Self Portraits

I know that a lot of fashion bloggers have photographer friends take outfit photos for them, but I mostly take my own photos, and I find that it presents a fun challenge. I've always been into self portraits because I like have complete creative control and because there's something magical about capturing your own image. I think that self portraits show a person from an interesting perspective and there is always something interesting captured in them.

Long before I event thought about blogging I was taking self portraits for fun and as a way to express myself simultaneously in front of and behind the camera. Here are some I took from around age 16 to 20 . . .

(On vacation with my friend Lauren, in the background, when I was 17)

(Me lost and losing sight of my self during freshman year at drama school)

(before prom)

(I thought this made a fun additional prom picture. It's from the night before prom. I wanted to show the anti-glamor of getting ready.)

(These snow ones are some of my favorite self-portraits I've ever done. I got super cold, but it was so worth it for these shots.)

(Sometimes I just get lucky with the amazing things the light does and other times I make a real effort to seek it out.)

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If you've never tried to do self portraits or if you've always been disappointed with the results here are a few tips.

1. Take risks with your poses and creative ideas. Since you are the photographer, there's no one around to judge you, so don't be embarrassed. Try anything you think might work. Save the editing for after you've got the shots; be uninhibited in the moment of posing and composing.

2. If need be, use a prop to set the focus. Then, utilizing your camera's self timer function, replace the prop with your own body so that you'll be in focus when the photo is snapped.

3. Have patience with yourself. Just figuring out how to frame the shot and put yourself in focus may take some time so don't hurry or let yourself get frustrated. You will have many bloopers, but they're worth the satisfaction of that one great shot.

4. Tools like MacBook's "Photo Booth" or the screen-side camera on the iPhone 4 make it easy to take a picture while looking at yourself. This makes posing much easier. Of course the quality isn't as high as with a nicer camera, but you'll still get some interesting shots. The photos about of me in the snow, were taken with "Photo Booth." I had my laptop on a towel on the snow and it made the whole process faster (important since I was so cold) and lots of fun.

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If you're a regular reader, you may recognize some of the following shots. Most are from the last year and many have been see on the blog or on the blog's facebook page. But did you know that they're all self portraits? All the railroad track photos are too, but I'm not reposting them because that was so recent.

I hope this post inspires you to take some self portraits yourself. Don't forget to have fun and let me know how it works out, won't you?

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