When I was a kid, we’d sometimes play a game that involved
fake punching or hitting, getting as close as possible without actually making
contact. The goal was to make the
other person flinch, or, if you were the other kid, to not flinch.
With experience, just about anyone could learn not to
flinch.
When a client hires a photographer for an important job, I
think one of the main things they want and are paying for is no filching. Given enough time, resources and
discussion, many photographers might be able to get the job done. But given the constraints of time and
changing conditions and things not going according to plan, they need someone
who gets it done anyway, like there was never any problem.
You have to be like the kid who, having a fist coming at his
head, remains as cool as a cucumber, because he knows from experience and
practice it’ll be okay.
But maybe it won’t be okay,
right? Photoshoots are complicated and here are ALWAYS problems. Well,
there’s always something to be salvaged and redone if that’s the case, too. Not flinching means digging for what
will work and going with that with all the energy and creativity as if
everything was okay.
We all know sometimes we have to just make it work. And the first step in that is, don’t
flinch.
