During the winter of 2014 and through the spring and early summer, I co-created this course, Take a Break: Photography for self-care, with Marlene Hielema of Imagemaven.com.   


Marlene and I came up with the idea of merging our mutual love of photography with my passion for helping people live more fulfilling lives over coffee and Christmas goodies.  Marlene is a gifted teacher, both in person and online.  I had taken some of her online courses and could vouch for their quality.  As the ideas for Take a Break unfolded, I found myself growing more and more excited about sharing it with others and I continued using my own photography as a way to manage my own stress level.  When Marlene added her technical wizardry and photographic tips and laid out the course in Ruzuku, the online teaching platform for all her courses, I could hardly wait to see Take a Break complete and ready to share with the world.


And, thus we have. Photography and self-help merged when Take a Break was launched online on September 10, 2014. 
Within a week, we had students from Canada, the US and as far flung as the UK, Tasmania and even one from Cyprus.  Some of these came to us via Marlene's network of photographers and photography students.  Some via personal connections and others by the amazing process of internet sharing. 


Check it out for yourself.  
If you are at all interested in using your camera for more than 
just recording events, Take a Break may be for you.

http://www.imagemaven.com/take-a-break/ 

This photo was part of a Take a Break assignment on the use of colour.  Purple = abundance. 
To purchase a print see http://www.ruthbergenbraun.com/photography.html