Over the past week, I’ve been lamenting my lack of tangible photo prints — the thousands of images I’ve snapped over the last few years sit on various hard drives, collecting dust. I want more images I can hold and proudly display; do you feel the same?

Well, thanks to a spur of the moment outing, I have another print in my collection…but it’s completely different than anything else I’ve seen.

Over the weekend, I got a text from my aunt Shannon, asking if I wanted to join her to have an aura photo taken. Wait…I’d heard of that! A few months earlier, Gala showed me the wildly popular Radiant Human Instagram account and Christina happens to be located in Portland (though you should check out her dates — she often hits the road, visiting California and New York).

You may be wondering what an aura photo is and Christina does a great job of explaining how it works:

We all have energy running through our bodies. This energy radiates beyond our skin creating an atmosphere or “aura,” otherwise called an electromagnetic field. The aura camera uses hand sensors to analyze this energy’s vibrational frequency. Through this camera, we are able to match your vibrational frequency to a corresponding color’s vibrational frequency, making your energy visible and easy to see in the form of an instant Polaroid picture.

Getting an aura photo on a Sunday afternoon seemed to be on everyone elses’ agendas, too. We showed up early, snagging spots towards the front of the line but by the time the doors opened 10 minutes later, a few dozen people from all walks of life were eagerly waiting.

Shannon and I were added to a list and a few minutes later, I was led into a white wigwam-like structure that was completely black on the inside. I took my seat on a stool and then Christina set two blue boxes on my lap. I lined my fingers up with the sensors which were in the formation of hands and pushed my palms down onto another large sensor.

Staring directly into a bright light and trying not to blink for 10 whole seconds took some serious concentration. And then, just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. I paid up ($25.00 for a single person or special group rates for multiple people in the same image) and was then handed my photo by Christina who explained what my aura meant. I was so surprised by how different my photo was from Shannon’s — her green and blue aura contrasted sharply with my red and purple.

Christina explained that my aura represented an extreme sense of creativity and also handed me a cheat sheet with the color definitions to keep.

The cool thing about auras is that yours can change dramatically over the course of a lifetime — and for that matter, even a few months! There’s really no way of knowing what’s going to show up until you see it and that’s part of the fun.

My take on aura photography is that no matter what you think about auras, the outcome is always beautiful and personal. This would be a great experience to share with your best friend or someone else you love.

“The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part of them as their flesh.” —Lucien Freud