About Embark

In 2024 I chose to participate in the Unleashed Education Embark Challenge to get some feedback on my photography and editing skills. This Challenge is a 6 month Challenge with very set briefs that need to be met with a Top 20 and Top 10. To rank in the Top 20, your photo needs to meet the specific brief, be well edited and be compositionally appropriate. To make the Top 10 you need to do all of this, and add a little something special to make it stand out from the crowd.

The Brief

A landscape, either natural or man-made, must be a prominent feature of this image. The image can be shot with any focal length or even stitched from multiple images, but it must show some features of the landscape and give a sense of place, while still featuring the dog as the main subject.

This Challenge was one of the ones I was most looking forward to as it involved finding a location with unique features and creating a beautiful image of a dog in that environment. While the day’s conditions didn’t want to cooperate, there really was no competition for what photo I’d submit for this Challenge. You can literally see every rain drop as it falls, and every splash in the water.

My model Nash is trained to work in all sorts of environments making this incredibly dreary and wet day fairly easy to stay positive in. We tested out quite a few different spots, but at the end of the day this one with the iconic island bridges in the Sir Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens in the background was the clear choice. It was perfectly framed between the bridge and trees, with the lake and the classic Melbourne winter weather setting in; it just screamed Dandenong Ranges to anyone who knows the area.

Given the limited light on the day, I was working with some strong settings that put some limitations on how bright I could make this image. Instead, I focused on brightening the elements I wanted the enhance – Nash’s face and all the raindrops. While at the same time, toning down and darkening background elements to create a balance in the lights and darks.

One of the trickiest parts of this edit was toning the greens to reflect the true colour, while also making sure there were subdued enough to not take the focus away from Nash. Grass has a habit of being tricky to work with, especially when it’s wet, so toning the grass down was an important element for this photo to work.

The Result

The feedback I got on this photo reflected the feeling I wanted to convey – the conditions of the day , and the damp rainforest feeling that the Dandenong Ranges always make me feel.

The main things they suggested I improve was the foreground bokeh from a plant I was shooting through, and to change the crop to be more cinematic to really showcase and encompass the feeling of the moment.