See How This Mom Brought Her Daughter’s Imaginary Friends to Life

One mother from Texas is making her daughter’s imaginary friends come alive.

Meet photographer Anna Angenend. During the first few years of her daughter Mia’s life, Angenend spent time photographing the stressful, but funny moments of having a newborn. As her daughter got older, Angenend started to expand her photographs, focusing on her daughter’s imagination.

“One morning several months ago, Mia said to me, ‘My yellow monster is kind of scary,'” Angenend told Today. “Later in the day, she told me, ‘He’s not so scary, he just needs a friend.’ This was the first time she had talked about an imaginary friend…at three years old, her imagination and creative play has really soared and I wanted a new photo series to capture this part of her childhood.”

So, with the help of illustrator Amy Snyder, Angenend brought her daughter’s imagination to life. Angenend took the photos and captured the kids playing with them in a bunch of different settings. After, she handed them over to Snyder to work her magic on Photoshop.

“I shoot the images first,” said Angenend. “The background and furniture is all real…I pick the best shot and e-mail the file to Amy for her to sketch the monster and their accessories. Then, Amy scans her illustrations and e-mails them to me so I can sprinkle some Photoshop fairy dust on them. I’m not sure how else to explain it without getting too technical.”

Snyder, who is a mother of four, and Angenend plan to continue the photo series, possibly even putting the pictures into a children’s book.

“It is fun to show the children the finished photo and watch their reaction,” said Angenend. “Of course, we’ll never know exactly what the monsters look like in their imaginations. Mia was confused at first when I showed her the yellow monster. She looked at the image for a second with a ‘How did he get there?’ expression, then shouted, ‘Yeah, that’s my Zasby!'”