In Focus: Rachel Turner's Lens on Success

In this episode, we sit down with Rachel Turner, gold medalist at the 2018 Provincial Skills Canada Competition in Photography and bronze medalist at Nationals—as she shares her inspiring journey through the world of Skills competitions and beyond. Rachel opens up about the challenges she faced and the lessons she learned, including how overcoming self-doubt played a major role in her success.

She reflects on the invaluable mentorship she received from Lance Burns and how his guidance helped shape her path. Instead of taking the corporate route, Rachel chose to follow her creative passion and built her own photography business. From the competition floor to capturing life behind the lens, Rachel’s story is a testament to perseverance, mentorship, and the power of believing in your craft.

Tune in to hear how Rachel turned her Skills experience into a thriving career and how you can do the same.

Want to check out her incredible portfolio? Here's the link to her website: Edmonton Wedding Photographer | Rachel Turner

Want to learn more about her Skills experience? Here's the link to her blogpost: Skills Canada Competition - Rachel Turner Photography

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Skills and Thrills, Alberta's Trade and Tech Youth Podcast by Skills Canada, Alberta. We feature the stories of Skills alumni through sharing their competition experiences and how those moments shape their careers. Through casual, unscripted conversations, we explore the journeys behind the skills and the paths that followed. I'm Danny and I'll be your host. Let's dive into today's episode. Today our special guest is Rachel Turner. Rachel competed in photography in 2018 and took home gold at the 2018 Provincial Skills Canada competition. Later taking home bronze at the 2018 Skills Canada National Competition. Hi, Rachel, and thank you for coming on the podcast today. Hi Danielle, thanks for having me. Of course. Can you take us back to 2018 when you competed in the Provincial Skills Canada competition and what that experience was like?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yeah, so I had never competed for photography. I never even knew that you could compete for photography. It was very nerve-wracking going into it. And I did about one to two months of prep beforehand, practicing all these different types of things you were going to test me for. And on the day of, I'd never been as a creative, especially at that age, under pressure before of having a time restraint on my creativity. So it I'm really thankful for the experience and it pushed me, but it was very different than I'd ever experienced before.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, the competitions are really interesting, especially competing against other people like in your province and the different creatives and all that. Did you have a mentor that guided you through it all? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

So I went to high school at Rosh Up, where Lance Burns teaches photography. And I competed when I was in university, not in high school. And Lance Burns continued to be my mentor after I graduated high school. And so he's very connected to photography in Skills Canada. When the opportunity arose, it was because of my mentor. I was really lucky to even know that it existed because of him. And he's been like a staple in my photography career since I met him in grade 10. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

That's awesome. It's always good to have a mentor that guides you through something like that, especially a competition. Yeah, it makes all the difference. It was it was awesome, actually.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, reflecting on that.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I know it's so cool to like look back, just with all the people I've interviewed so far. They've just looked back and been like, that was an amazing experience. Yeah. Um, so when it comes to the competition for photography, what was that like and how did you prep for it?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

