Flashing during photo countdown?

I’ve seen this asked before, but it never seems to get the right response. When I’m taking a photo using the countdown feature occasionally, but not at all every time, there are flashes during the countdown. They are not rhythmic, they don’t go in a certain time or order, they just come randomly, a different number of times every time. It also seems to happen only when I’m taking racier photos, so I’ve always thought it could someone watching through my camera and taking photos of me. Is that even possible? What is really happening?