Embracing My Weakness in Photography

I had no idea what I was doing.

There I was, standing in a room filled with other bloggers at the Viking Picture Perfect event as Elouisa presented us her photography masterclass. I had my camera in my hands and I was trying to figure out what on earth an ‘F-stop’ was, my eyes occasionally flicking to the screen as I tried to keep up. Have you ever seen a chicken hold a camera? Well, that’s how I felt. After a few snaps I sighed and slipped back into the comfort of Auto mode.

The problem with a comfort zone is that you’re not very likely to step out of it, and I was feeling very comfortable in that small section on my camera with a green “A”. But I knew my time had come to break out of that when I found myself in this photography masterclass. It wasn’t easy. I often switched back and forth between auto and manual and would grind my teeth in frustration that my photos weren’t coming out exactly how I wanted to. My emotions slipped through my fingers as I fumbled around to try and figure out what exactly I was doing wrong.

Every blogger has a weakness, and mine was photography.

I never really thought about photography when I first started blogging; I mean, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I started to ditch the mirror selfies and take actual outfit shots. But fast forward to this very moment as I hold up a white foam board to try and do my best to reflect the UV light my friend Fay was holding up was very difficult. Was it making a difference? Was I angling it okay? Thank goodness it was all about team work because I was very much a clueless chicken. Then it was my turn to take some photos and guess what? I stayed in auto mode. My comfort zone. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I switch back and forth to try the two options out. Manual and auto. Then it was more auto and less manual.

The less I gave a f*ck about being in manual mode, the happier I was, and soon I was darting around the room and happily clicking away. I took photos I would never have thought I’d take (like that portrait of the abstract lady that I took through a prism) and didn’t care if they weren’t 100%. I never really had the chance to take photos like this before as I’m usually the one standing in front of the camera, not behind it, which gave me a nice sense of freedom.

As I got back home I still had that nagging sense of guilt that maybe I should’ve given manual mode more of a chance, but you know what? I did my best. My biggest weakness is photography and this photography masterclass encouraged me to embrace that, and I can’t thank Viking/Elouisa enough for that. I don’t think I’ll be getting out of the auto-comfort-zone anytime soon, but at least I can give it a try every now and then.

What is your biggest weakness? How are you embracing it?

Love,
Lizzie xx