I'm not sure if we'll get into this later, but essentially in university, I went to King's University. Like every university, there's credentials you need to graduate and get your degree. And I needed three more credits in my arts stuff. And I was like, I don't really like any of the classes I could potentially do here. So I went and I asked if I could make you can do a self-directed studies in any, what would you call it, type of class, I guess. And so I went to the arts grof and he's like, you literally have three credits to your name in art. Why would I let you do a fully advanced level self-directed? And I was like, well, I have a great idea. And so I created my own, what would you call it? You know, when you go into a class and it give you basically the rundown of the whole class of what you're going to be doing, your modules, the books you're going to be reading. So I actually did that. So I created my crep was me creating this whole rundown of what this class would be if I did it. So this also is with the help of Lan. He gave me a bunch of books I should read on lighting and techniques and all the more technical stuff. Because photography is so subjective. There is a subjected part to the judging, but the thing that they can truly score you on is the technical stuff. And as creative, people tend to be way more focused on the creative part, not realizing all of the technical things. So my prep was every week I was working on a different little photography thing for myself. Most of it was self-directed. I did go to my high school for a bit to work in Lance Physical Studio. I kind of knew which sectors or what parts of photography they were going to test on, and then just prep for that.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yep. So in 2018, what was the project for photography?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, so what they did was they broke it down into eight different projects. If I remember correctly, it was two days. And you got to basically you had to time management yourself because they gave you the eight projects. And you got to divide up your time on how to do them. So if one you really wanted to put your all into or needed more time to be creative, then you could do that. But you had to disperse that properly. So on the first day, they gave you a mystery object. So we all showed up, didn't know what it was, and they gave us two objects a gummy worm and a paperclip. And they're like, go be creative with this. So you can't leave the actual vicinity that we were at the expo center. You got to stay inside and work with that. So gummy worms and paperclips, and had to be creative with that. You need to have three raw images. And so in photography, a like half of the work, and you'll hear a lot of photographers say this, is the editing process afterward. Because of the digital age we're in, photography can be extremely forgiving if you mess up in the technical first part of it when you're taking the photo. There's limitations, but especially with AI and things coming out, you can recover on a lot of stuff, which we're thankful for for things like wadding. But the second part of, or the second, yeah, the second part of the challenge was we need three raw images. And raw images simply means straight out of camera, at how well can your technical skill be where things are properly exposed, they're properly cropped without cropping in, right? Straight out of camera, how perfect can you make this shot? So we had to submit three. And again, walk around the expo center. You can't leave the grounds, go be creative somehow. It wasn't as much as being creative, it was just more of showing all those things that you should know technically about photography. Then the next film was a conference of image. They gave us a big list of photos that were on their own, were very random. They gave us, I think, three landscapes, two or three portraits, five portraits of a girl, some light painting stuff. And basically they said, take all these images. You have to use at least one or three or something of each and uh put them all together. The creative in Photoshop and put them all together. So now this had nothing to do with your camera, it had to do with taking a bunch of different images and then creating one cohesive image that told a story. The next part was an actual portrait. So we all got time with a model and uh portrait setup, and you just had to get a studio like portrait and be creative with it. I decided to do a high-key image, so there was different outfit options, and a high-key image is basically where everything is very white and blown out. So the background was white. I had her wear this white thing, and then when I edited it, made it really white. So the portrait you could be creative with, but that's what I did. Then they did a personal project. So I know this sounds like a lot, and that's why you had to divvy up your time. That is a lot. Yeah. So that the next one was a personal project, and basically you had to come up with three images and tie them together and create a story. You could do whatever you want with it, but the theme and the story and the words that you used to put on each photo was totally up to you. I decided to do this close-up thing. My theme was creativity, and basically I took crayons in the first photo. I did a lot of Photoshop and editing because I want to show them all standing upright. But the first image I'd titled it inspired, and they're all white, gray, and black crayons standing up. And then I did another photo. The next photo was create, and so I had the gray skill crayons on the ground, and then all some colored ones upright. The last one was inspired, showing all the colored pencil crayons with their shavings underneath. So that's so cool. Harder to explain here, but yeah, but visually looked pretty cool, I think. I was pretty proud of that one. Yeah, that sounds cool. And then yeah, so then day two, that was day one. And then day two was another mystery object. So we showed up another mystery object and it was glitter. Very hard to photograph. So I put it on someone's face and did a portrait. So I combined the two, and I did a really close-up image of the glitter on her face. Oh, that's so cool. And then the last one was portrait editing. They gave us one or two images of a girl, and they purposely picked, not picked a girl, they purposely photographed a girl with like two different earrings. Her hair was a mess, they just did some things to her face. Not nothing crazy, and they kind of messed up. Her shirt was really rankly. So they basically gave you all the things you'd be challenged on if you were going to do some portrait editing.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

What was your favorite one to do if you had to choose?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I would say probably the actual portraits had gone into portraits and wedding. So that's probably why I enjoyed it so much. Taking the after portrait of the girl that was there and then the photo editing part. I really editing. So those two aspects of the project, I would probably say is my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

How did it feel to win gold at provincials and then go on to nationals and be uh part of Team A B?

