Helga Paris’s work is from a different era. She photographed East Berlin after WWII when German papers preferred to show photos of a happier reality instead of what was really there. Helga opposed this trend and deliberately worked to capture what life was really like in Berlin at the time. Now, Helga leaves us at the age of 85, so out of respect to the veteran photographer, let’s look back on her work and who she was.

Who was Helga Paris

Helga Paris was born on May 21, 1938, in Gollnow, a small town (at the time) in northern Germany. World War Two would start only a year later, changing the course of her life. Helga had to flee with her mother and sister while her father and brothers were still away from home. She would find herself later living in Zossen, a small town near Berlin. There, she was raised by a community of mostly women, many of whom were workers. This was also when her aunts, who were photographers themselves, first introduced her to photography.

However, Helga did not immediately pursue a photography career. Instead, she studied fashion design in Berlin until 1960. After that, she worked as a commercial graphic designer and later as a costume designer in Berlin. Only after graduating did she begin to use her 6×6 Flexaret camera. She did not start her professional photography career until 1967. And it wasn’t until after the German reunification that her work gained traction.

Alex Smith has been using a camera since she was 7 years old to document her life and the lives of her loved ones. She says, “as a photographer, there’s just one thing that makes me nervous that I have avoided for years: using my speedlight.”

Buried in the bottom of a drawer for 11 years, her speedlight started becoming the little monster in the closet she was scared to use.

“People know you can photograph, so they just assume you can do everything. I don’t want to let them down”, she reflects. Yet, feeling uncomfortable using a flash gave Alex a serious case of impostor syndrome.

Overcoming Fear of Failure

Even if we’ve mastered our craft, there are always aspects we are still learning. Learning is messy. It requires time and practice, not to mention the thing we try to avoid: failure.

Failure leads to self-doubt which stops us from trying in the first place.

CreativeLive instructor Mel Robbins shared in her class How to Break the Habit of Self-Doubt and Build Real Confidence, it’s natural to be feel nervous and scared when we try something new. The result? We either succeed or we survive but either way, we learn something.

Mel emphasizes the key to breaking the cycle of self-doubt is action. Mindset and positive thinking alone cannot break the cycle. When we learn by doing, we build competency. The more competent we become at new skills, we start to experience less fear, less anxiety and increase our real confidence.

Learning a New Skill

To conquer her fear of flash photography, Alex enrolled herself in Mark Wallace’s Speedlights 101 class.

Using her husband as a model, Alex put the class into action by shooting different scenes around her house. Her main goal? Stop using TTL (automatic mode) on her camera flash and start using manual to control the light hitting her subject.

Deliberate practice in a low pressure environment can help us feel comfortable experimenting and making mistakes. The point isn’t to create award winning shots on day one, but to set simple yet challenging goals to start learning the basics.

“Normally I would see a bad shot with my flash and panic. I’d take the flash off and shoot it with natural light.” Yet because Alex intended the session as practice, she was more willing to persevere and keep experimenting.

Permission to Suck

The process of learning involves small wins and a whole lot of failure. The only way around it is through. The key is to give yourself permission to suck and keep the risk small.

Small successes are the building blocks to learning new skills. In his book Creative Calling, CreativeLive CEO Chase Jarvis writes, “your conscious mind is a critic. If you rely on it too much while you’re working, you’ll struggle to make progress.”

His recommendation? Don’t judge your shitty first draft. Just get the draft completed and then start iterating.

Chase reminds us it takes a volume of work to develop skills. It’s not about getting it perfect, it’s about getting it done. As he likes to say: Make it, till you make it.

Alex noted about the practice session, “I’ve come a long way since my first (over exposed) images to giving someone side lighting. That’s a huge win for me.”

“Ideally we never stop learning no matter how old we get”, adds Alex. “I needed to jumpstart this in my own life again. I often find myself avoiding uncomfortable things or situations until they very last minute. It isn’t until there’s a deadline that I pull myself off the couch and get to work.”

