Photo Challenge: Fear

This week's Shutterboo photo challenge is fear. One aspect of this week's prompt that I like is how individual the answers can be.

I, personally, choose to write a blog about my life. My daytime job is standing up in front of a class and teaching. All eyes on me—okay, some eyes on me, some closed, and some on their phones. But still, you get the idea. I was the president of my high school drama club.

Keith, on the other hand, immediately thought of public speaking. To him, a podium in front of a large audience and fear are practically the same thing. I offered some other suggestions, but they were received half-heartedly. Keith felt very strongly that fear could best be exemplified by this initial image.

The hardest part of this week's challenge, then, was not choosing the shot. The hardest part was finding a podium to take a picture of.

Finally, tonight Keith and Eleanor took a walk up to the library at the end of the street. Ironically, Keith had to talk to a stranger to make it happen! (Not as bad as public speaking, but still high on his list of things he typically avoids.) Apparently the library's website listed podiums as being available for the meeting rooms. I don't know exactly how this conversation went, but I can imagine it.

Keith asks a librarian, "Excuse me, do you have a podium?"
Librarian, "A podium?"
Keith, "That's right."
Pause.
"Why do you need a podium?"
"Well, I want to take a picture of it." At this point, I picture him with an embarrassed half-smile, feeling more foolish by the second.
Librarian's eyebrows raise. "Take a picture?"
"Yes. For this project I'm working on." He projects seriousness and reliability. NOT creepy or weird. Not at all.
At this point, I imagine the librarian internally shrugging and thinking whatever.

(Keith is looking over my shoulder reading this as I type, and informing me that he didn't feel that awkward. He knew it was weird, but Eleanor was the ace in his pocket. He can't be that weird; he has an adorable little girl with him!)

However the initial conversation went, the librarian got one out of the closet for him, dragged it into the hall, and stood there and watched while he took pictures. Once Keith got the picture loaded onto the computer, he cropped and shadowed and changed it to black and white, which is always so much more menacing.

I do think it's ironic that he approached someone and initiated an awkward conversation to get a good picture to illustrate his greatest fear. What will the next photo challenge inspire him to tackle?