SPEAKER_01 10:56

It was awesome. I've always played sports and done team stuff, but I rarely ever did things where I was like a solo, yeah, solo act. So very nerve-wracking, but very exciting. I remember taking so many videos of walking in with Team Alberta and all the other people from the different trade and how fun that was. It was an incredible experience. I'm really glad I did it and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. And yeah, when I won gold, I'm like, I didn't even realize I should have. I think because I won in with this intention of like, I'm doing my degree. I'm just trying to get these arts credits and bring photography into my degree when that opportunity came. And they were like, no, you can. Oh my gosh, this is awesome. My school was also really supportive when I got the gold ban, or maybe that was when I got the bronze one. I got to keep a banner and everyone's so excited.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I think you get a banner for both, but I think the first yeah, like your school has the banner and they probably hang it up somewhere. Yeah. I hope so. It's been a few years. I'm sure I know a lot of schools have a specific area in the school and they display all the banners and stuff. So that's so cool. So, what initially drew you to photography? It's a cliche story of I was a kid who just really gravitated towards it.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

I would constantly grab my parents' film camera. At the time, you don't want your six-year-old doing that. So they were buying me disposable cameras at Christmas, and I had all these little photo sheets that I would set up of my teddy bear and my brother's new little remote control car. That's where it sparked. I never ever thought that it could be a career. No one ever told me I had to stop doing it. So I just went to school and I was constantly taking pictures of friends. And then in junior high, I had a teacher approach me, junior high, that's like, well, do you want to be a part of in grade nine? We have our farewell. And she's like, if you want property, you can document people and go around and outside and at classes, like just bring your camera around and send us the photos and we'll make break our fly choking video. I'm like, that's awesome, love that, want to do that. And then when I went to high school, being like, Oh, there's photography classes, and then that's probably where it really sparked for me, like what I could do. And at that time, my parents did trust me with their tenure. So I was doing that, and I got so into it. So outside of the classroom, my boyfriend at the time and my friends were very supportive of me, and I'm really grateful for that. I was really into mic photography for some reason, and I was like two or three times in my area, can we go to this random place? And can I just take thoughts of you? Like, can I just take photos of you? Can I take photos of your shoes? Because I had some friends that were really into thinkers. I just want to be creative, the things I was learning in the daytime. And then I was like, okay, I have a hundred photos, I'm spending all this time editing. Let's just post them on Instagram. I I just say post them somewhere. And then in grade 12, someone reached out to me that I didn't know and was like, Henny, really like your portrait of your friend. Do you want to shoot my grad photos? And I'm like, oh my god, really? And obviously, I didn't say that to her. I actually very professional. But I remember asking Lance and like, what do I charge her? Like, I had no idea that people would spend money on this. And again, it just sounds so naive now that it's my career, but my mindset at the time was I just enjoyed it so much. Charged her, I can't even remember what I charged her. Probably like a hundred bucks or something. But it's pretty good, yeah. Yeah. And uh did her and her best friend's grad photos, portraits of her, took it very seriously. It was awesome. And then after that, I just kind of getting things here and there. Even in high school, though, when that was happening, I still had this trajectory, Kevin University. I wanted to go into commercial real estate, I wanted a corporate job. I was like, well, I'll just do photography on the side until I'm done my degree and I'll get a job. We'll see how that goes. But it ended up flourishing into continuing photography throughout my business degree, which really, really helped. That that's the second part of it is the business side. I'm really thankful I even did the degree. And then I graduated in 2020, and that job market was kind of dead, and everyone was like, Yeah, we'll take a pause just for a second. COVID had started, but shutdowns had started two or three months before. I was like, okay, I'll just sit here with my camera and chill out for a little bit. Then I had time to do my website, and people wanted to do backyard weddings, so I uh did that and didn't stop.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

