About This Site

Welcome to this site, the online home to world renown photographer, Elan Sun Star.  Star’s photos have graced publications across multiple industries, from the travel industry to the world of sports, from Men’s Fitness to film.  His photos have appeared in magazines such as Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, and Surf, and on the covers of books like Dr. Bernard Jensen’s Juicing Therapy and Tonita d’Raye’s What’s the BIG Deal About Water?.

To get an idea of the magnitude and breadth of his incredible career in photography, take a look at the below youtube videos of Sun during photo shoots with famous models Theresa Sam Nichols, and Ted Viola and listen to him describe how photography became one of his many passions.

This site hosts only a fraction of the many radiant images that Star has taken
throughout his extensive photography career. More will be on the way as this
site is further enhanced. You can see some of his incredible collection at
Picturesque and here.

During his career, Sun was blessed to work with many notables in the natural
health industry.  Add the photography of this “Smile Master” to his deep
interest in health and you get his latest work, the book Smile! The Secret
Science of Smiling just published by Roaring Lion Publishing.   

His four years of research for the book led him through scientific,
psychological, and spiritual realms to synthesize an engaging portrait of the
simple, yet powerful, impact of the human smile.

A smile, says this world-famous photographer, carries the ability to transform
one’s own health, ignite a smile in others, and ultimately transform the world
for good. With anecdotes, science and a sprinkling of history, Smile! Unfolds
the story of decades of research of the potential effect of this one simple
facial gesture.

Many of the people interviewed for this book know intimately the power and
language of the smile. Their findings indicate that, with this one universally
understood gesture, we can dramatically affect our own lives and the world
around us.

"Perhaps this simple act has a more profound impact than anything else we
could possibly do to save the world," says Star.

Smile! is not limited to the speculative. The research and voices in the book
come from philosophers, military commanders, research scientists and
psychologists, medical authorities, experts in international diplomacy,
dentists, and social scientists. All of these people are experts in their own right, each with a different story to tell, each painting a small part of this broad portrait that provides ample evidence that the smile can be your best friend, even, and most especially, in hard times.

Everyone has seen how an infant responds to a smile. The response is
instinctive. Dr. David Chamberlain studied babies beginning at conception,
and studied brain activity in infants. Those early smiles are not all “gas,” as
popularly reported. Smile centers in the brain are active from a very early
prenatal stage of development. The smile is an important part of learning
how to cope with the world, even before we have seen our first glimpse of
daylight.

Most people are familiar with the work of Dr. Norman Cousins, who cured his
own cancer by watching funny movies and having a good laugh. The body has
its own biochemical responses to laughter that make it good medicine. But
further, even a fake smile can lead to real happiness. Studies of brain waves
have revealed that faking a real smile was sufficient to activate the pleasure
centers in the brain.

In science, the more simple a theory, the more elegant and potentially
universal a solution it represents. With the same skills he impresses onto
film, the author lists examples of the smile’s ability to transform our daily
lives at various levels—biochemical, psychological, social (relationships), and
even political, as demonstrated by an American military commander chosen
to meet face to face with a stoic North Korean dictator in arms control talks.

Another true life story comes from Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hughes,
who ordered his troops in Iraq to put down their weapons and use a smile to
defuse a potentially dangerous encounter with an angry throng of Iraqis.

As a photographer of thousands of stunningly beautiful magazine covers, Star
possesses a keen sense of awareness, captured in his imagery, combining
color, a sense of movement and positive emotions.

Having studied the field of mind/body/spirit as well as complementary
medicine for 40 years while traveling around the globe to many of the top
health clinics during photo shoots, Star has accrued a wealth of health-related
knowledge. His philosophy about the human smile includes the role smiling
can play in the creation of world peace, as well as its role in creating inner
harmony, optimum health, and peak psychological states.

So, start smiling, even if you have to start by practicing your smile in a mirror.
The smile will soon become habitual, and will begin attracting other smiles to
you.

"Go forth and smile. Heal yourself, and believe that you can help bring a sense of wellness and satisfaction to the world."