iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 31/08/2026

A plastic stegosaurus, made from petrochemicals, standing in for our tangled ideas about dinosaurs, fossil fuels, combustion, and extinction. A little absurd, a little ominous, and mostly an invitation to look twice. #Photography #Petrochemicals #FossilFuels #ClimateArt #Stegosaurus #Dinosaur

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 25/08/2026

Once, this little blue elephant belonged to a little one. Now it rests in the grass, bright as memory. Childhood moves on. Plastic doesn’t. #Photography #Plastic #FoundObject #Childhood #BlueElephant #Nostalgia #Memory #ToyPhotograph #VisualPoetry #PlasticWaste #EnduringObjects #EnvironmentalArt

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 21/08/2026

The cargo fuels the vehicle carrying the cargo. A plastic petroleum product shaped like a petroleum-powered vehicle designed to transport petroleum. A tiny petrochemical nesting doll. #Photography #FilmPhotography #ToyPhotography #StillLife #Plastic #Petroleum #VisualCulture #ConceptualPhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 17/08/2026

I made this image 25 years ago while thinking about fossil fuels, climate change, and the curious durability of plastic. Today, this photograph feels neither like a victory lap nor a funeral procession. We have evolved. Not enough, not everywhere, but enough to know change is possible #ClimateChange

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 14/08/2026

An abandoned teething toy, nearly indestructible plastic made suddenly vulnerable by being left behind. That bright blue still carries a surprising tenderness, a small object holding the shape of absence. #Photography #FilmPhotography #FoundObjects #StillLifePhotography #OrdinaryBeauty #SmallThings

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 10/08/2026

Thirty-six exposures will make a photographer think very carefully. Transparency film will make them think twice. Transparency film taught me to make every frame count. I understand apps that limit exposures. The waiting? No thanks. #FilmPhotography #Photography #TransparencyFilm #Red #Triptych

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 07/08/2026

Plastic bags, but make them luminous. My Jolie Laide assignment asks students to stop hunting for the “perfect” subject and find beauty in the awkward, ordinary, or ugly. Seeing is the assignment. #Photography #PhotoEducation #FilmPhotography #JolieLaide #UnconventionalBeauty #PlasticBags

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 30/07/2026

I went to photograph apple trees in winter. This one had accessorized for the wind. #FilmPhotography #Photography #Hatta-Kulkyne #EKC

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 27/07/2026

Dropped off before dawn near Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, I saw nothing until sunrise revealed apple trees full of plastic bags. They failed to deter the magpies, but made beautiful, ghostly fruit. #FilmPhotography #Photography #Hatta-Kulkyne #EKC

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 24/07/2026

My flip-flop has receipts. Take the walk, even if it is only around the block. Wandering counts, and stopping to photograph your shoes counts twice. #Photography #Walking #FlipFlop #PhotoWalk #EverydayPhotography #EKC

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 22/07/2026

From my grad school archive: raspberries, crinkled plastic, and a blue bottle turned strangely floral. I liked using plastic itself to suggest sharing, reducing, and reusing. Environmental messaging, but make it shiny. #Photography #Sustainability #RMIT

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 20/07/2026

A reused an ordinary grocery sack, tied it into a bow becomes something between a flower and a storm cloud. Plastic is not usually invited to be poetic, but occasionally, it sneaks in any way. #Photography #PhotographicArt #EKC #Plastic #Reuse #CloseUpPhotography #BlueBag #BlueBow #PoeticPlastic

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 16/07/2026

This photograph feels like my summer so far: beautiful, slightly blurred, and moving too fast to hold onto 😉 #BoisePhotography #Photography #IdahoPhotography #LandscapePhotography #ECK #FineArtPhotography #BoiseFoothills

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 10/07/2026

Sagebrush at sunset, photographed across the valley from where the Claremont Fire now burns. What once felt like evening color now feels like a fragile landscape holding its breath. #BoiseFoothills #SunsetPhotography #Photography #LandscapePhotography #DesertLight #NaturePhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 03/07/2026