That's so cool. What an awesome journey going through skills and then doing your business degree and then moving into photography full-time. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Oh yeah, and then to to add to that, yeah, skills was right at the end there. And so when I graduated in 2020, when I went to skills, that's when I started to realize it could be a career. And I'd met so many people there. A lot of the mentors from the other provinces and the judges all had some full-time experience with photography. And I was like, wait a minute, I could actually do this. Also, doing all these projects within their the competition, I was like, Oh, there's so many things that are specialized within photography, let alone like the types of uh stuff you can shoot, or the different things you can do, even on the back end, even if you're not a photographer. If I really wanted to just be an editor, there's lots of people who just do that.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

So yeah, for sure. Was there like a mentor or someone that you met during the skills competitions that really gave you a lot of good advice or tips or anything? Other than Lance.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Lance was kind of a given because he was there at both Alberta and Nationang level. You know what Rob I think there's two. Robert Bray was there, which means nothing to you, but he's a very big portrait photographer. He was commissioned to do a portrait of the queen.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Oh, really? Wow. So were there anyone at the competitions that gave you advice or tips or anything?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yeah, the judges were actually incredible. I wish I could remember their names right now. I'm really bad with names, but one was Robert Gray and the other one, I wish I could give them a shout out. They're both incredible portrait photographers and very great creatives outside of it. So I ended up chatting with them at lunch. It's nice, especially when you have people who are 10, 20 years older than you, giving you advice to pursue it and give it a shot. Because I I was at the time debating going full-time, or not going full-time, but using that as my career path. But it's scary because it's self-directed. And so talking to these guys who have made a career, a very, very good careers out of it, encouraging being like, yeah, now's the time to try it. And those corporate jobs will always be there. And I have no qualms with when I say corporate jobs, I think stability, that's the thing you get from them, stability, consistent paychecks, a work community, those are all incredible things you get from it. And that's why I was tempted to go that way. Where with photography, I get to be creative, but you have to battle a lot of self-doubt. So finding different people in your own community and created in your own community is so crucial. So long-winded answer to say yes. The judges, especially, other than the judging part, their critiques, like aside from that, too, it's kind of tough to get critiqued on your creative work, but hearing it from professionals who do it full-time and have such a strong knowledge base on it, you learn a lot. It can be a little hurtful, but you're like, okay, I actually needed to learn that. And your advice is very helpful. And I did take a lot of the things I learned from there and applied it moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Yeah. Criticism can be super hard, but when it's coming from someone who just wants you to succeed, it's so worth listening and be like, yeah, you're right, actually. I'm gonna do this instead. You know? Yeah. A hundred percent. So did you have any big challenges during the competitions?

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Well, I would say my biggest challenge, which maybe I touched on a little bit at the beginning, was the mystery objects. Being creative under pressure was where I felt I struggled the most. I still completed the assignments, but those I would say were my two weakest things. And what's funny is I did practice that, but how can you practice getting a random object and being creative? Because one thing might inspire you and another thing doesn't. I would say that that was my biggest challenge. The technical part, and not in the sense of actually shooting it, but the thing I had never practiced before is color spaces in Photoshop and knowing your dimension, these are all important things you should know. But like I said, digital age, you can get away with so much now. So yeah, I got docked a point. I think I thought I was saving all of my images in the correct color space because they have very specific criteria on how all your images were supposed to be saved. I had a natural workflow that I had done other stuff with, so to change that up and realizing, oh, maybe I didn't actually know what I was doing. Like, oh yeah, I'm easy to change a color space or whatever. And yeah, I ended up getting jocked eight points in total because all the things that I saved, I allow saved incorrectly. And my images were the same, which hurts me to this day because I think I was three points away from getting silver. So when I saw Meta, I was like, oh, but fair enough. He knew how to save these projects properly, and I didn't. So yeah, that would be my other challenge. That that was my other challenge is actually there's so much in Photoshop, there's so many different things, and I am really lucky that I started using Photoshop in grade 10, and I actually almost learned that more first than actually taking photos. But yeah, that little detail, that my biggest struggle.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Man, eight points. That's rough. Oh my goodness. Well, for those doing the competitions, make sure you save them correctly.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Study that part just in case it's like, especially when you're self-taught or stuff like that. It is one of those random things, like, yes, okay, I know I should know that, but you don't think to learn that because it's not the fun part, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:13

