28/31 July Challenge

28/31 July Challenge

This is going to be an all-over-the-place blog post, but I have so much to tell you!

First, the 15 Day Content Creation Challenge was released yesterday and you only have until Monday to sign up! You pay what you can, so there is no risk or harm in signing up. You can do it at your own pace, or follow along with the group starting August 1st.

But the real news is that 40% of the funds raised are going to The Light Space, and we have already raised $1,800! Each class of The Light Space takes $10-15,000 to run, so each penny helps, truly. I thank you sincerely for helping to make my charity a success.

My video for today features a lot of struggle and some success. I warn you, I had a day filled with so many laughs and scares I cried tears of laughter more than 3 times.

For today’s adventure I set out early and pulled over on the side of the road to climb some rocks to scout possible shooting locations. The goal was to photograph some rocks to look like a cliff. As I was standing atop the rock, I looked down and noticed a gigantic tarantula! It was the size of my face! And I kind of freaked out and ran away, and caught it on video:

 

After that scare I was feeling a little bit wary of going into the forest alone. After all, I’ve never encountered a snake before, but today felt like the day. Of course, when I arrived I forgot all about any dangers and got to my task at hand, which was, oddly, hanging upside from a tree.

I had wanted to put both legs the same way over the branch and lean backwards, but I quickly realized the branch was too thick for that and I wouldn’t be able to balance myself. Head injury seemed an immediate reality if I were to go that route. Just as I was debating simply sitting in the tree (which made me not even want to do the photo anymore), I realized I should try to wrap my legs around the branch, hence the final pose.

I put a white sheet up behind the tree so that it and myself would be easy to cut out for the final composite. It worked really great and the editing felt quite minimal in the end, despite using 4 different trees, adding hair, creating a cliff and piecing vines together.

I ended up with a few scratches and scrapes and only a very small amount of blood, so I consider that a success. I have been laughing very much out loud all morning watching this video and putting it together. Oh my goodness, I look so silly! So of course my first reaction is: put it on the Internet!

As I was leaving my shooting location I saw a javelina running down the road, and I couldn’t help but wonder what cosmic oddities were giving me such a weird morning. A tarantula, a javelina, hanging upside from a tree…and then, a glorious rainbow appeared, as I was enumerating the weird happenings of my morning. All of this before 6:30am.

P.S. My back is a bit out of whack now, but only mildly, so I think I’ll be all better by tomorrow!

P.P.S.

6 thoughts on “28/31 July Challenge

  1. Well! When I saw your work on Twitter, I immediately thought, “There are no limits to brooke! Wonderful! I have to see today’s story!” However, I would never think the story would involve a tarantula! OMG! What a great adventure it was today! It’s a warning! You have to moderate your momentum more when you throw yourself into your creations. Caution! Congratulations on the work and funds raised for TLS! 🙂

  2. I have no problem hanging upside down like that, my problem is getting out of it! LOL Glad to see you make it without having to drop. Only having a few scratches is pretty good, tree bark can really tear you up!
    Something about climbing a tree is just fun, I always love it. I can’t believe with all of your hiking you have never come across a snake, or tarantula. But watching you freak out on video was funny! LOL
    Signed up for the challenge today, and I can’t wait!

  3. i’m so glad you didn’t step on the poor little guy! i would have been temped to take him home. lol (we have two tarantulas) i’m happy to hear that your fund raising is going well! hope you feel better tomorrow!

  4. Probably the only thing worse would have been if the tarantula would have crawled across your foot while in the tree! Impressed with your determination to get your shot.

  5. Hilarious, really brought a smile to my face this morning.
    I’d have run a mile…..and I can’t run very fast lol
    But glad the little fella was ok and toddled off into the wilderness.

    Those granny pants lol what are you like?

    Fab image tho and I admire your tenacity to achieve your vision today, scrapes backache and all.

    I will be signing up for the challenge later, I’m very excited about it so see you all there.

  6. Brooke I’ve never been here before. What a lovely site. // I just love how the spider is just chilling in his desert walk. I love all things alive but seeing that would have me have the same reaction and give me a case of the nopes. 😉

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