Our latest creative challenge was with the theme WATER.
The creativity of this community continues to blow me away every week!
I thoroughly enjoyed going through your watery submissions and reading your stories!
I hope you too can find inspiration and motivation in this challenge to pursue your own creative endeavours!
Join the groups to get involved with this week’s creative challenge!
Fairytales and Fantasy & The Color Lab Collective.

When I was little, I used to spin and twist in the water pretending that I was transforming into a mermaid! A couple years back I created this silicone and fabric mermaid tail, hoping to create something that looked natural, well blended, and realistic. It certainly isn’t professional level, but I enjoy swimming in it from time to time!

Some oldies Shot in my swimming pool back home in sunny South Africa.
Featuring the lovely Elsa Bleda, who is also a photographer and she also features in the latest Volvo ad due to her photography work.
She was such a natural underwater. Made shooting her so easy.
WATER LILIES ☘️
Portraits of Xenia & Molly

We found this beautiful location at the end of a hike on a rainy day. Just as we set up the shot, the clouds parted and the sunlight created this ethereal glow on the waterfall and pool. Felt like we had stumbled on some ancient rainforest temple 😍

Water is a tremendous source of inspiration for me! 🖤

Under the foam blanket

When I was a kid I used to sit on this beach and imagine I’d float away and turn into a mermaid. Beauty @kylasorad with HMUA by @painterlybeauty .

Springs, and with one of my favourite collaborators Hannah Fraser. The Dress is by Deborah Lindquist, and the flower is probably 99c Store.

Headpiece: Miss G Designs
Model: Syrena- Singapore’s First Mermaid
Tail: Finfolk Productions

Instead of the woods, I decided to place a witch out in the icy seas a few years ago. Created the look post Halloween with a formal dress, creepy fabric I draped and dragged behind her, horns and her pet bone bird in a cage.

A Mermaid’s Getaway

I was so lucky to photograph beautiful Brooke McKenzie rising from the icy cold pacific ocean last year, during a super fun trip to Los Angeles with my dear friend Regina Wamba. Dress by Agnieszka Osipa.

From our magical photography tour to Iceland. So happy with the first results already. Do you like it? its all real..
Md: Anna Psy
Dress: Fairytas

Photographed by Inkblotch
This is a photo I did last year. It’s always my dream to do a mermaid shoot underwater, but this is the closest that I can get 🤣 This was a really fun DIY shoot as we only used a kiddie inflatable pool and placed LED strip lights around it and mostly got the clothes from a thrift store here ( the pink top is just $1) . I had fun mixing and playing around with the actions on different opacity and selective masking.
Edited with: Fierce Starlight + Garden of Life + midsummer’s dream + Twilight + Into the woods

This photoshoot was one of my favorite, I really like water lilies, it’s like my nymph comes out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting

Lost Goddess ⚜️
Muse: @kiranna_kain
Headpiece: Miss G Designs
Direction/assistants: @esodette


Model : Milynn
Assistants : Mezame, Oda

These are from one of the very first water sets I did that really got me inspired to keep going with it. I knew what I had in my mind for the set and they came out better than I could’ve imagined. I absolutely love shooting in the water.

Water is my source of inspiration. I love this element. In this series of pictures more iced, we don’t see very well but I’m submerged by water, behind all this snow and ice.

It was the first time I tried to do a mermaid shoot, and I’m really happy how it turned

Edited with the Garden of Life action + Honey Faun +Marigold Light from The Color Lab

Took this when I was visiting my grandma in the Philippines. Nature there is just so magical and beautiful


Beauty and The Rocks

*Redhead siren*

The idea was to create something along the idea of how candies and sweets are usually so nice and happy but there is always the hidden message that too much candies and processed food is unhealthy.

This is my Mother Earth image that I made from my first conceptual shoot almost 3 years ago. This is the image that won me a Color Lab (former Fine Art Actions) contest and sparked the friendship between Bella, Pratik, and myself. This image is so special to me in so many ways. The challenge is creating images that provide the emotion and experiences this one has!

