Once in awhile, we want to escape the world and go somewhere that is a little bit more peaceful and magical. Inspired by her creative and storytelling father, Katrina Perry (Wonderandwhimsy) strives to give her viewers this magical little place - where they can get lost for as long as they want.  Everything children see, touches, or explores are magic to them - and that is what Perry wants to share with her viewers.

May I Keep Him? by wonderandwhimsy

I love photography because... it allows me to find and capture moments. I love to find the magic of every day—the magic in the light, the magic of the moment, the magic of emotion, the magic of a connection—and photography allows me to freeze those moments, enhance them, and bring out the subtleties of their beauty to share with my viewers. It gives me the creative outlet in my life that I crave, and even better than that it is a creative outlet that I can share with my children, who feature prominently in my work.

Little Driver by wonderandwhimsy

My camera lets me capture... and create moments I find magical. I was enthralled by fairy tales and storytelling as a child—my father is a phenomenal storyteller and used to tell me wonderfully creative and magical tales growing up. I don’t have his way with words, but I strive for every image that I take to tell a story—to be as magically whimsical and descriptive for my viewer as my father’s stories were for me.

Early Farm Mornings by wonderandwhimsy

I find inspiration when... I see the way my children (aged 6, 5, and 2) view the world. They are the absolute biggest inspirations in my life—they see magic everywhere, in everything. Pretty much everything about the world is still new and wonderful to them—and by trying to view the world through their eyes, I can see that “everyday magic” again for myself.

By the Light of the Moon by wonderandwhimsy

One of the photos that I am most proud of...  is one that I call “The Face Off”, and I love it because it was such an honest moment captured—my family and I live on my husband’s dairy farm, and one morning my youngest son was helping my husband collect our cows to take them to the dairy for milking. He climbed up a gate and as two cows were walking past they stopped to stare at him, and he stared right back at them (for a good minute none of them moved, they just kept examining each other). To me, it is an image that represents my son, his farming roots, and the love of his farming life so completely.

Forest Breeze by wonderandwhimsy

One of my favorite places to shoot... in the woods. I love shooting in woods and forests- I love the colors, the different textures, the way that light filters through the leaves on trees. The woods were where I would have my adventures with my twin brother as a child, so woods and forests have always represented childhood nostalgia to me.

Winter Nights by wonderandwhimsy

One of my favorite photographers on Viewbug...  is Iwona because she captures childhood so perfectly and with such wonderful emotion.

My Insperations by wonderandwhimsy

These are three quick tips I’d like to share with fellow photographers:

Tip 1. Look at your locations with fresh eyes—magic is probably there, you just need to find it.

Tip 2. Shoot with your creative voice in mind. Create images that mean something to you and they will then in turn mean something to your viewer.

Tip 3. A tip that took me the longest to learn and is probably the most time-saving of them all—shoot when your child is in the mood to be photographed. Don’t try to force it on them, it will only upset them and frustrate you! Trust me, I’ve been there!

New Friendships by wonderandwhimsy

One photo that was difficult to shoot was my “New Friendships” image because to get it the way I wanted it, I had to try to manipulate a one-year-old to pose in a certain way.

Twirl by wonderandwhimsy

The tips and secrets behind this photo... I really liked this location, but it lacked a lot in terms of framing and visual interest, so I found a branch on the ground that had some nice, colorful leaves and had my husband stand behind a tree and hold it above my son’s head to frame him. I knew that I wanted to composite a bird image onto his hand, but I didn’t want to just plonk a bird on him—I wanted to get a shot where it looked like my son and the bird was interacting.

In my experience, the best way to accomplish composite shots where a child looks engaged is to have them actually engage with something that you can later remove or replace with your composite image. With this idea in mind, I put a tiny sticker on my son’s hand when he wasn’t paying attention to me. I then ran to my camera, made sure all my settings, etc. were correct, composed my shot, and asked my son what was on his hand. As he raised his hand to look at the sticker I got my shot—he was interacting with the sticker, but by replacing the sticker with the bird in the post, I got an image where he looks like he is actually interacting with the bird.

Make sure to follow Wonderandwhimsy to see more amazing images and submit your best shots to the new photo contests open for submissions.