>>2924691Flash photography intimidates me.
There. I said it. I have had far too many panic attacks about this. I hated flash photography from the day I first met a studio flash kit. It was in a room full of 40 other people, no one had taken out their notebooks and at that time I suffered from such crippling anxiety that I couldn’t bring myself to go against the crowd, even when it would have been so OBVIOUSLY sensible to do so. I was so anxious about being called up by the lecturer, to try and set up the lights myself (“If no one volunteers I’ll pick on someone…”) that I absorbed not a single piece of information from the lecture, apart from THESE LIGHTS ARE VERY EXPENSIVE, THEY ARE WORTH MORE THAN YOUR LIFE. That first lesson left me so stressed, that when I had any kind of “flash photography workshop” from then on, I instantly fell into panic and couldn’t learn a single thing.
Today I challenged my fear of flash. It was not without stress, but with a patient guide, and a lot of deep, healing breaths, I did it. I’m tentatively optimistic about the results. Tip: buy shares in AAA batteries. Additional tip: command strips, also buy shares in command strips.
This may seem like a ridiculously stupid fear, and such a small achievement to everyone else, but to me it is huge. Getting better (both mentally, and at doing things) is all about facing the things that once terrified us into avoidance.
Keep challenging yourself.
I’m off to blink until I stop seeing green and purple spots.
