Can you tell by now how amazingly proud we are of our Grads and how much we love our ongoing community!  I think facebook needs to add a “beaming chest” emoji, I think I’d give it a fair work-out!

But once our courses finish up, our students don’t go it alone, they jump over to our graduate group (a private Facebook group), where we have women from all over the world learning together and supporting one another.

It’s such a great (the best and most effective) way to learn photography, and I can tell you from experience that if it weren’t for the tribe I discovered back when I was learning, my own journey would have been sooo much slower, and I wouldn’t have the like minded friendships I today.

What’s more, there’s such an incredibly positive vibe in there.

We love these ladies, and we wanted to highlight the friendships being built in there with stories as they happen.

This one comes from Sally Frawley, a graduate from Melbourne, Australia. Sally was heading to Tasmania for a little holiday with her family, her husband Anthony, and her gorgeous sons Connor and Ethan.

Now let me chime in here to say Tassie is my HOMETOWN you guys! So it was extra special to share these photos! (And I was a little envious ofcourse!)

But fellow student and Tassie local Naomi Sherman invited Sally to meet with her for a little photo jaunt up the infamously cold Mt Wellington…. and we’ll let Sally tell the rest of the story!

 

“Naomi and I had gotten to know each other through the Click Love Grow Grad Group. She offered support and encouragement, and I stalked her work as a lover of landscape photography (something I didn’t realise about myself until quite recently thanks to a trip to Tassie).

 

After much fangirl admiration of her images, she added me on Facebook and we commented here and there. One day I posted on my Facebook page that I was going to Tasmania and asked for travel tips from friends. A fellow CLG Grad Mel commented I should catch up with Naomi.

Naomi replied, offering a dawn catch up and she promised to bring the coffee, which is really the only way to get me up early!

So the scene was the sun rising over the city of Hobart from the summit of Mount Wellington… and it was freaking freezing!

The whole family got out of bed to join me (concerned about mum meeting up with an online friend in the dark on the top of a mountain lol). Naomi’s husband Mark provided the hot drinks, support and entertainment to combat our freezing-ness (thats a real word in Tasmania!).

 

Given the low light and settings required we both used tripods, with me using my Tamron 24-70mm lens, and Naomi using her 35mm as well as a Tamron 24-70. Naomi shoots on Canon but I shoot Nikon, so she very kindly googled the user guide for my camera in order to guide me given my lack of experience. That was very sweet!

I started off at f/11, ISO 6400 and shutter speed of 1/60.

Sadly the weather gods weren’t overly kind with very overcast skies.

This meant we didn’t get a lot of colour and did get loads of moisture in the air and on my filter.

Rookie mistake.

Next time I’d definitely give everything another clean while I’m shooting.

 

We were there for just on an hour, and as the sun began to rose, I adjusted my settings to compensate for the additional light, bit by bit, and by the time we finished, I was shooting at f/22, ISO2000 and shutter speed 1/30.

The clouds rolled in after the sun rose even more heavily, and did I mention it was FREEZING??!!

I was dressed warmly enough but my fingerless hand warmers were way inadequate. I’d definitely recommend leather gloves for some degree of dexterity and warmth, they really do become useless when that cold.

That said, it was an awesome experience and I’m so glad Naomi made me get out of bed!

It was so lovely to meet one of the girls in person, and to hang out with someone who shares this passion. My only friends outside of Click Love Grow who are ‘into’ photography are an award winning nature photographer who works as an artist in residence on Antarctic cruise ships, and an international award winning AIPP Master Photographer… so needless to say I’m a tad shy about things photography related in those friendships.

Annnnyway thats what made meeting Naomi so cool.

It was taking that cyber photography kinship created by Click Love Grow to another level. It made me want to come home and organise Vic meet ups.

I would definitely recommend posting any travel plans and asking if anyone wants to catch up in the CLG grad group.

Its a great way to see a city and equally lovely to meet people in the ‘real’ world.”