jeff walker
@jsw0109 my partner for the get push challenge this week issued the following challenge: "This week I want you to face a fear and get a shot that you can only get by being stronger than your fear."
there are a few things i fear in life. one is to end up homeless - i have worked hard to make sure that this would never happen, and if it does, i still have property back in the old country; i can go back there and still live comfortably.
two, to have a stroke like my mother which severely curtailed her freedom. but it's a health issue over which i can have control. thankfully, i am in good health and my cholesterol is under control.
from early childhood, i had fears of airplane sound and snakes. i would wake up from a bad dream if i hear airplane sounds. of course, it didn't help that growing up, our house was situated near the american air base. my father liked to tell people stories of little me climbing up to his neck from the opposite corner of our house in two seconds flat whenever a plane took off or passed overhead!
the philippines have a number of snake species that are poisonous. my mother, whose family members were farmers, had a few relatives who had died from snake bites. i had a grown up cousin who one day was sitting on the steps of their bamboo house, just before dusk, saw a small snake rolling around on the ground. she was quite amused by it, but apparently, that particular specie of snake would do that after biting a human or animal. before midnight, that cousin fell sick and died. autopsy indicated she died of snake poison; she was bitten on the leg.
ever since i was young, i only need to have a glimpse of a dead snake and it is enough to give me nightmares. i never owned a bag or pair of shoes made of snakeskin or even fake snakeskins; nor have i worn anything with animal prints especially snake prints. whenever i was gifted with such things, they all automatically go to the amity or salvation army. they never stayed long in my home. when i was nineteen, i was given hypnotherapy to clear these airplane sound and snake fears. the nightmares brought about by airplane sound went away after that. the snake fear never left me.
today, i went to the toronto zoo to take a photo and face my fear of snakes. i normally take a dozen shots of anything. but peering through the EVF of my camera, i made sure this shot is short and quick but in focus. this post will be moved to an older date after today so that i do not have to see it again.
@henrir - thank you, henri.
@summerfield congratulations on facing a fear... you faced a big one! You got a good capture here. I actually came up with the idea for your push when I faced my own fear taking pictures of that spider recently. Doesn't it feel good to have faced a fear though and come out alive?
@olivetreeann - thank you, ann. i was looking at this earlier and i thought it was a pretty good shot. so i think tomorrow i will relegate it to a 2011 date, maybe even 2005. :-)
@jsw0109 - thank you, jeff. am so glad you approve. i slept quite well and didn't have any bad dreams or nightmares. i suppose looking at this through the lens was the same as staring down my fear right in the eye. i still fear these animals or anything bigger than myself and i know i will still get the nightmare when i least expect it. you know, i have an uncle who was an intelligence/tactical officer in the US army, big man, very smart, but i didn't like him because he was bossy and arrogant. then i found out he was terribly scared of spiders, he actually would climb on a table and call out his aunts and cousins if he sees a tiny spider, cowering and crying. the one time he was in the field in korea, he was actually surrounded by a large contingent of marine troops because they were afraid the enemy might get to him and all they had to do was to dangle a spider in his face and he'll give up whatever war secrets he knew. as for me, i know that if i was a spy, got caught and threatened to be thrown into a snake pit, i still wouldn't tell the enemy the truth because i know they'd still throw me into a snake pit. haha!
@pandorasecho - thank you, dixie. i do have a lot of respect for snakes, but i still don't like them. :-)
@myautofocuslife - thank you, livia. i'm a coward, too. i was actually waiting for the live feeding demo but it was cancelled and i think i was secretly thankful i didn't have to see it outside of a glass cage.
@abhijit - thank you, ab; appreciate that muchly.
this is my first 365 album which i started on jan. 1, 2011. then on jan. 1, 2012 i continued on with 2 albums. i was going to ditch the first album but there are days when i wanted to post three crappy photos rather than just the usual one. :-)
this posting was actually done for a sept. 2012 get pushed challenge but i didn't want to be looking at it during the month - i hate snakes, they make me have nightmares - so i parked it here; i didn't want to delete it then because i didn't want to lose the comments. i should really strive to save all these postings as i might want to 'retire' from 365 one of these days. however, i admit i am soooo addicted to the camaraderie on here. i learned so much here, so much more than those photography courses i took when i was younger back in manila. back then i was "all gears no idea" hahaha! did i bore you some more?
So what was your first shot? I did gather from your comments above that this one was hidden in the past...