Learning to Use Speedlights

If Alex’s first day with her speedlight inspired you to dig out yours, here are some classes she recommends:

What would you do if you lost all of your photos? Years of client work, building up your portfolio, telling stories that matter and precious memories – gone, just like that. It happens more often than we’d like to believe. Hard drives break or get lost, computers crash, and hackers hack. It’s downright unthinkable for a professional photographer, a worst-case scenario.

If reading this fills you to the brim with anxiety, you’re not alone. We’ve got your back.

March 31st is World Backup Day, the perfect time to make sure your photos are backed up and better protected. But at PhotoShelter, every day is World Backup Day. So don’t worry. We’re here to bring you some much-needed peace of mind.

7 things you may not know about PhotoShelter and why we’re the best way to keep your photos safe

1. PhotoShelter was the cloud before the cloud

Since 2005, we’ve operated our own highly secure, lightning-fast network with a track record of 100% durability. We don’t rely on other cloud platforms to keep your images safe, and we’ve never lost a single bit of data. Ever. We’re proud to bring you the most secure cloud-based technology and performance in the industry (and since we were early pioneers of this technology, we have more management experience than other cloud platforms, too).

2. Every aspect of our infrastructure has geo-redundancy

From the network to the servers to the drives that store your photos, your backups have backups here. We keep multiple copies of each file on multiple servers in multiple geographic locations – so you’ll never have to worry about a damaged or lost hard drive again.

3. No restrictions on image type or size (and all the storage you need!)

You’re able to back up ALL of your photos with us. Not just the JPEGs, not just the smaller files. Upload any image format, any size. Give us your RAWs, your TIFFs and everything in between. Add totally unlimited storage with our Pro plan and you can build a truly robust online image archive with absolutely no limitations. 

PhotoShelter has changed my professional life. My process has revolutionized since making the switch and my clients have gotten spoiled. As my equipment improves and my file sizes more than double, I love that unlimited storage doesn’t interrupt the workflow for me or my clients due to space restrictions. Being able to upload full resolution allows my clients to freely choose what download size works best for them, and I can track what images are being downloaded to better learn what works for their creative needs.

Casey Templeton, Corporate & Commercial Photographer

4. Uploads are effortless

Uploading to PhotoShelter is seamless, even when you have a large batch of photos you need to add all at once. From simple drag and drop to our Lightroom and Photo Mechanic plugins, you’ve got options. You can even FTP directly from your camera.

5. We’re all about easy access

Making sure all of your photos are safe and organized in your PhotoShelter archive is great – but not so great if you can’t easily access your files when you need them most. That moment may come when you’re sitting right in front of your computer, or when you’re on a job in a remote location with nothing but your camera, phone and a spotty connection. Either way, we’ve got you covered. Instantly access your entire archive from any device, from anywhere in the world, at any time. All you need is a little bit of wi-fi, and you have full access to all of your files. (Shoutout to our FileFlow app!)

I rely on PhotoShelter daily for my commercial, editorial and fine art photography. I am often traveling on assignment and it is not uncommon for magazines or clients to contact me frantically in need of a certain image. Thankfully, because I’m able to have so many of my photos uploaded to PhotoShelter, I can quickly get them the photos they need. It’s great because it’s so quick for image delivery and it doesn’t matter where I am or where they are. The last 4 cookbooks I’ve photographed have had the high res final images all delivered to the publisher via PhotoShelter.

Paulette Phlipot, Food Photographer

6. PhotoShelter isn’t just a backup

And your archive isn’t just an archive when it’s paired with our powerful, easy-to-use tools. Building your website, sharing and delivering your work, selling prints, licenses or downloads – it all happens here.

7. You control it all

The best part? Whether tagging and organizing your images or setting visibility and access permissions, you’re in control. Make photos public, share galleries with specific clients, or keep things totally private. It’s all up to you.

To date, our secure cloud storage system oversees more than one billion individual files, and that number is constantly climbing. Our members add more than 11 million new files every month! And we take the honor of protecting your data and life’s work with the seriousness it deserves. 

Are you ready to make sure your photos are properly backed up on this World Backup Day? Start your free trial now and see for yourself why PhotoShelter is the best way to keep your files safe, organized and available to you and your clients, 24/7.