If You Think Ordinary Is Boring You Will Love These Wondrous Images

February 24, 2022

8422

Are you ready to go into a wondrous world full of imagination and magic? John Wilhelm’s brilliant photography is all about that. Looking through his collection of work will make you feel as if you tripped and fell into a magical world of whimsicality. The incredible series of photographs can transport you to a fantastic world. You may feel like you are Alice walking through the wonderland.

Let us learn a bit about the brains and creativity behind this excellent work.

Meet John Wilhelm. He is a Switzerland-based photographer. He was born in 1970 in Winterthur, and he currently lives together with his wife and four kids. He has three daughters and one son. Wilhelm’s lovely family, especially his children, plays a significant role in his work. In his outstanding work, Wilhelm digitally inserts his kids into outlandish scenarios. These images are gorgeous, hilarious, and out of the world. He created a series of pictures under this theme. The collection of work is like an adventure of his three daughters in a fantastical world.

It is like they are characters in an adventure fantasy story.

One thing is for sure; you will never find a dull, boring, or ordinary moment in his photographs.

Wilhelm’s specialty is how he transforms ordinary situations into something surreal, fantastical, and mind-blowing. He never leaves it as it is. Instead, he adds his twist to it. He stretches the reality so far that it turns fantastical—the result; phenomenal and surprising.

So how did he first get into photography? Well, he was never a stranger to it. He got his first introduction to photography from his family. Wilhelm’s father was an experienced hobby- a photographer. Back in the day, he even found at least two local photography associations too. Young Wilhelm grew up in an environment where he saw cameras, magazines, lenses, self-made camera baggage. So from a very young age, Wilhelm got exposure to photography and understood the basics of it.

However, back when he was young, he was not into the process of photography.

He was not that excited back then about films and development processes. He thought it was relatively insignificant at that time.

However, as he grew up, he found photography more enjoyable. According to him, things changed when he first held his first digital camera in his hands.

At that point, the importance of photography changed into happiness. Wilhelm knew right then photography was something he was passionate about and wanted to pursue. From that day, his journey as a photographer began. He learned a lot about camera systems, different techniques, experiences, and finally, software products. In February 2011, he decided to take a step across the border of plain photography. So he entered the world of photoshop and 3D tools. Now, photography is an absolute passion!

We are so glad that he chose to be a photographer. Looking at this collection of work, he has come a long way since the beginning of the journey.

Not only has Wilhelm proved to be a great photographer but also an incredibly creative artist as well. So you must be curious to know how he came up with the idea for the current series.

According to Wilhelm, he never created these images to be a series.

He is a very creative artist, and lots of creative ideas pop up. His fantastic three little girls also inspire his creative process. Wilhelm is not sure how he gets such creative ideas. However, he assumes that his childhood habits played a role. According to Wilhelm, watching too much TV and playing video games inspired him to get such out-of-the-box ideas!

Regardless, we can agree that he has created some fantastic work. Also, we cannot forget his lovely children, who made all this possible.

You must be curious how it was like working with the children. Did they have fun creating the series?

Well, according to Wilhelm, it was more work than fun. As you may know, even many movie stars explain that it is not that easy to work with kids. That is because kids are kids and are not very willing to follow instructions perfectly. It was pretty similar with Wilhelms kids as well. Wilhelm explains that it can be difficult for them to do as precisely as he wants. For example, it can get tricky if he needs them in a particular pose or with a specific mimic.

However, Wilhelm found an effective way to have the children’s attention and engage them in the shoot.

What he does is tell fun stories about upcoming projects to inspire them. That way, he can simulate the studio situation without cam. Once in his studio, there is not much more time than 2-3 minutes before losing attention and motivation. According to Wilhelm, whenever the storytelling does not do the trick, sweets help.

Nevertheless, the lovely children did fantastic work!

With just one glance at these photographs, you will understand Wilhelm’s artistry, incredible talent, and sense of humor. Speaking of his talent, you will notice that it goes beyond basic photography skills. Wilhelm puts a lot of work into his photography. It is not just about clicking photos and calling it a day. There is a long process behind all these creations. He puts a lot of time and effort into editing the photographs.

So how about we learn about his process a little bit?

Wilhelm first shoots all the elements he needs for a particular image. It is his dogma to work only with photos shot by himself. Whenever it is possible, he takes the objects to his small attic-photo studio in his house. Sometimes, however, he does not mind going outside to find the ideal sky, tree, animal that suits his shot. He would even go long hikes searching for picture-perfect locations and objects.

When photographing single objects, he usually tries to follow some rules. Those rules are to shoot all elements with the same focal length, same aperture, same focus, same point of view, and same light situation/direction.

After that, he would put all those objects together in Photoshop. Sometimes though, he would also use objects sculpted in 3D programs as well. He also started to use ZBrush and Keyshot. It takes around 5-20 hours per picture.

If you are also an aspiring photographer, you may like to know what gear and software programs he uses.

Wilhelm shoots with Sony A7R cameras. He owns two bodies and the whole lens lineup. Wilhelm’s retouching workplace includes a Mac Pro (2013), a Wacom Cintiq 24 HD, and lots of storage (LaCie 20 big). He likes to work with software products like Photoshop, Lightroom, ZBrush, Keyshot, Nik-Filters, Zerene Stacker, Cinema 4D, etc.

You must be eager to check out the beautiful photographs. Go ahead and scroll through to discover the beautiful pieces of work. We guarantee you that you will be surprised.

#1 A Cloudy Umbrella

The Good Weather Umbrella