I often find inspiration in my everyday life, but I also find inspiration from having a premium membership through certain mentors (this allows me licensed use of the elements). The piece below was inspired by Tara Lesher’s Gone Fishing tutorial. To make it my own though I changed a bunch of things including new sky, different water, otters instead of a bear, my daughter as the model, as well as the positioning of the subjects which meant I had to change the lighting from the tutorial as well. I enjoy challenging myself by being inspired by, not following absolutely, photoshop teachers.

I frequently get asked if I plan my pictures around an existing scene, or do I pose my models first then find a scene. I am a fairly “black and white, take things literally and can’t visualize to save my life” type person. So I work best having a scene in mind, then taking the photos to compliment the scene.

However, with it being spring, I find that I come alive, and have less time to devote to my Photoshop. I definitely still work with it almost every night, but I also go outside and do things during the day…..yes….I do a decent attempt to hibernate in the winter and avoid outside as much as possible. I really would love it if Prince George was more like Arizona (see blog 1) – or Kailua-Kona weather.

We usually go to Hawaii each winter for a vacation, but due to the pandemic we have missed 2 years. (we were literally arriving in Canada the day before covid blew up and quarantines for international travelers started) We are very much looking forward to 2024 when we will be heading down there again. We are going to spend 2023 exploring locally with the kids. One of the trips is renting a Barkerville cabin for 2 nights.

Speaking of Barkerville if you can snag a room at the St. George’s Hotel DO IT! My sister and I spent two nights there and it was so quaint, magical and fabulous. I am quite certain there was a ghost in my room because my water bottle crumbled itself at like 3am….goosebumps…..I’m sticking with my ghost theory. I don’t have any sponsorships with companies, so all my recommendations are literally from awesome personal experiences.