Adventures in Self Portraits

Why is it so hard to take a good picture of yourself?

This is the question I set out to find the answer to.  And I have to tell you, the answer doesn't come easy.  After a little research, I found that there are a bunch of different ways to take a self-portrait.  Some of these methods are involved, and a good project for the serious photographer.

However, I am not a serious photographer.  I would even use the term photographer in the loosest sense, if I was describing myself (seeing that I have only taken one photography course.)  So for the past week, I have tried to get some self portraits in different places.  This was not an easy task.

Not easy at all.

For starters, I am not an easy target to shoot.  I squint.  I have freckles.  One of my nostrils is bigger than the other.  I have a lot of hair to get in the frame.  These are all problems that I convinced myself I had.

So needless to say, none of my initial pictures made me happy.

I had to take a long hard look in the mirror.  I started to make a list of things that I liked about my face.  This is a hard task.  I swear it is.  Most days I like what I look like.  But some days, I don't.  So for 5 days, I had to look in the mirror and find 2 different things (that's 10 total) that I liked about my face.  Here is the list:

1. I love my hair.  It is unique, and curly, and dense like a wild overgrown forest. 
2. I like that my face is not symetrical. I have a mole on my cheek.  My mom used to call it my beauty mark.
3. I have great teeth.  It took a lot of work and time to get them this way.  I appreciate that.
4. I like my freckles.  Only some people notice them. 
5. I still love my nosering.  My mom flipped when I got it. Remembering that still makes me laugh.
6. I have nice lips.  I like 'em.
7. I like that my face changes daily.  It never looks the same.
8. I have a very expressive face.  I wear all my emotions on my face. 
9. I like the small wrinkles that I have around my eyes.  I take that to mean that I laugh a lot.
10. I like my blush.  I blush at almost anything.  When the men in the musical I'm in are getting ready to change in front of me I turn red.  Its inconvenient, but I think its endearing.

Try to make a list yourself, it is tough.  It took me 5 days to figure out that there were 10 different things about my face!   But I'm glad that I did, because it has given me a whole new perspective on pictures of myself.

So armed with the list of "face-likes," I tried to focus on each of those things in a picture.

I learned that not every pic is going to be one that I think is great- but all the pics do have something great in them.  I put the 2 I liked the best in this post.

I like something in each of them. After my self-portrait project, I took to the blogosphere to see what people had to say about taking self pics.  I found some really inspiring pictures (link).  And some really great advice (link).

I think that I will keep trying to take that great self-portrait.