My initial edit of Integrity.

So sometimes I am working on a photo and I end up working on it for so long that my impatience takes over. I take it to a point where I think the photo is good enough (never good words for an artist to say), then save it, publish it on various social media outlets, and then consider my business wrestling with the image finished. Then a week later I look back at it and wished I hadn't walked away from it just yet. This is one of those photos. That darned mist took so long that by the time I actually got around to making color and lighting adjustments and putting on the finishing touches, I was more than done. It probably didn't help that I had finished adding all the mist, and then photoshop crashed before I saved the image and I had to start over again from the beginning. Needless to say, I was done with the photo. So I did a few tweaks and called it "as good as it's going to get."

My patience having had it's way, I sat looking at the image over and over on my blog, and on facebook, and on instagram. The more I looked at it, the more I didn't like it. This is not how it's supposed to be. Generally when I create a piece I truly am happy with, I find myself wanting to stare at it as often as I can. Not so with this one. I even deleted it from my instagram, I became so unhappy with it.

There was something missing... something not right about the photo. So I turned to my cousin, a photoshop guru in his own right (who I would totally credit on here if he kept up a blog, or instagram, or ANY type of social media. But he doesn't, so sorry Stephen. This will have to do!) and asked what he thought of the photo. I explained to him that I didn't like the green fog, it was too obviously "evil" and I wasn't going for the look of "HEY!!! LOOK AT ME!!! I'M BAD AND I'M TRYING TO MAKE THIS GIRL NOT HAVE INTEGRITY!! ARGH!!!"
I wanted something subtler. Something cunning. So it needed to be a little less.... there.

I also hated that the light sky was such a huge distraction in the background. In my head, I had envisioned a girl in a dark forest, making her way down a path that was being encroached upon by the fog. She would be the light in the image, the character of good and integrity in a forest of darkness. I just wasn't getting that the way my image was. Although it was winter, which made the forest look a little bit more sad and depressing, it was still a fairly bright scene. Not at all what I wanted. 

So Stephen showed me how to darken the sky and to really draw the attention in to her, and not to the fog. And it's SO MUCH better! 

Hopefully I've learned my lesson and won't resort to hastily doing some editing and calling it "done" even though I don't like it. Sometimes we just need to walk away for a while, and sometimes we need to look outside for help. This doesn't make you a horrible artist. It makes you a person who's willing to learn new things. And that's far more important than being perfect.

My final edit of Integrity.

Can I just BE Elizabeth Gadd?! I just had to share this lovely photographer, whose every image practically sends me racing to my camera with bursts of sudden inspiration. Hopefully you will love her work just as much as I do!

If you want to see more, you can find her here:

https://www.facebook.com/elizabethgaddphotography?fref=ts

or here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/elizabethgadd/

or here:

instagram: @elizabethgadd

(All photographs copyrighted by Elizabeth Gadd. Please do not use without giving proper credit!)

 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5: 14-16

I've finished another piece from my Value series, this one being, as you've probably guessed, Good Works. I am so excited to have another one done! Each time I complete one of these, it's this wonderful mixture of feeling really happy and proud, as well as that feeling you get when you check another thing off your to do list (have I mentioned that I love to do lists? And most especially, checking things off of said to do lists?)

The image is actually a composite of four photographs. As always, I liked my sister, the model's, face better in one photo, the way her arm was held in another, and the flounce of her skirt in yet another. So I combined them. I had also envisioned this beautiful sunset illuminating the sky behind her, almost as if she was the sun herself.

Several months ago, I had been out at Prairie Creek Marina for an early morning family session out on the lake. I got there early, and so I parked my car at the top of the hill overlooking the lake, which happens to be one of my favorite views in NWA, and watched as the sun gradually made its way up past the horizon. As I had my camera for the family session later on, I took several photos before setting it down and enjoying the moment. I've learned that sometimes it's not so important to capture the moment on my camera, but to put it aside and really be there. I've learned how much better it is to remember the wind on your face or to truly grasp the vastness of the landscape before you than to see it all through the viewfinder of a camera and only have the printed proof that you were really there. Granted, photography is something I am very passionate about and find joy in doing, but I've learned there is also a great sense of peace that comes just from being there in the moment knowing how fleetingly it will pass. Anyway, enough with the soapbox/mushy/gushy stuff.

The explanation for this one is fairly simple. We are taught in our church from a young age that we need to be an example of everything that is good and praiseworthy about our religion to those around us. There is no better way to show people the goodness of the Gospel than by allowing the true joy we experience from being a member of His church to be plainly in sight for those not of our faith to witness. When the world is mired in the darkness deep in the low valleys of life, we need to be the shining beacon on the hill top, inspiring others to climb towards goodness, and more importantly, towards true happiness.

"The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

"It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit."

- Antoine Rivarol

This is another impromptu photo taken after "Good Works". This time in color. The mist was starting to creep up from grandpa's runway as we were wrapping up our shoot and Kenna, who had been helping me with the shoot pointed out and said "Maddie, look!" I immediately had Chloe run out a ways and I dropped on my stomach, snapping away. Such beautiful lighting lasts only a minute, and you have to be ready for it.

While I like to say that I am completely self-taught, really what I mean by that is I've never taken a photography or photoshop class (apart from a photography class in high school, in which I learned as much as you can learn from a high school class, or in other words, next to nothing). I must confess that, for the most part, I have not sat down with my camera and photoshop and just tried stuff out. While I have on occasion, I have largely relied on multiple websites/youtube channels/social media outlets to learn everything I have up to this point. One such site is phlearn.com, which I thought I would share with you guys today. For anyone wanting to learn more about photoshop or lightroom, YOU NEED TO VISIT THIS SITE. Not should, NEED. It is an awesome resource for learning everything from the basics up to some pretty nifty advanced techniques. You can also learn how to remove your ex-boyfriend from a photo, and who doesn't want to know how to do that?!

Just head on over to phlearn.com. You'll thank me later.

It was great working with you Josh. Thanks for keeping Rob reigned in!