When My Hair Caught on Fire - Mishaps and Lessons Learned

In this episode of The Wedding Frame, I’m sharing a couple of mishaps that happened while I was working recently. One involves photographing a birthday party with open flame candles and accidentally catching my hair on fire. The other involves dropping my camera and damaging a lens. Both moments were unexpected and embarrassing, but they also reminded me how quickly things can happen when you are moving through an event.

I talk about what these situations taught me about staying calm, being aware of your surroundings, and having backup gear ready when something goes wrong. Mistakes and mishaps are part of working in fast-paced environments like weddings and events, and learning how to recover is part of becoming an experienced photographer.

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Transcript

Hello. So I am calling this episode Mishaps and Lessons Learned. The inspiration struck me when I saw a fellow wedding photographer's post in which he said that he was at a wedding. He had just gotten out of his car and was taking out his luggage, you know, his equipment from the trunk. And all of a sudden the car behind him… you know where this is going. The driver hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and hit him and pinned him to the back of his car.

Now it wasn't bad enough to where he didn't then go on to shoot the wedding, which to me was crazy. But his whole point of that post is that even though he was in a lot of pain, the adrenaline kicked in and he was able to keep the couple from knowing what had happened. The adrenaline pushed him to finish, I think it was like a seven or eight hour wedding. And it just struck me and made me think about the times that maybe I had a mishap. So we're going to do story time. And I'm going to start with the fact that anytime I have seen a video of a wedding photographer, like those embarrassing videos where they're walking backwards during a ceremony and fall into a lake, I can't even finish those videos. I am too empathetic and I feel all of the embarrassment. I know I would be mortified and also wondering what happened to their equipment and how it ruined the moment. I don't know, I can't watch those. So here we go with my story time.

So this happened not that long ago and literally I haven't had anything go wrong until this. Let me start by saying that it wasn't a wedding. It was a birthday party for a reality TV star. And I of course arrived early. Her friend is the one who booked me. I'm just so thankful that hardly anyone was there yet, because let me tell you what happened.

I was taking pictures of the table and there were open flame candles on the table, tall ones, and I think you can see where this is going. I was leaning to get a cool angle of the centerpieces. All of a sudden I hear gasps, but before that I hear sizzling. And yes, that was my hair that caught on fire. Oh my gosh. So I hear the sizzle, I hear a few gasps, and then all of a sudden this man ran towards me and was patting me, like furiously patting my hair. Oh my gosh. I was so embarrassed. I didn't even think about what could have happened because I literally didn't realize that that sizzle noise was my hair catching on fire. Of course if it had gotten worse I would have realized, and in that moment I was not thinking about how I could have burned my scalp or something. I'm just so thankful to that man who took action. My God, the whole restaurant smelled like my burnt hair. I was so mortified. But I was really calm and collected. I was really proud of myself. I just went to the restroom and started dealing with it. Hair started falling off the back of my head and it was right in the back.

I think the reason it all happened is because I didn't know there was a candle behind me. That's why it caught on fire. I must have missed that candle behind me. So I was in the bathroom taking pieces of my hair out and trying to rinse it because I smelled like smoke. I did not want this high profile client of mine to know what had happened or to smell me full of smoke. My God, what a crazy situation. Even though I was shaking inside, I kept it together. I do think there is a reason why a lot of wedding venues do not allow open flame candles and there you go, that is the perfect example of why. And also when she walked into the restaurant the staff lined up the entrance with sparklers. Again, I don't think that was a great idea, but when it comes to any kind of celebrity I guess the rules can be bent.

And then another mishap happened not that long ago. That hair incident happened about four months ago and then last month I was at a venue taking pictures for the venue. It wasn't an event. I was walking down the hallway and I don't know how I tripped, but my camera went flying. I picked it up and it seemed fine, but when I tried to take pictures my zoom lens was stuck. It wasn't zooming in and out.

So that was kind of a costly mistake that I could have avoided if I had had the strap on my camera. But for some reason I feel like it is cumbersome and I never have a strap on my camera when it is just a single camera in my hands. Of course I wear the harness when I have my two cameras on. Anyway, I had to pay to get that lens fixed and I had just gotten that lens. I think it was the second time I had used it. I'm sure we all have these kinds of stories, but this episode is really about how you recover and how you can maybe avoid some of these mishaps.

So now let's talk about the lessons that can be learned. Mishaps can feel catastrophic in the moment. Your brain screams, your stomach drops, and you feel like everything is on fire. Literally, in my case. But these moments are the ones that shape you. They teach resilience. They teach composure. They teach you that if you can survive a hair fire, you can survive anything on a wedding day.

