For those who celebrate, Halloween happens this month in the US. It’s a spooky, scary time that brings up many photography fears. Kids will be dressing in their costumes and (maybe?) parading around their neighborhoods to collect their annual loot of candy and goodies. Tricky lighting, uncooperative kids and all those buttons leave many moms scared of their cameras.
Yep, you heard me correctly.
Our cameras are pretty darn frightening sometimes.
So many moms I meet are downright scared of their cameras. They’re afraid to take them out of AUTO mode for fear of what might happen to their pictures when they aren’t using automatic settings.
Are you one of these moms?
Have you been one of them in the past?
I was.
As I thought about what scared me most about my camera in the past (and what sometimes still does!), I was able to narrow down to 3 main photography fears. Today I’d like to share them with you, along with a bit of encouragement for how I move through each one.
3 Common Photography Fears
#1: Getting spooked by all those buttons and settings
When I was first learning about technical photography and working with a point and shoot camera, I was extremely eager to get my hands on a DSLR. With a bigger camera I could finally begin putting together the pieces about ISO, aperture, and shutter speed that were so limited on my little compact point-and-shoot. When I finally did get a DSLR in my hot little hands, I realized I was in over my head! There were so many dials, buttons, menus, and additional settings I had never heard of and I froze. As I became brave enough to pick that camera up and use it I was discouraged because my pictures got waaaaay worse before they got better. It wasn’t until I broke the camera down into manageable pieces and learned each button and setting one at a time that it all finally started to make sense to me and my photos started to improve.
Tweet this now —> Progress happens when you take baby steps and don’t try to conquer everything once. (click to tweet)
#2: Capturing horrific, dreadful, or monstrous expressions
Every mom wants those picture perfect moments of their children joyfully smiling, laughing, or grinning from ear to ear for the camera. After all, you want them to remember what an amazing childhood they had with you once they’re all grown up, right? When I became a mom and began capturing images of Brielle I finally understood this fear and this moving past it is still a struggle for me. Most of our camera time together these days is spent with me making funny faces, noises, or expressions just trying to get that one smiling image before she runs away or loses interest in whatever cute thing she’s doing. I have to remind myself each time I pick up the camera that there is value in every moment. That picture of Brielle red-faced, tearful, and throwing a tantrum will be great payback on her wedding day. Take the bad with the good and keep reminding yourself that those truly monstrous images — the ones that turn out blurry, dark, or expressionless can simply be deleted because of the magic of digital technology. Realistically I only keep about 20% of what I shoot because the rest is just dreadful, and that’s OK.
#3: Being caught in the dark
Have you ever noticed that as soon as the sun goes down it’s extremely tough to capture crisp, clear, true to color photos? With you flash off, photos end up a blurry yellow or orange mess. With the flash on, everyone either looks like a ghost or red eyed zombie. It’s true that a camera needs good light to work properly, but don’t let that scare you out of trying to take photos after the sun goes down! I am personally not a fan of flash photography, so to get around that limitation I make sure to snap my evening photos around the house as close to table lamps or overhead lamps as possible (and for all you technical whizzes out there I use a high ISO too!). The ratio of bad photos in the evening usually increases dramatically for me because of the lightning challenges, but it doesn’t mean I that I don’t still try to snap away after dark!
I know how easy it is to feel overwhelmed, silly, or alone in your photography frustrations. I know because I’ve been there in that place where you want to take ‘good’ photos so badly, but you also fee like you don’t have to time, resources, or encouragement to take your photos to that next level. Hopefully by sharing some of my own fears with you today, you’ll realize that you really are not alone and you’ll gain some new found courage or confidence you need to keep on learning that camera of yours.
Your turn:
Do my top 3 photography fears ring true for you? What else spooks you about your camera? Or scares you about photography in general? Leave a comment below and share your fears. Let’s all support one another in working through them and realizing we aren’t alone.
Are you ready to conquer your photography fears?
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