Overcoming photo phobia

Today I brought my camera with me to Ethan's swim lesson. I knew I would have to get outside my photography-in-public comfort zone. The pool is at a nearby high school, in a large, heated room with bleachers on one end. A group of thirty or forty parents sit and watch (or not) as simultaneous lessons are run all over the pool.

With the poor lighting and Ethan's group located on the far side of the pool, I knew I would have to walk down poolside to get a half decent shot. I sat in the back of the bleachers and thought about how brave Ethan was to overcome his natural shyness and join a group of strangers to learn something new. Well, if a six year old can face his fears, surely I can walk around in front of an audience and look like a giant tool with a silly camera.






















So I did. Some people looked at me but amazingly, I was ok. Ok enough to take weird shots of random pool-y things. Like this:















And this:





















The diving board shots were tricky and I was not excited about standing where I needed to but it was too good an opportunity to miss. Most of these were blurry; I was trying to do it manually. But I love the way this one came out with the less blurry part being largely centered on Ethan.






















I'm not sure what I was so afraid of.