Weddings are also fast moving productions. Like I said, things go wrong. Your gear can fail. The timeline can totally change. I don't think there is any wedding that I have shot in which the timeline hasn't shifted or changed. When things go wrong, your role is to remain steady while all of that is happening. You have to be calm and have intentional behavior because that shapes the energy of everyone around you. You should be someone who helps everyone feel secure. Of course that is not technically part of our job description, but there is so much more to being a wedding photographer than just photography. Acting decisively, moving with intention, and being aware of your body language is very important because even subtle gestures are observed and people respond to that kind of energy. Maintaining focus and clarity allows the day to continue smoothly even through unexpected challenges.

For instance, when I dropped my camera on the floor and the lens jammed, I couldn't use that lens anymore. I'm glad my camera was fine and I also had an extra camera in my bag. But I had to quickly respond and switch lenses and then re strategize how I was going to shoot what I had intended to shoot with my 24 to 70 millimeter. Thank goodness for backup gear and having a good variety of lenses in your toolkit.

Some practical tips for maintaining composure would be to practice mindfulness. Breathing exercises and brief pauses can strengthen your nervous system. Visualize potential mishaps and mentally rehearse solutions. I think I am constantly doing that because I am so analytical that in any situation I am always finding different solutions or analyzing different possibilities and variations. That kind of thinking actually lessens the blow when there is a surprise. Reflecting after events is also very important. We need to look back on the day and maybe give yourself a pat on the back for how you reacted, or realize that you could have done something in a different way and keep that in mind for the next event or wedding.

Here are some more practical steps to hold the day together. Scan the room constantly because awareness is what allows proactive intervention. Use grounded body language so that you are being perceived as someone who is calm, constant, and confident. It is also good to have a toolkit ready with backup gear, emergency supplies, and backup plans.

Communicate strategically. Giving instructions in a calm manner and using very direct language that is straight to the point is great for preventing confusion.

Now let's talk about an aspect that not a lot of us think about, which is the physical awareness and endurance required on a wedding day. Wedding photography is surprisingly physical. Probably not surprising to you photographers, but at least the first time you do it you realize, wow, I feel like I ran a marathon.

You are doing a lot of walking, crouching, climbing stairs, and navigating crowded dance floors. All of that movement can cause accidents because your awareness can slip, so you need to constantly be observing your surroundings. Experience teaches intentional movement and endurance. Shooting eight to twelve hours without letting exhaustion compromise your composure is important. You have to hydrate, have your snacks, and have supportive shoes. I always have a million snacks. Sometimes I change into more comfortable shoes if I want to look presentable throughout the ceremony and then later during the reception I will switch shoes. You have to think about all of those little things in order to prevent anything from going wrong. Of course you cannot always control the situation. In my case with my hair catching on fire, I am still not quite sure how I missed that candle behind me, but I must have been moving too quickly. That definitely made me think that I need to slow down and truly observe every element of the area I am photographing.

These kinds of mistakes are not often talked about in the wedding world. People do not like to get vulnerable. But talking about it actually builds community. Something has happened to someone else where things did not go right. Sharing the way that you handled something is going to either teach a lesson to another photographer or make them relate to you and feel like we are all human and not perfect.

It is important to have patience with yourself and self compassion. Really trust your abilities. Do not let one thing that happened lessen the way you see yourself and your ability to do everything right just because one thing did not go right one time. One mistake or mishap is not going to define you. Consistency, resilience, and growth are what will define your career.

Like I said, if you have been doing this long enough, something has gone wrong. Maybe your camera froze. Maybe you tripped. Maybe you misjudged part of the timeline. Maybe your hair caught on fire in front of a reality TV star. Okay, sorry, not in front of the star, thank God.

But anyway, you are still here. You are still doing the thing. Still booking, still growing, still delivering galleries you are proud of. And that really matters. These kinds of things do not disqualify you. They initiate you. It is almost like a rite of passage to becoming seasoned. You start out thinking professionalism means everything runs perfectly. Then you realize professionalism means everything keeps moving even when it does not run perfectly. You learn how to breathe before reacting. You learn how to scan a room before stepping in. You learn how to stay steady when everything else and everyone else may feel a little wobbly because of circumstances. You need to be the steady one for your couples.

Slowly you become the person that other vendors trust. They talk about how you were composed when something went wrong or how you handled a difficult situation. You become the photographer who can laugh about these moments. That evolution is earned through every awkward moment, every repair you had to pay for, every timeline pivot, every internal freak out that you handled with grace. It builds something in you beyond your skills as a photographer. It builds stability, depth, authority, and a little bit of humor too. Because one day you are going to tell a new photographer about the time your hair caught on fire and they are going to look horrified and you are going to smile and say, you will have your story too.

So if you find yourself in any situation where something went wrong, just take a breath. You are becoming a more seasoned photographer who can handle anything. The fact that you care enough to reflect on it says everything.

Alright friends, that is today's episode of The Wedding Frame. Thank you for being here with me while I tell my very embarrassing story, but hopefully it helps you learn a lesson or prepare for how to handle something that may go wrong.

Take care everyone. Bye.