TINA EISEN x CAPTURE ONE Retouching Competition

So I wanted to dedicate this blog post to show my appreciation to Tina for all her support over the years, but to also show that when you feel like it's the most stressful and frustrating time of your life, there is always a silver lining. I truly believe that sooner or later, you will discover exactly why you had to go through such misfortune(s). Hold on, in there... you got this!

Back in May 2017, I was in second year of my Undergraduate Degree: BA Fashion Promotion & Imaging. It was the work placement unit where I had to find an internship for 8 weeks. I began to work with a model agency, we worked together for roughly a couple of weeks... supposedly, said model agent liked my work and wanted me to help her with model casting and photographing all her new talent to update the site with fresh, innovative and engaging content. Initially, I had to sort through potential clients; to see what client / job would best suite each model. However, after a couple of weeks she stopped meeting me, stopped replying to me and eventually I couldn't get ahold of her, at all. I don't know why this happened, she didn't even give me a heads up and as far as I was concerned, everything was going smoothly. My internship unit was already going ahead, most universities and companies do their internships at the same time so I was stressing. I struggled to find another one and I really didn't want to fail the unit, especially since this was completely out of my control. I was so angry!

I spoke to my tutor and he had to set me an alternative brief. The brief was to show him industry insight, in a PDF format, showing what my passion was and what job position I would like to have in the future. Of course, it was photography. So I started to look into my favourite photographers, analysing their work, social media handles, their clients, etc. But this wasn't enough, I needed to think outside the box in order to gain industry insight AND pass this damn unit. SO, I thought it would be promising to get a few interviews with really cool, high-end photographers in the industry. I have assisted Neil MacKenzie Matthews previously, so I reached out to him and as always, he was keen to help me and I am super grateful for that! (P.s. His work is incredible, he has worked with many famous people and in 2019 he launched an amazing book, go check it out!) But I needed more for this to become anything substantial! 

So I made a FB post to many photography groups seeking photographers who I can interview for my degree project, (Side-note: And I have to add, there are some D!CK photographers out there, so damn patronising to upcoming talent I was SUPER shocked! A word of advice... be humble, always!). Anyhow, it didn't take long for both Oscar May and Tina Eisen to agree to meet me in London and give me insight into their photography journeys. I made two separate PDFs, all portraying what I love most about photography, the famous photographers at the forefront of the industry, a SWOT analysis of my own work as well as industry insight from three very successful, lucrative photographers in the industry. ANDDDD guess who grabbed herself an A for that unit?! Yep, yours truly... Screw you, model agency!

Don't get me wrong, at the time I was super stressed and anxious. However, I do have a lot to be grateful for and everyone close to me knows that I am a sucker for the saying: everything happens for a reason'... And, when I come to think of it, if that b*tch didn't screw me over, I wouldn't have met two other incredible photographers. Seriously, go check out their work! 

I stayed in touch with Tina and attended one of her beauty workshops in 2018 (with Pratik Naik, honestly, I would highly recommend attending one of their workshops... transformative!) and ever since, she still continues to help and support me, today. I am super grateful! 

Which leads us to now... the joyous 2020 shindigs, sarcasm alert, although it's not all *that* bad. Tina, like the generous and giving soul that she is, hosted a retouching competition with Captures Ones very own, David Grover. The briefs were to creatively retouch one of her images and the winner would receive a Capture One License (all photographers and retouchers swooned, of course!). 

For the first competition I went really metaphorical in honour of the NHS, I love the colour red in my work, it's such a striking colour so I had to use that as my primary colour to draw people in. I didn't win, but Tina did highlight mine within her top 8 favourites on Instagram (all of which were incredible and Alana Lee won hands down and totally deserved it too!), so I was super chuffed about that.

Then, because doing one retouching competition wasn't enough, of course, she had to keep giving and hosted ANOTHER competition not long after. Honestly, Tina! I just can't with you. Swoooooning!
SO, of course I entered. Second time lucky, Shelly! 

I actually had a concept in mind for a while that I wanted to do as a self portrait initially, but thought Tina's image was PERFECT for this concept. I wanted to do a positive and summer-esque entree. I know I wasn't the only one that was looking forward to sunnier, brighter and more positive days. Summer isn't long away and I just can't wait to enjoy that, with friends and family hopefully *fingers crossed*. I went back to my A Level Graphic Design days, where I would combine photography with graphics. This photo literally took me roughly around 16 hours, I didn't sleep, I was super inspired and ended up staying up until gone 4am to finish it. The response was incredible. It reignited my love and passion for graphics again! I don't know why I ever stopped, to be honest!

Anyhoo... A week later, Tina announced I was the winner of her second competition and the Capture One License, with David on IG. GOSH! I was SO shocked but SO DAMN excited, I screamed so loud and cried, yep... there were tears! That was JUST the pick-me-up I needed after some very low and anxious few weeks during this crazy lockdown.

Super happy and super proud. Big thanks to Tina and David, again, I am SO grateful!
...Now, onwards to my Capture One Endeavours, eek! Stay tune y'alllllll.
Bye for now,
MKC
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