It's the more technical computer stuff, and Photoshop is just hard too. Like, I'm currently delving into Photoshop and I'm like, this is hard. So yeah, it's it's not easy, it's very not user-friendly. But you still did amazing by placing. I was like, oh my gosh, thank God.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

It didn't dock me so much. Because I remember at the time I was really crushed about it. It took me a while to just be okay with that. I'm bad with names, but Natrin got first. Incredibly talented, technically sound photographer. I'm not sure of her score, but I'm pretty sure it was pretty near perfect perfect. But I think it just hurt me on the realizing like that one little mistake, being like, no, I should have got silver, but I but I also didn't want to take away from and I wish I could remember his name, but just those little things. Yeah, I I had to talk myself back and go, you know what, at least I placed. I probably would have taken it way harder if that kept me like in fourth or something of it.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah, and it was just like a few points. Yeah. Well, again, you still did amazing and placing or not, you still went to nationals too, which is amazing. How did participating in the skills competitions influence your career?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I guess I touched on it a little bit, but it did make me realize that I could make a job out of it, a career out of it. In a lot of creative fields, there's the trope of a starving artist. And going from you know, wanting to go into commercial real estate, considering going into law, some very big potential careers there. The thing I struggled with the most was being taken seriously, that my job was serious and that I could live off of this. And I didn't want to be a starving artist. But also I didn't want people to perceive me as that, you know, oh I'm choosing I'm choosing a thing that's gonna keep me down, and I have so much potential to do all these other all these other jobs. So I think going to skills showed me that photography is such a staple part of so many other businesses that you had photographers walking around and just being in a place where so many tradespe were there and photography is considered a trade, and it just felt validating that you have all these very serious, amazing trades around me that I didn't even realize half of them existed, seeing how serious those were, and it's like photography is being held to the same level, and you have people here who are professionals full-time who make a really good living for themselves, judging these competitions. And that validation was so helpful at the time where I was so confused on where I want to go in my life. You have those moments in your life of like, okay, I really do see the two paths, and it's not like you can never turn back, but once you start going down one, it's gonna take you some time to walk all the way back and then try to go back to the other option. Not impossible, but I struggle with thinking I'm gonna make the wrong decision. So I overthink everything. Honestly, same. Gills did play an integral part in that validation that I should go for it.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, there's a lot of technology ones that I didn't even know existed until I got this job. I saw the competitions, and it looked very validating for those competitors. Like I can have a full job in this and do really well and almost make my own business. Video production, photography, so many. So, what type of photography do you specialize in?

