I thought I might experiment with one handed selfies. They are so popular at the moment I wanted to see if they were mainly shot up people’s noses out of necessity. Nope. Your arm is long enough to get your chin out and down. Due to the short focal distance there is some distortion of features that occurs with the lens. I used a 35mm. I found shots not looking directly at the camera were better. A distorted, bulbous nose is no friend to any woman’s portrait!
My header is a selfie. One of those creative self portraits we love where we don’t truly show ourselves. Why do we have such an aversion to our own image? The reality of how we look never matches the view we have of ourselves in our minds. The reality check is most often harsh. How many shots did you take for this challenge before you were happy with the result?
I am thinking of exploring portraits. I want to use posing to present the best version of a person to them self so that the reality more closely resembles their mind view. In light of the challenge I decided that I should start on myself. How can I expect others to get in front of my camera if I will not be photographed?
Here I am.
(You may notice I am not in focus. I had prefocused on the fence and didn’t bother redoing it. I am sitting on a reflector in front of my mother’s backyard fence. A ladder made a very nice tripod, which I had forgot to pack. It was my first attempt posing anyone! It took about 7 shots to get a pose I was relatively happy with.)
I am on holiday so with family helping to look after my kids I have more time to post..you may have noticed?! Daily. Twice daily. I love this image.
It’s a shameless selfie. An interesting one in my opinion. If you look closely you can actually see a scene from my husband’s life. My father and son are also present. You see what he sees.
I find it difficult to take a straight self portrait. I have however enjoyed discovering myself hiding in all sorts of places.
I looked deep into my husband’s eyes and found not only myself, but our life.
I was going through my photos the other day. I had such a back log it was ridiculous. I discovered what I think is a bit of a gem amongst them. Its actually taken by my anaesthetist! With a bit of cropping and editing I think it turned out fairly well!
So here is my husband and I meeting our newest addition for the first time in the operating theatre! I think its a great photo. What do you think?
Thanks Anaesthetist!…boy, the things we do for our blog.
I am about as uninteresting as stereotypical people go.
I am a stay at home mum. I have three boys. I spend my days making sure they don’t hurt themselves or each other…Um, that’s it.
You can imagine that although I wouldn’t trade even one second of my time with my kids, after 4 years, I needed something a bit different to prevent my brain from turning completely to mush. When I got my first smart phone I got a hobby. Taking photos.
4 years later the smartphone has changed and alternates with my DSLR. The later is my ultimate challenge. I imagine I will feel frustrated by it and love it dearly for the rest of my life. But although I am isolated, between my children and my photography I will never be bored.
Here is me on any given day.
Happy Movember Everyone.
Movember is about raising awareness of Men’s Issues. Particularly focusing on health and mental wellbeing. Its just as important for men to seek help when they think something isn’t quite right. Best nip it in the bud before it blows out into a major problem right? You still don’t have to ask for directions (wink).
You can find out more about Movember here.
All hail Tom Selleck.
I wore my hair down today. “So?” I hear you say. I haven’t worn my hair down since W was born. So I decided to take a photo and then I decided to play with the flash. I didn’t mind the results, but when I asked R which shot he preferred he couldn’t say. I couldn’t either. So I thought I would post them both. Its a narcissistic, self indulgent venture, but if you have a preference and you can tell me WHY I’d appreciate the feedback. Sometimes I find it hard to pinpoint what it is that I like in a photo. It bugs me.
I have 2 for shadow.
The first is another self portrait I like for the colour and shape.
The second I call “We’re hunting dinosaurs!”
Today my family was on another long drive. My husband and I always argue over who gets to do the driving because we both like to drive, it doesn’t matter where we are going. Anyway, today he got to do the driving. So I decided that the best way to spend my time was to take a million photos from the moving vehicle. It can be pretty hard to get a clear focus of the trees whizzing past, but our car and us were consistent so I took a photo of me…again. Another self portrait! As an aside, I am particularly proud of the pinky flair happening in the photo! Who knew I take photos the same way you might drink a cup of tea? Does make for a pleasing shape though. Let’s pretend I did it on purpose for the composition.
I was photographing some vintage cars that happened to park themselves in my vicinity today and noticed the perfect opportunity for a self portrait. I will post some more photos of the cars later, but here I am in the wheel of a 1962 R Series Chrysler Valiant. I don’t know much about cars, but it did strike me as being a beautiful wheel (and car for that matter, but the wheel had its own beauty).
Lesson: if you get in my line of view and I find you interesting I WILL photograph you. That includes inanimate objects. End lesson.
Learning the Light 