Subtle Changes

A couple of weeks ago, I had a stroke of luck that had me smiling for days.

I had had a day off from work, and there as a workshop playing on Creative Live from one of my favourite photographers, Brooke Shaden. For those of you reading who may not know, Creative Live is a wonderful company that provides workshops from the best in artistic industries and streams them live for free. They also have the workshops available for purchase at a later date. The work that they do and the dedication that they have is absolutely outstanding and they’ve provided the world with an opportunity that most people would not get the chance to have had otherwise. If you’re not familiar, make sure to go check them out.

Anyway, I had had an awful headache that day and was sleeping off and on while that workshop was happening (good thing I purchased it!), but somehow through that I had managed to make out that Brooke was going to be doing a live “critique” (live help would be more accurate) and that people at home watching the workshop could send in their images to be considered. I immediately knew I was going to send The Magician. It’s my personal favourite to date, but I knew it had one very big problem – the light from the fiery globe didn’t transfer anywhere else.

I never, ever expected I would be one of the lucky two to make it.

The next morning, while taking the bus to work, I received an email that my image was being considered and they needed me to reply with consent to use that image on the air. I was out of my mind excited!  I tried to keep it in check though – I knew it wasn’t a guarantee, and the lady who emailed me said that I would get a follow up email to let me know if I was chosen.

Time had passed and I knew the workshop was over by the time I was done work. I hadn’t gotten any email, so I was certain that I wasn’t chosen for it. I knew it had been a long shot, so I wasn’t really let down. But regardless, as soon as I came home I pulled up the instant replay of the workshop.

I can’t explain to you how excited I was when it came to the live critique and she pulled my image up. And I received some great advice! It turned out to be a pretty simple fix, and I’m happy to show the before and after now.

A subtle change can make one hell of a difference, and it’s so important to get little details like this right. This lighting problem was bothering me for so long, and I had tried many different ways to get it right. Turns out, I was missing something very simple, and now I’m a better photographer for this learning experience. I’m super thankful to Brooke for taking the time to go over this.

If you’re interested in Brooke’s work, you can head on over to her Facebook Page and if you’re interested in learning more about photography, finding inspiration, and motivation, be sure to check out her blog, Promoting Passion.

On another note, I’ll be heading to Edmonton for Christmas and doing a handful of photoshoots while I’m out there! I’m very excited to get to work with some of the incredible talent there! It should be a fun send off to 2014 and a great way to start the New Year.

And if this is the last post I make before the end of the year, have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!