Holiday choices!

So the holiday season is literally round the corner.  My imaginary life has gone into overdrive with handmade decorations, gingerbread houses and beautifully wrapped presents.  My reality is I haven't even got the Christmas cards sorted.   Regardless though, I am already being tempted by the variety of holiday e-courses on offer, after all I should really document all this burgeoning creativity, right?

My bank balance puts a limit on what I can realistically do - so, for the third year running, I'm going to try and try again to follow along with Ali Edward's December Daily.   But for those with a little more spare cash, there are some wonderful looking courses out there.  Here's the Top 3 on my Wish List:

Winter Stories
I've been a long time admirer of Hope's blog, and her super artsy journalling pages, in fact her journalling e-courses are high on my non-holiday Wish List!
Just the vintage retro styling of the course badges alone makes me want to sign up, and this Winter offering is a collaboration with Kari Ramstrom of Arsty Mama, so I just know it's going to packed to the brim with creativity.  

30 days of Festive Photography
A workshop run by Tracey Clark, photographer and founder of Shutter Sisters, this could be the perfect complement to my December Daily album.  Tracey has been running seasonal workshops on Big Picture Scrapbooking this year, and I wish I had been taking them.  Can you imagine what a fabulous album I would have by the end of the year?  Oooh, Spring is available as self-paced workshop... I wonder if the rest will be?

Journal your Christmas
This was my first ever e-course, and I have yet to complete it.
Thank heavens Shimelle generously allows the alumni of her e-courses to continue participating each year at no extra cost despite always adding new material each year. 
Could this be my year?



* main image is from Ali Edwards and is of her 2010 cover.

You are your own muse

This week alone, I have become aware of 3 new e-courses being launched.
3 in one week!  And those are just the ones I know of. 
Hmm, Cam might need to take on a second job...

And just the name of this e-course had me swooning!
I literally had to sit on my hands this morning as I looked over Vivienne McMaster's debut into the World of E-courses.  You Are Your Own Muse sounds positively delicious, and I immediately had a musical montage in my mind of skipping through the gold and orange autumn forest in my red boots (which I don't actually own yet), taking evocative self portraits, and then barely able to contain the flood of blog posts which would result from my journey of self discovery... sigh.

In all seriousness, the course genuinely sounds empowering.  I love the concept of "putting yourself in the picture" and embracing who you are and where you are - both literally and figuratively.  For me, it would be a timely experience to balance the excitement of potential and the fear of change that is happening both within me and around me... 

Just not right now though.  There is such a thing as over-subscribing.  I should know!
Good job, I have a feeling the course will be a success and I will hopefully get the opportunity to do it in the future; but if anyone reading has signed up, please let me know how it goes so at least I can share some of it vicariously through you :)

* image by Vivienne McMaster

Eye Candy

Like many of the new generation of photographers, I am self taught.
I have a diary entry capturing the moment I realised photography was something I wanted to develop, and I likened the experience to suddenly realising you are in love with your best friend.  

I don't know why, but as I typed that, this scene came into my head; and you can't think of Some Kind of Wonderful without remembering this scene... Oh the classics from my youth...

Anyway, once I had made the decision, the Internet was like a treasure trove to me, and I found so many amazing photographers, artists really, whose work I admired.  Sheye Rosemeyer was one of my early discoveries, and to this day, her work still blows my mind.

She has such an distinctive style.  Ethereal.  Timeless.
I couldn't get enough.
So you can imagine my excitement when she announced her online workshops!
Look, the workshop site alone gives you a sampling of the attention to detail Sheye has.
Isn't it just divine?

I signed up for Evolve, and it was not a disappointment.
Unfortunately, at the time, photography and e-courses were still a very new concept to me, so I don't feel I took full advantage of the forum.   Since then I have grown and evolved so much, both as a photographer and blogger, I think I would gain a completely different experienceif I had the opportunity to do it all over again.  
Who knows, I may well sign up again the next time the workshop comes round! 

* image by Sheye Rosemeyer