Working as a flight attendant I get to see people who are afraid to fly. They will have a tight grip on the armrest, breathing is short, eyes are open wide and constantly searching all that is around them, ears are alert to every sound. Once the aircraft lifts from the ground their bodies tighten and become rigid. Fear is in control.
Fear runs ramp-id in our world, cheating some of us from living life to its fullest. The biggest regrets in my life have been those times I failed to try due to fear of failure, which is failure. I wonder how many images I have missed because I was white knuckling it. Each day I have the chance to experience life outside my comfort zone and maybe learn something wonderful. It’s all about letting go and trusting.
5 Comments
QPB
Powerful image, powerful writing, powerful message. Excellent.
Monte Stevens
@Mary Ann: Thanks. I’m pretty sure you can relate to what I wrote.
Ray Ketcham
Excellent Image Monte, most problems are based on fear, the fear of looking bad or not measuring up. Once you get over the fear of what other people are going to think about you and that fear of failing then you can know real freedom. Not sure what letting go is but I do know I shed that failure fear a long time ago.
I kinda like the physical fear thing and the adrenalin that goes with it, although having been broken up enough I am slowing down on the adrenalin thing, along with the age thing.
Mark
Great message Monte. Just curious as to how you went about taking this photo…
Monte Stevens
During one of our a sit time on an aircraft between flights I had the flight attendant working with me pose for this. I had him grip the armrest while I knelt down in the aisle and shot with a shallow DOF. I have watched passengers as they white knuckle turbulence and visualized this shot. This is not exactly what I had in mind but it comes close. I also knew what I wanted to write, I just needed the image.