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.