Welcome to Create Happy!
For people in periods of transition in their life who are looking for something more...who also happen to own a cellphone with a camera.
What the heck do cellphones have to do with a deep and meaningful life?
That is a darn good question.
A cellphone can be used two ways. You can use it to mindlessly scroll content...consuming. Or you can use it as an incredibly powerful infintely creative tool. Your call. Consume or Create.
One eats the planet, its resources, and your lifes energy. The other has the potential to connect, repair, and energize.
Life is a bit life that. You can drift through mindlessly following what culture/family/partners/ your inner critical voice say you should be do and say. Or you can mindfully check back in with your soul and discover your truth.
Mindless or mindful. Ohhhhh stuff just got real real.
So what is Create Happy?
Create Happy is a 4 day course that teaches you on the first day how to use your cellphone like a DSLR camera (the fancy ones) and then it teaches you how to edit images. So that you have a brilliant tool and skills available to do the real work...
The following three days help you to identify what you want from life. Once you have that defined we then systematically assess where you are in and out of balance in getting to that place, and give you tools to remove blocks in your way.
We do this using great questions, community, photography and writing as tools to get there.
Now here is where it gets real cool
Normally just one day of work with me in a group setting costs $150.00. But Create Happy is such a cool idea that funders have gotten behind it and the pilot version of it for adults is being offered free of charge to 20 people. But here is the catch. You have to commit to attending all four days. No coming just for the cellphone photography course and then skiping out on the real soul work. That is just toggling back to being a consumer not a life creator. Nope you must commit to setting aside 4 days for yourself and your life's journey.
Content Covered
| Week | Photographic Content Covered | HeArtivist Content Covered |
| 1 | Camera Techniques | Building Community Safety |
| 2 | Composition | Inspiration, Open-Mindedness |
| 3 | Lighting | Critical voice vs. Critical thinking |
| 4 | Communication | Compassionate Communication skills |
| 5 | Posing + Styling | Building Your Creative Community |
| 6 | Post Production | Grit, Personal Power, Creative Resilience |
| 7 | Camera Techniques + Post | The Emotional Rollercoaster of Creation |
| 8 | Presentation | Shipping your work |
| 9 | Composition + Communication | Leaving the world better than you found it |
| 10 | Portfolio Review | Celebrating Progress |
About your mentor
Hi.
I'm Mandi Lynn.
I'm
- a master photographer
- exhibiting artist
- have won New Zealand's Creative Photographer of the Year
- a film director / producer
- and I run a charitable trust that uses photography to teach wellbeing skills to youth.
But really I am a passionate philosopher. I love to think about living and what can be done to make it richer and deeper and happier.
I love mentoring and helping people to achieve their creative vision.
I want nothing more than for your fullest creative expression to be made available to the world.
This is my dog Gritty. For half of the year we travel in a vintage caravan and weave together creative communities around NZ. For the other half of the year we hunker down in Upper Hutt at our studio and create things with my work and life partner Craig.
Come join the adventure with us and lets see what you can create.
What Equipment do I need?
A cellphone with a camera. The fancier the better but any phone with a camera will do.
How is the course delivered?
In a 4 day block from 10-3 each day starting on the 2nd -5th of August at King Street Studios in Masterton.
16 Queen Street, Masterton 5810
Benefits of Joining
- Build Creative Community
- You have a photographic mentor to help you figure out what is working and what isn't with your images.
- You will be taken step by step through a holistic process to identify your creative blocks.
- You will end the course with much stronger photography skills and greater self-knowledge.