaker and his topic was, "The Photographic Inspiration of Art."  A few years ago, I saw Ron Howard, formerly known as Opie of The Andy Griffith Show to my generation, as a guest on The Today show introducing a new project that was near and dear to his heart, The Project Imagin8ion.  People were asked to submit their candid photos into a Canon Photography sponsored contest and over 100,000 entries came in!  From those 10 were selected to put together and create a movie based on the actual images.  One of those 10 photos was taken by a art photographer from Broken Arrow, OK, Chris Wehner.  An amazing guy! Chris as the Grand Prize Winner shared his unique experience of winning this award and traveling with Ron Howard to walk the "red carpet" at the film premier in New York and in Hollywood.

The film that was created by writing a story soulfully focusing on the winning photos was directed by Ron Howard's daughter, actress and director, Bryce Howard.

It is an amazing tear jerker titled, "When You Find Me," that tells a short story of the lives and losses by two young sisters.  The photo that won this for Chris was taken of the gates at Tulsa Memorial Cemetery on Memorial at 51st St.

What a breathtakingly beautiful shot of those gates!  Spectacular to see it in photos.  Chris was so helpful to me personally as I chatted with him the trouble I am having producing painting worthy photos.  He gave my husband and I several pointers we plan to implement ASAP!

It was especially exciting to find sitting in the audience with us, another Broken Arrow resident, Richard Waters, THIS YEAR"S WINNER!  How crazy is that?  Two winners from the same small town in Oklahoma.  Richard took his winning photo at Lake Bixohma on a foggy morning, and he was kind of enough to share it with James and me.  He leaves very soon to meet with Ron Howard and see the film his image inspired at Project Imagina10n.  This time 10 films were made, 5 by amateurs and 5 by celebrities.  The celebrities include Eva Longoria and Jamie Foxx.  You can view Richard's award winning work at his website, http://www.richardwatersphotography.com/specail-page.html

Here is his winning photo:

You can watch the film that was inspired by Chris Wehner's photo and others at http://canon.thismoment.com and it is well worth seeing.  Also visit Chris' page www.cwimaging.com