Wallace made I-90 go around history instead of through it. I love the repeated signs, top and bottom, tiny arrows inside a huge concrete argument. #WallaceIdaho #BlackAndWhitePhotography #RoadsideHistory #Interstate90 #I90 #HistoricPreservation #SilverValley #NorthIdaho #BlackAndWhitePhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 01/07/2026

Wallace, Idaho knows how to accessorize. A giant rusted top hat, vintage lettering, and enough Jules Verne energy to suggest the airship is double-parked. #WallaceIdaho #Steampunk #Photography #SignPhotography #RustAndCharm #QuirkySigns #SmallTownDetails #ArchitecturalDetails #SteampunkStyle

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 29/06/2026

In Wallace, clouds slipped inside the First National Bank, a small rebellion of sky against stone. Imagination has always been bad at staying within approved architectural limits. #Photography #WallaceIdaho #TravelPhotography #HistoricArchitecture #IdahoPhotography #CloudReflections

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 27/06/2026

At Bank and Sixth in Wallace, Idaho, this cat is clearly in charge. The town, the patio, the street, possibly the forested hills, all under quiet feline management. #Photography #Cats #WallaceIdaho #CatsofBluesky #StreetPhotography #SmallTownPhotograph #FelineOverlord #IdahoPhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 25/06/2026

Some people spend years trying to get to Harvard or Princeton. I took a back road in Idaho and arrived academically adjacent in under twenty minutes. #Idaho #RoadsideAmerica #Photography #Backroads #RuralIdaho #FoundHumor #AcademicLife #AcademicHumor #HigherEd #IvyLeagueAdjacent

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 23/06/2026

Wallace, Idaho: silver boom town, Big Burn survival story, brick-built historic district, and now a cyclist haven with neon motel signs and bike wash stations. Reinvention looks good in turquoise. #Idaho #Photography #TravelPhotography #StardustMotel #WallaceIdaho #MidCenturyModern

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 18/06/2026

Boise water park playground through a fisheye lens: colorful poles, big sky, and strong “tiny planet with excellent recess policy” energy. #BoisePhotography #Photography #Playground #FisheyePhotography #UrbanPlay #BoiseParks

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 15/06/2026

From my film archive: Mount Olympus and Lake St. Clair, or Leewulenna, Sleeping Waters, at the end of Tasmania’s Overland Track. The lake held the mountain like a memory. #FilmPhotography #Tasmania #LandscapePhotography #MountainMonday #ECK

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 12/06/2026

Fungi are the forest’s translators. They take what has fallen, softened, broken, and return it to the living world again. Not an ending, exactly, but a change of form, a slow conversation between tree, soil, moisture, and time. #Photography #Fungi #NaturePhotography #FilmPhotography #Tasmania

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 09/06/2026

The pandani did not rush its portrait session. Two weeks on the Overland Track trying to photograph the pandani, Tasmania’s wonderfully dramatic giant grass tree. Near the end, this one finally stepped into the light. Very botanical diva. #Photography #Tasmania #NaturePhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 07/06/2026

A rare sighting: me on the other side of the camera. This was taken on the #OverlandTrack, in an astonishing World Heritage site where every direction seemed to offer another reason to stop, look, and make a picture. #FilmPhotography #Australia #Tasmania

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 04/06/2026

Rocks are very good at reminding us we are just passing through. I am awed and humbled by formations like this. I find myself thinking about all the life that has looked upon these same stones before me, and all that will pause here long after I am gone. #FilmPhotography #LandscapePhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 01/06/2026

A gaggle of geese strolls through the grass in Boise's Whitewater Park, but the real story is the tiny gosling in the middle who seems to be calling the shots. Small, fluffy, and already prepared for upper management. #WildlifePhotography #BirdPhotography #NaturePhotography #Goslings #CanadaGeese

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 30/05/2026

Sunrise Rock, doing its best “main character at the edge of the sea.” I love it when the light and ocean play nice with my camera. #Photography #Seascape #FilmPhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 28/05/2026

