Easy to put together, they said! Has its own carrying case to take with you to shoots, they said, which I promptly thought there’s no way in hell I’m ever taking this on location. Let me show you how easy it is, they said in all the many videos on YouTube showing how it’s done.
Uh, not so fast. Naturally, I put it together the wrong way the first time. Took it apart. Watched the video again. This one goes here, that one goes there. Wait, what are these extra ones for? Took it apart again, figured out the extra piece.
Oh, see this here, it’s for the tension you’ll need to pull the fabric. You just put it in there and screw the wing nuts in. Easy Peasy.
Sure it is.
It’s so easy for me to get that feeling that I’m very familiar with: “This won’t work for me, it always works for other people, how come I can’t put this together?” That very discouraging kind of feeling.
Me, not so much.
My whole photography journey has been like this. Honestly, if you knew the things I’ve had to put together. My storage closet is filled with gadgets, light stands, soft boxes. I even have a little box with pieces of things that I have put together that I don’t know where the little pieces now belong or what I should even do with them.
Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, the poles that hold my backdrops. Where does one buy backdrops? How in the world can I get them up there? Even Squarespace where this blog is hosted, (drove me crazy) I’ve had to figure it all out! It’s taken years of frustration, confusion, doubts, fatigue, and even worry. But here’s the thing: there would be an empty closet, no client green room, no makeup room, (they’d be used for other purposes for sure) I wouldn’t know my favorite people that I love working with, I wouldn’t know many of my clients, even this desk I’m typing on wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the fact that one day I opened my the box my previous camera came in and said “I’m sure I can figure it out.”
So, now my current project I did it. I put it together! And she’s a beauty! Quite bigger actually than I thought it would be. What is it? It’s a reflector, of course. It curves and surrounds my client. I can see how someone would feel rather safe in front of it, to be honest. And I can’t wait to get someone in front of it to reflect light back to all the right places.
Aren’t you proud of me?