SPEAKER_01 26:12

So I specialize in weddings and couples and portraiture. My what makes my heart the happiest is doing especially outdoors. Anytime I have the chance to be outside and run through the trees and have couples that are similar spirit to me doing that. That is what I put myself for. I tried pretty much every type of photography, uh, except newborn photography, because that create that requires a very special skill set of handling newborns and a lot of delicate stuff. I mean, not every what not everyone who does it has all those skills, but that's the one that I was like, I don't want to mess around with unless I'm gonna go get trained in it. Yeah. But otherwise, I pretty much tried everything else. And the other thing that I I mainly do, you know, it's not that different. It's event photography. One of my first jobs that felt validating around that time, I think I got the job in either 2018 or 2019 was a marketing job with a nightclub. And a little fun as it sounds, I would go to these nightclubs and take photos. And so you're taking photos of people partying, but you're also doing marketing photos of the bartenders, a bottle service, and the DJs. They need photos every single week to promote what they're doing. That was another industry I didn't realize was integral to the service industry in general, like restaurants, clubs, anytime that you're having social gatherings, me realize I'm like, oh, that's a staple thing. And a wedding reception is essentially the same thing. You got a bunch of people having a good time, and you have to be on the lookout for those moments. So, although I specialize in weddings, that's what I market myself towards events, is the thing I do the most. Funny enough, I still do nightclub marketing photography. I do a lot of corporate events, and those are all more referral-based because two different business skill sets for each. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Well, yeah. Yeah, I feel like every business would benefit from having a photographer like take pictures of their stuff for their store or anything. Cause I feel like it just really brings the consumer like, oh, this is what it's about, this is their message, this is what they're selling and stuff. And it just gives a different perspective. Whereas companies that don't have that, it's kind of hard to know for sure if you want to give them your business. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 28:56

99% of businesses have a website, 99% of businesses have a preference on social media. And the thing social media and websites need are photos and video. And so they should invest in your business because you try you're you believe in you so much that you're putting this money into professional photography. You want things to look very professional and a step above. Not everyone has a budget right off the bat, but eventually when you really do believe in your business, and so me even realizing that concept, I went, oh, okay, so the person that they're looking for is someone like me who can come in and be like, yes, I know the technical skills of photography, but let's also branding of your business and the different parts of that. So yeah, maybe it's because my business background too, where I have been very interested in small businesses and doing branding and then the corporate events and just events in general all kind of tie in together. But then I have this very creative, passionate side of I love couples, I love love. And I want to go and just be creative with that.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

It's fun because there's always something different going on with photography for you. So that's awesome. What advice would you give to young photographers thinking about doing skills? Do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

A hundred percent do it. There's honestly nothing to lose, even if you quote unquote lose, you can't. You'll learn so much. You'll push yourself. And if you're interested in photography, it will show you all the different things that you can do. And it's a little scary, but you will also find out where you're lacking. And that's just such a great opportunity to go home after and be like, you know what? I want to actually get better in this area. Or you'll realize a part of photography you didn't even think you'd be that interested in. Like I said before, being an editor, you might find out that you actually don't care to take the photos, but you love the post-processing. I don't think there's any negative side to competing in skills. You have nothing to lose, honestly, only things to gain.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah, and just like connections alone that you make are so worth it too. Totally. Even with the other competitors.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

It was great to talk to them. Catherine, the one who won gold at nationals, just talking to her. And she's from Montreal, I believe. And being able to connect with them, and in my industry, like Instagram is kind of a given. Getting their Instagrams done over the years, I still follow these people and seeing where they've gone with it and what they're posting.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

It's great. That's like having buddies around Alberta and stuff, and you're showing each other on because it's so cool to see other people succeed too. Oh, yeah, exactly. That's awesome. Fun question. If you could photograph anything or anyone in the world, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 31:56

This is gonna sound so cheamy, but photographing my friends' weddings, the thing that actually makes me so happy because I'll have friends that are like, I want you to be a part of the wedding, but I also want you to photograph it. I'm like, no, I actually photographing my friends in love. And I I actually just did one of my friends' proposal, like a surprise for her. And I've done two of those where they were friends. It is nothing beats that feeling of being in on the secret before everyone else, getting to see their reaction, seeing how happy they are on the wedding day, being up close and personal all day, and such an integral part, and then having that connection after I'm a part of going through their wedding again, editing them, and being a part of giving them their memories back. I know if I could really do anything in the world, and there's so many different things, but I'm already blessed to kind of have the opportunity to do that for friends already. Yeah, I hope to continue to do that.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

