I had the distinct privilege of attending, participating, and presenting at a conference called Mindcamp Chile.  This is the first year that Chile is hosting this conference and it was built upon the traditions and approach of Mindcamp Canada, which is held at a YMCA camp outside of Orillia, Canada.

At this creativity conference, I was able to present my approach to photography.  This is built upon the work that Andre Gallant has shared at his photoworkshops and his various books, including the book entitled, "Dreamscapes". (See more about Andre's approach and his various books at www.andregallant.com).

The theme at Mindcamp Canada a couple of years ago was Dreaming.  I had been to the conference before at this setting and was well aware of all of the photographic possibilities there.  And I believe that I was the first person to submit a proposal, which I called Dreamscapes.  It was immediately accepted for the conference and I got to work further exploring the approach pioneered by Andre.  And then I started to embellish it even further for the conference by using a variety of photo apps and my iPad.

First, some example of Dreamscapes that are based upon Andre's technique (that he describes step by step in his three books, Dreamscapes, Innovation, and Inspiration.

The first image is at our city's gardens.  It a composite of the original image blended with a blurred image.  This is also called the Orton effect.  In my opinion it creates a very dreamy feeling of this garden scene with ballerina statue and the red roses.  The pose of the ballerina, in particular, fits in with this mood.

The next image also used the approach of blending together two images, one original and the other blurred.  As you can see in this image that it creates a very dreamy effect and brightens the colors.

And the last image is an example of what Andre calls a Moonlight Dreamscape, where he uses a solarized B&W image and blends it with the blurred layer of the original colored image.  It gives a look that suggests that the photo was taken on a moonlight night.

At Mindcamp Canada when I first presented Dreamscapes, I initially built upon the approach that Andre outlined.  Then I decided to play around with photo apps on my iPad using the same general approach.  Here are a few examples of that.

This is more similar to Andre's approach, but all done using iPad apps.  This particular image was done using the app, Filterstorm, where I was able to create two layers similar to what I can do in Photoshop.  One layer was blurred and the second layer was brightened; blending was done using "multiply".  There was an additional layer that was solarized and then blended at a lower opacity

The next image was put together using FX studio HD, using a variety of filters and then some selectively coloring.  It just so happened that two people were looking at the window at the same time and both wearing a bit of red.

The final image of this series using a number of approaches inspired by Andre.  There is a sepia layer that is a mirror montage with the original colored image on top.  The bottom layer was blurred slightly.

Most recently, as I prepared for Mindcamp Chile 2017 I noticed that one of the photo apps that I've been using has dramatically changed it's filters and this happened right before the conference.  I played around with the filters and found a very easy way to create Dreamscapes that anyone with a phone or a tablet can do.  The most amazing thing is that I can easily explain how to use the app and the participants can easily use the tools to create wonderful, beautiful Dreamscapes.  Here are some examples that I created.

PicsArt has the ability to add sky features like lightning.  I took this photo while waiting for our plane to be de-iced and then enhanced it within PicsArt and then added the lightning.

Another feature in PicsArt is using the Magic Filter.  Here is one example of using a warm colored filter to create a totally different nostalgic look.

Plus I can easily shift colors using the Colorizing menu within PicsArt.  Plus do some selective coloring and opacity changes to create the "dream" that I was thinking of creating when I saw that chat.

And the ability to use a Magic Effect and then to distort some of the results.  First the image altered so there is a Mirror Effect.

Then, the image is further enhanced by using a Magic Filter and Distort.

So, you can see that there are a variety of ways to create Dreamscapes, using the technique championed by Andre Gallant and explained in his books and experienced during his workshops.  And, now you can go even further by using various apps on your iPad.  All creating dream-like images.