$10,000 Travel Contest Has Ended

Remember the First Time you JUMPED off the High Platform?

When I was growing up we used to go to this lake swimming park called Lake Isabella (www.lake-isabella.org).  They had this platform, in fact it looks like they still do according to their website pictures.  Well that platform was about the tallest thing over water I’d ever seen.  Of course you were supposed to climb and climb, up and up the ladders and then jump into the lake below.  Scary stuff.

I bet I climbed that ladder 100 times, made it to the edge of the platform 50 of those times, looked over 49 times, then finally jumped off!  What a rush, I couldn’t wait to try it again.  That is once I was dragged to shore and caught my breath!

So why tell you that story, you might ask?  Well I’ve got that very same feeling in my stomach today.  The same feeling I had on top of that platform all those years ago. But I jumped off. today.  Stick with me, it will start to make sense.

I’ve been taking photos for a long, long, time.  Until recently I wasn’t all that serious about it, but some changes in my life have propelled me to immerse myself in photography education over the past year.  I’ve become a huge fan of creativeLIVE and watched most of their courses, and purchased those I could afford.  I availed myself of other free courses, got active on Twitter and Facebook, joined Kelby Training, etc., but in the end I still didn’t put myself out there until today.

Ever since I saw Chase Jarvis’s do an interview with Penny De Los Santos I’ve been following her.  I find her work amazing.  I’ve never felt so touched, on so many levels, with all my senses, as when I look at one of her photo essays.  I had always hoped www.creativeLIVE.com would do a workshop with her, and guess what, they are -  Food and Culture Photography, May 13-15, 2011.  As usual the LIVE event is FREE!, but I really wanted to be in attendance.  To be a true student, and soak up her knowledge.

There is a video submission process to be chosen to be a member of the live audience, but given my finances, it wasn’t going to be realistic for me to get to Seattle from Florida.  That’s when the stars might have aligned and I looked over the edge of the platform.

I got a tweet about a Sony Reader contest to win travel money.  To enter I needed to create a 400 character virtual postcard.  This was my entry…

Made it to Food & Culture Photography Workshop with @pennydelosantos at the @creativeLive studio!  I’m so excited to get this incredible opportunity.  Been reading Seattle’s Best Dive Bars on my Sony Reader, maybe I’ll get some shooting in and be able to hang with the @behindtheLIVE team at a couple of them!  Gotta go charge my batteries and clean my lenses, more later on backroadblogger.com, Ken

Looked over the edge, nope, I jumped, my entry was accepted.  Now I had to go about getting enough votes to win the travel money.

I had to get a blog up, how else would you be reading this first post!  I’ve got to create a submission video, oh, I’ve got lots to do.  And for the first time in a long time I feel energized.  I might not win the travel contest, I might not get a seat at creativeLIVE, but in the words of Seth Godin I’m going to Poke the Box!

Thanks for reading and if you would like to vote please follow this link.

http://readergetawaygiveaway.com/?id=927

http://readergetawaygiveaway.com/?id=927