My interpreation of Ophelia from last year. This year i want to try water pictures again and i´m really looking forward to it.

Underwater maternity shot of my intern and her gorgeous belly!

Throwback to an oldie but a goodie for the #bellakotakchallenge water theme! This was so cold 😂

Model: Karissa Anne


It took me about 2 or 3 months to put together this outfit and research locations.
Taken by my sister Bly with my assistance on the camera manual setting. My other sister Kae holding the reflector. Edited by me.

Shoot in a paddling pool in my garden.

Color toned with Glacial Frost from the Enchanted Collection

Mermaid @erinstronghairartistry
Body painting – @amy_laura_artistry
Hair – @kerryntunsted

Muse Carol Larson


Edit/model by Kitty S Mortensen

Water is a fantastic elements that evoke in me creativity and magical visions…
I used a mix of The Color Lab actions – Iris ((25%) and Mulberry (20%). At last I used @infinitecolorpanel harmonize (15%) masking the effect on the model. And the result is what I imagined before starting work.

The Moth
My favourite self portrait done in bath tub of my grand parents in the middle of the night when my kids were finally asleep and I got some creative urge

I walked out to collect Red Poppy flowers around the road with torch and in night dress and shot reeeeally fast as younger baby called me back to bed soon 😆 the results from such stressful shoots are always my most favorite. Even though I would truly appreciate the luxury of peaceful time.

Water is my main element! I mainly shoot in water or near water for a few years now. I always loved water and feel like a fish in water and now can use it in my work as well. To do better water photo session I bought a bathtub for my garden studio and building temporary pools for shoots. So my models can enjoy warm and clean water and privacy during shoots.

I really like the deep effect that water causes and how we can create melancholy or existentialist scenes.

Fun facts about this photography : It was in late november, the water was very cold and I wasn’t wearing any underwear because of the sides of the dress 😅
I didn’t plan to go in the water but when I arrived at the location, an old stone quarry, it was completely drown after a big storm, so I had to improvise…
The things you do for your art… 😂

My Ophelia…

I took this picture two days ago in a huuuuuge watertank! It was such a challenge but i love the outcome💕
Model is my beloved Annika Hanny Hansmann
Tail is from www.instagram.com/_anton_krug

This was one of my first photos I ever edited with The Color Lab actions. It’s been a while, but I believe I used a touch of Wolf in the Woods (Fairytale Collection) on this one!!

My water nymph…

I love shooting people in water! Sadly, I don’t have many opportunities to use natural water tanks – so I use a bathtub instead. Here’s a photo taken in my mom’s bathtub (which is very short, by the way – the model had to stuck his legs out to fit in!), with bath bomb to color the water and some branches I found outside of my mom’s house.
Model, make-up: Timewhisperer

Model: @loiblverena

I had my first underwater shoot a couple of weeks back and however hard it was to do, it was also incredibly fun and a huge learning experience!

“Sorrows”
Most of my images aren’t personal because in photography, I usually find conceptual more interesting than the expressive when attacking a new project. However, this piece turned into an illustration of the infinite fun of a wayward stomach.

Eternal love upon an air mattress in a lake. One of my favorite shoots to date. Dreamy and ethereal.

One of my favourite photoshoots ever! At the coast near Livorno Italy) last year with the most amazing and brave models @mayalou.portfolio, @lucia.artemisia and @__ninette__!

Ophelia
Model: Lidwine De Bie
Dress: Pretty IceCream Couture

Here’s a little throwback to a shoot I did when I first moved to Seattle. At the time, the water was far too cold to go in so we were limited to the shore but I’m really happy with how this shot came out! There was some compositing involved, but all of the water was shot on location. I held the camera as still as possible as I waited for the waves and took a ton of photos the moment the freezing waves came crashing in (and on Duncan 🤣).
Model: Duncan Menzies
To join this week’s challenge and for a chance to get featured yourself –
join the groups, read the rules, and share away 🙂