"For my entire photographic career I have looked longingly at photos with forests in them and felt upset at the fact that where I live, you don’t get forests. This is exactly the kind of thinking I can’t stand, because in every aspect of life I believe that if you are unhappy with something, you change it. The forest that I love is only a 6 hour drive away, certainly doable if I really put my mind to it. Not only that, sitting around feeling bad about not having a great forest to shoot in does nothing to move me forward. Instead, it sets me back, makes me think that I am trapped when in fact I am the opposite - completely free in everything that I do. If I don’t have a forest, I should make my own, and so I have. I don’t feel limitations now, as of creating this picture. I feel like not even the sky is the limit. If I want a forest, I will create my own. If there is anything I want, I can create it with imagination."

-- Brooke Shaden