I hope that is so special. I can't imagine just seeing those little moments, editing them and sending them back, and then they'll like put them up on their walls and everything. That that's just so special.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Yeah, it really is. And then when I go to their houses and I'm like, oh my god, it's not only my art on the wall printed, it's much different feelings too. And I was like, but it's my friends, like I'm just a part of those milestones.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

So yeah, that too. Oh, that's so special. What's one thing about you that might surprise people who follow your photography journey? Maybe that I was a really big athlete most of my life.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

I would have probably guessed I would go into college sports over being a nerdy creative person in a room. So, not that it no hate on nerds, I love it. I never would have thought I'd be that person just because I was involved in so many, every kind of sports team that you could be on in high school and junior high, I was a part of and I was doing. And I even got sportswoman of the year in grade 12 because I love team sports specifically to go into such a somewhat isolating job. You just have to put more effort into being around people. Yeah. So that would probably be a surprising thing. Although I do talk about how my hobby now is golf for the last few years. So I brought sports back into our life.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Oh, I love that. So is that your favorite sport, or what is your favorite sport? My favorite sport is volleyball.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Yeah, volleyball, rugby is a close second. The thing I dislike the most is a lot of sprinting and running. When there's purpose behind it, like in rugby, it's easier for me to do. But I think that's why volleyball is my favorite, and then rugby would be my second. But golf, I've never gotten so much joy out of a good swing. It can be so aggravating at the same time. You just feel so much achievement and then you feel a good swing. And so maybe that's why I really enjoy that now, too.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Yeah, I totally see that. I've I've tried it like in the last year, and now I get why people like it. Because I'm like, this is like really challenging, but like fun.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

So yeah, it really depends on the day, and it's more fun if you get other other people into it. So my boyfriend golfs, which is amazing. So then we have to do. And I've tried to get some of my friends into it. I'm like, uh we can get our walk in, we can go for early morning golf and walk and wear cute outfits. Like, there's so much to it.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

People listening in, you should try golf this year. Why not? Absolutely. Please do. There's great parts recourses, it's not that scary. And you could always try mini golfing first and see. You don't need to commit, you know. You can do mini golf at West Ham and Tamar or wherever. Yep. Yeah. So, what do you believe makes a photograph truly memorable?

SPEAKER_01 35:58

The emotion behind it. The beautiful thing of photography is subjected. So you to one person, they're like whatever, and to another person, it's the most incredible. But I believe the way to get to someone is the emotion behind it, the story behind it. So and honestly, when you're don't overthink that as a photographer, create the art for you. Try and try and create something that makes you emotional, and then I guarantee someone else will see that too. And whatever emotion that is, like it can be happy, it can be excitement, it can be joy, it can also be sadness, it can also be those darker emotions that you need an outlet to show. There's a lot of people who struggle with words, and so photos is what helps them feel those emotions without word, and I think that's why photography is so beautiful. I love that what we just talked about of like what people wouldn't believe about me, but this just reminded I have something called aphantasia, which means I literally have no visual memory whatsoever. Really? I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah, and I only discovered it a few years ago, and I felt cheated because I'm in a career where I can't visualize what I'm gonna do before I do it, where other people like basically can have photographic memories. So the reason that I just suddenly thought of that is because it when I found out I had that, it made me realize why I've been so into photos my whole life. Because it's the only way I can remember what people look like or remember things really at all. Not that I have no memory at all, but visually, it is literally the only way that I can remember what things look like. And so I never delete photos and I never get rid of photos, and I print a lot of photos because of that. So to me, every photo is memorable and meaningful because it's like my connection to it. So yeah, having Afantasia is one of the things I don't think people would realize or be surprised to know I have. Yeah, I gotta see it in the moment.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

So yeah. Wow, that's actually really beautiful because like these photos are like a part of your memory and and they help you remember in a lot. So that's so cool. Yeah. I have to ask for those listening who want to be a photographer, do you have a go-to camera or lens that you love to use?

