Shawna Donahue

A scarlet bush, watching, waiting, pretending to be just another part of the landscape. Photographed by Shawna Donahue, who swears it blinked before she pressed the shutter.

IG:@shawnadonahue

#Halloween #Auntumncolor #decorations #eyes

A trio of demon babies lurking in the shadows, one with eyes that follow you home and a taste for barbed wire. Captured by Shawna Donahue, who clearly wandered a little too close to the dark side of Columbia Village this Halloween. 🎃

Photo by @shawnadonahue

#Halloween #BoisePhotoGrid #Spooky

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.

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

Shawna Donahue contributes to the Halloween spirit today, with her photograph from grid E3.

@shawnadonahue
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CWI Students and Faculty Shine at Illuminated 2025 | CWI CWI faculty and students brought creativity and innovation to the spotlight during Illuminate 2025 at Surel’s Place in Garden City, showcasing sculpture, projection art, and photography.

Our CWI photography students and faculty lit up the night at Illuminated 2025! They braved the wildest mix of lighting, projection smoke, neon color shifts, ambient chaos, and still made magic.

🔗 cwi.edu/news/news-room/cwi-students-and-faculty-shine-illuminated-2025

A quiet dialogue between stone and sky, sinuous marble forms against glowing the pink and yellow clouds of sunset.Photographed by Shawna Donahue in grid E3.

shawna-donahue.com
@shawnadonahue

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.

Shawna Donahue captures a moment of quiet strength at sunset. A marble dragon, guarding the front lot of World of Fine Arts on Overland Road, radiates power and calm.

shawna-donahue.com
@shawnadonahue.bsky.social

Shawna captured this fleeting moment at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve. She notes that these shots are more challenging than they appear—between the whisper of the breeze and the razor-thin depth of field, far more frames fell into softness than clarity. This frame, however, caught the magic just right

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.

A bough of fuchsia blossoms sways at Hyatt Hidden Lakes, rendered dreamlike through Shawna Donahue’s Petzval lens—where stillness meets motion.

Web: shawna-donahue.com
IG: @shawnadonahue
BlueSky: @shawna-donahue.com

💥✨ 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.

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.

The classic swoops and dives of a roller coaster, reimagined in light and motion. This piece found its forever home with the City of Boise as part of the Boise Visual Chronicle. Grateful doesn’t even begin to cover it. 💕

The heart of the Footloose ride stands steady, a glowing tower of steel—while the arms spin wildly, painting the night sky in bright, dizzying swirls.

This one sings. 🎶 The streaks of light twist and loop like a treble clef, sweeping across the frame as if the carnival itself were composing a song—A little symphony, written in light.

This diptych, a double-take for the eyes, is called Screamin' Swing. I love how wild and abstract it feels. Without the title, you might never guess the kind of carnival ride it is (but trust me, the riders were definitely screamin’). 😉

Thanks, James!!! It's one of my favorites from this series!

This one’s all about the zigzags—the ride zigzags, my camera zigzags, and the composition zigzags right back at you.

✨ Vortex Vertigo, part of my Carnival Électrique series. This one twirled its way into the City of Boise’s Visual Chronicle Collection—and at one point, it even landed in the Boise airport. Imagine my surprise stepping off a flight and finding my own artwork waiting to welcome me home!

✨ Ferris wheels are meant to be grand, impossible to miss—yet in this triptych from Carnival Électrique, the wheel hides itself, a small gem tucked inside each frame. Light unravels, curves scatter, and the familiar dissolves into rhythm and glow.

From the Carnival Électrique series—light unspooled into motion, the carnival ride dissolves into pure rhythm and color—a dream traced in streaks of electricity.

🎡 The Idaho State Fair has always been special—I grew up helping my mom at her booth & sharing Pronto Pups + Elephant Ears with my dad. Fifteen years ago, I returned with my first digital camera, experimenting wildly.

One grid at a time: Boise photography project captures the city in a new way A new project has been capturing the city of Boise one photo at a time, creating a growing visual map of the place we call home.

I had the pleasure of joining photographer John Francis on Boise State Public Radio’s Idaho Matters to talk about the Boise PhotoGrid project and the stories behind our images! 🎙📷

Listen here: www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/idaho-m...

Shawna Donahue finds small moments of beauty capturing the minute details of this sunflower. Photo made in Grid E5

Web: shawna-donahue.com
IG: @shawnadonahue
BlueSky: @shawna-donahue.com

#BoisePhotoGrid #B3 #SpottedInBoise

I photographed these two affectionate, camera-curious pigs during a weekend at the family ranch in Mackay for Chase the Light, a fundraiser for Photographic Center Northwest. Since everyone had different names for them, I called them Stieglitz and O’Keeffe. They seemed to approve.

A softly lit fire hydrant nestled in a patch of golden cheatgrass. Shawna Donahue’s photo captures a quietly ironic scene—an invasive, highly flammable plant cozying right up to the neighborhood’s first line of defense.

Web: shawna-donahue.com
IG: @shawnadonahue
BlueSky: @shawna-donahue.com

Sometimes the light tells the story. On the grounds of the Cataldo Mission, I found no grand view—just humble leaves and shadows quietly echoing one another. Leaf upon leaf, shape upon shape, the sunlight cast its own hushed rhythm.

At the Cataldo Mission, I was drawn to this statue of the Virgin Mary—not by her gaze, but by her outstretched hand. Sometimes what we reach for says more than what we see.