Rock rising in folds and ridges, while waves line themselves up behind. Footprints in the sand, tiny human punctuation marks in front of an ancient formation. A little reminder that someone wandered through, admired the drama, and probably got sand in between their toes. #Australia #FilmPhotography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 26/05/2026

Victoria, Australia. Sandstone doing its best impression of a tiny seaside city, all towers, windows, and dramatic little rooms. Snail-approved real estate. #Photography #Australia #LandscapePhotography #Croajingalong

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 24/05/2026

I loved the strange delicacy of these lines and textures, like a short story written in sand, salt, and stubborn little mineral hieroglyphs. The surface feels both ancient and busy, as if the ocean has been doodling in the margins for a few million years. Croajingalong National Park

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 19/05/2026

From the archive, 2003: Hatta Kulkyne National Park, Victoria, Australia. After a long hike and uncooperative light, this extra-tall buloke scrub finally stepped into the glow. #FilmPhotography #Photography

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 15/05/2026

From the archive: a misty morning on the Murray River, Victoria, 2003, shot on transparency film. Film slowed me down, each frame considered. I still love that. But the digital darkroom gives me precision I can’t leave behind.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 13/05/2026

Here, Fairview, Chinden, and the Connector all seem to be negotiating custody of the road. A very Boise moment: part infrastructure, part portal, part “wait, which lane am I supposed to be in?”

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 09/05/2026

Boise, doing its best impression of a concrete kaleidoscope. It is not exactly a scenic overlook, unless your idea of scenic includes traffic geometry, underpass shadows, and the occasional existential moment beneath a highway. Which, apparently, mine does.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 05/05/2026

Symmetry at the Linh Thuu Buddhist temple, every line seems to guide the eye inward, reminding me that beauty can be both intricate and calm.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 02/05/2026

Boise never ceases to amaze me with its hidden beauty. Tucked behind a Sonic drive-in on Overland Road, Linh Thuu Buddhist Temple feels like a quiet pocket of calm hiding in plain sight, morning light, vivid color, and a sense of stillness I didn’t expect to find so close to the everyday rush.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 16/04/2026

This is the Laughing Buddha, actually a 10th-century Chinese monk, not Gautama Buddha, and a symbol of joy, abundance, and contentment. That generous belly is said to represent broad-mindedness and good fortune, which feels like a pretty solid philosophy.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 31/03/2026

Sometimes the best finds aren’t loud or dramatic. They just sit there, catching light, waiting patiently for someone to notice.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 20/03/2026

Driven past this sign for years, never stopped. Tonight I did. The lot was humming, stories in every bumper sticker. PhotoGrid makes me slow down and see Boise’s overlooked, bawdy, badass edges.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 08/11/2025

In the heart of this cottonwood, a perfect circle marks the home of a woodpecker, an artist in residence who carves with rhythm instead of reason.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 02/11/2025

Out shooting in Boise PhotoGrid F6 last night, this five-foot arachnid loomed over trick-or-treaters like a benevolent monster from a pumpkin-tinted dream. 🕷🎃 @boise-photogrid.bsky.social

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 14/10/2025

About a year ago today, caught in one of my favorite moments of the semester: our Freak Alley field trip. I love watching students explore light, texture, and perspective in that vibrant space.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 04/09/2025

On one side, the tower rises tall and steady—on the other, light streaks swoop in a wild arc, filling the frame with motion. I’ve loved sharing these pieces, where stillness and chaos dance together in the same breath.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 03/09/2025

💥✨ Kamikaze ✨💥 From my Carnival Électrique series—this one’s a tumble of streaking carnival lights, all plunging downward in a rush. It’s abstract, but you can almost feel the free fall.

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Shawna Donahue @shawna-donahue.com · 31/08/2025

Big loops of carnival light take center stage in this photo—but if you look closely, you’ll spot a little surprise tucked in the corner: a sign for a Pita Wrap stand. Because nothing says “state fair” quite like neon, motion, and snacks hiding in plain sight.

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