Over the last couple of days, a photo I posted has gone viral. A friend posted a photo of myself ‘levitating’ as I poured my Honey-Nut Cheerios into a bowl on Reddit. To me, that’s absolutely nuts. I wasn’t a member of Reddit prior to this, so I didn’t even know what was happening.

I was watching the premiere of Mad Men on Sunday night when I checked my Facebook, and I had a few messages from friends saying that I had made the front page of Reddit. I was stoked. Confused, but stoked. The article had been up for four hours, and had already received over 40,000 views and made #4 on the front page. People were debating on how the photo was created, where the Photoshop edits took place – yes, Photoshop DID take place. Thank you to all the people who actually thought I might be able to fly, that’s really cool your mind thought that could be an option. I dig it. I suppose I also owe thanks to all the people who thought I was crazy enough to have jumped; either off the counter or a chair, risking life and limb, to get that “perfect shot”. Thanks for thinking so highly of me! Here is a link to the Reddit article.

CBC North, in my hometown of Yellowknife, contacted me this morning to answer some questions as to how the photos were created. It aired this evening on CBC Northbeat. Here is the link! Skip ahead to 29:30 to see my segment!

At the time of publishing this article, the image has been viewed 949,604 times. I figure it’ll hit one million at some point, but until then, it’s been a great ride for the last 48 hours. Thanks again to all my friends and family for all the help and support through the years. Most importantly, thank you to all the people who I don’t know and probably will never meet, that have helped get this photo the ‘fame’ it has received thus far. Thank you so much!

Aaron Von Hagen

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On Saturday, I was sitting on my couch, enjoying my coffee and looking through some photos on Instagram. I saw a photo of a girl who appeared to be floating in mid-air. I was intrigued as to how this photo was taken. I started doing some research on “levitation photography” and found some amazing examples of what is possible. I decided that this was something I’d like to try!

This photo was my first attempt. I like the idea behind the photo, but I am not 100% happy with the results. The foot on the right is noticeably flat, which takes away from the appearance of floating on air. However, for my first attempt I think it is pretty cool!

When I got home from a movie last night, I continued some experimentation with levitation photography. My curiosity had been piqued. I couldn’t resist trying to create situations in which one might have the need to float. The biggest problem I encountered was finding objects stable enough to support my weight, yet small enough that they wouldn’t be too cumbersome to deal with in the edit stage. I wasn’t really happy with any of the results I captured last night except for this one of me “floating” as I watch TV.

When I woke up this morning, I went to work on a photo I had thought of the night before. I wanted to wait until morning to make use of the natural light, as well as it was a more appropriate time for a big bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios. Not that there’s ever an inappropriate time for Cheerios…

I tried a few more scenarios as the day progressed, most of which didn’t work out quite the way I wanted them to. The natural light that enters my bedroom is normally very soft, but today this effect was further added to due to the overcast skies. I wanted to take advantage of this as I thought it would contribute to the “floaty” feeling of these photos, and I believe I was right! I don’t know why I added the binoculars to the mix, but, well, there you have it!

I am really looking forward to experimenting more with this style of photography. It is a lot of fun! I am looking forward to taking levitation photography outdoors, where the possibilities of places to fly are endless!

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My job in the film industry has allowed me access to some really sweet locations that a lot of “regular” people wouldn’t get a chance to see, such as the one in this photo.

I was a production assistant on 2012 back in 2008, and we were shooting a scene in “Tibet” which was actually just the mountains in Whistler. We were waiting for “magic hour” for a sunset shot. The mountain had closed and our crew had special access to be allowed to stay. My job was simple: watch the gear.

So watch I did! I was treated to one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot! This shot was taken with a Canon Powershot, long before I had developed – pardon the pun – my photography skills to where they are at today.

The chairlift looked awesome as it wasn’t moving and it appeared to just be floating in mid-air!

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I was visiting some friends on Friday night and brought my camera with me. I set it up on a tripod and waited for it to get dark enough for some long-exposure photography.

I was lucky enough to catch both an inbound and outbound skytrain as well as some car traffic.

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I cranked the ISO of my camera to 25600 to test some exposure/composition settings and got this pretty cool photo! There is a lot of noise in it due to the high ISO, but look how many stars!

I couldn’t actually see this many stars when I was out there, so this photo was a bit of a surprise for me when I was importing the photos this morning. I just can’t believe how many stars are actually in the sky that we don’t even know are there!

This photo was taken with a 30-second exposure, at f/8, focal length of 24mm and ISO 25600.

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I had a six-day “weekend” coming up.  My co-worker and I, Matt, who is from Toronto, wanted to get out of the city.  Matt had never been to Vancouver Island, and I had never been to Tofino, so we decided to make the road trip.  We left on a gray Thursday morning from Horseshoe Bay.

We reached Nanaimo without incident, and after gassing up and grabbing a coffee, we hit the road again. When we left Nanaimo, the rain started. Having lived in Vancouver for the last nine years, you’d think I’d be used to the rain by now. This rain, however, was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was coming down fast and heavy, and it didn’t stop for the entire 3-4 hour drive to Tofino. All along the side of the road, there were waterfalls caused by all the excess water. It was pretty intense!

When we arrived in Tofino, it was more of the same. The rain just didn’t let up. We took a walk of the town, full rain gear head-to-toe. There wasn’t much happening, so we headed back to our hotel for some food. As we sat down, the rain actually let up a little, to the point where it was just a fine mist. I wanted to get some photos while this break in the weather was happening, so I grabbed my camera and headed down to the dock near the bar, Jacks.

Since there wasn’t much happening in Tofino, we decided to head to Victoria the next day. On the way out, we stopped by a few of the beaches, as well as the Rainforest Trail and Cathedral Grove. In Rainforest Trail, we were surrounded by HUGE red cedar trees, and at the Cathedral Grove, the Douglas Firs were some of the biggest that I have ever seen. It was truly amazing.

We spent a couple of nights in Victoria, visiting with family and friends and had a great time. We left on Sunday, and it was a gorgeous day. The first day it actually hadn’t rained once! Although the wind was a little cold on the ferry, it was a beautiful ride home.

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