SPEAKER_01 38:47

All cameras are good, okay? I use Nikon. I've used Nikon from I was a kid, it just kind of happened that way. We can blame Lance Burns for that. He also the Nikon guy. When I was going to buy my own cameras, my family happened to have Nikon, but because lads are like, well, if you want to borrow equipment, I have Nikon stuff. And I went, okay, I like that offer. So genuinely, I love my camera. I use a two-body system most of the time. I still have a DSLR, which is a D850, and I love it. My newest camera is my Z62, mirrorless. I really want to get the Z8, which is finally the equivalent to the D850 in the mirrorless world, which I've been reading for. And I've used so many different types of lenses. I've used a lot of prime lenses most of my career, but I have 24 to 70, it's so funny. I have a love hate relationship with it because I rarely looked at my 24 to 70, go, oh my gosh, I love these images so much. But it's such a staple workhorse lens that I use in all my event photography in any situation where I'm unsure how much space I'll have. It's my 24 to 70. And so if I have any recommendation, because I usually have people asking me, what lens should I get? A 24 to 70 or a Canon version, I think they have a 28 to 105 now, which is great. Some type of zoom lens like that where you have like an F-stop of 2 or 2.8, that would probably be a good staple lens to have first. But yeah, the other thing that you don't realize you'll need is a computer with a lot of RAM power. I use an iMac and they call it Unified Memory Now or something. Yeah. If you're gonna be running Photoshop and Lightroom, you need a computer that wants to keep up with that.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

So sure. And our last question, what is your favorite thing about photography?

SPEAKER_01 40:50

I think my favorite thing is the different rooms it has brought me into. The amount of people that I would have never met otherwise in different careers and different situations. And again, those being a part of weddings, even when they're not people I know, the amount of love and joy I'd gotten to be around with basically strangers who treat me like their family for the day. That is for me my absolute favorite part. I've been in so many situations and met so many different people just because I have a camera in my hand. And each of those opportunities ends up in some way opening another door. I never thought that photography would lead me into situations like that, but it's been incredible, and I'm so thankful that I've actually been able to make a career out of this. A lot of people will say that's a dream job, and I can't even laugh. There's a lot of work behind it. You have to be able to handle stress and time management. It has its own cons, but I think any job does, I would take all those cons for the pros of the experiences I've gotten because of photography.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. And where can people find your work?

SPEAKER_01 42:12

I do have a website racheltphoto.ca. And that is also my Instagram handle. I think I also have a Facebook page, but the Instagram is where it's mostly at and my website. Yeah, those would be the two main ones Instagram and my website. And I am on TikTok, but I don't really post.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

So okay. Well, yeah, if you guys want to check out her work, please do. It's so beautiful. I was looking at your website the other day and I was like, I love your photos of couples and weddings, they're beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Yeah. Um, is there anything else you wanted to add? Just thank you. Funny enough, from your last question, being on this podcast, photography has brought me to meet you, Danielle. Thank you so much for reaching out to me. This you know what? Like this skill, the amount of opportunities I've just gotten from going from going to skills has been amazing. So I'm yeah, thank you. But uh, thank you to you.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Yeah, oh thank you. Yeah, of course. Like we really love to keep people just in the skills family, like as much as we can, giving opportunities where we can um to just like stay in the lives of our alumni. So it was really good talking to you today. And thank you so much for sharing your skills story with us. And thank you everyone for tuning in. We will see you in the next one. Thanks again for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and gained some valuable insights from our amazing guests. If you'd like to learn more about Skills Canada, Alberta and our wide range of programs, be sure to check out our website at skillsalberta.com. From bringing skills right to your classroom to taking part in our competition programming, there are countless ways to get involved. And don't forget to follow us on social media at SkillsAlberta to stay up to date on our latest episodes and events. See you in the next one.