Category Archives: Self-portrait

Inspiration

Inspired by Karen McRae’s post, Trichoto(me),  I played with layering some self-portraits I’ve taken. My camera does not allow me to do multiple exposures in camera, so I did these in Photoshop. This was a fun experiment this morning and something I’ll want to keep working on.

In this image, I pulled the pensive layer to 25% opacity and did some strategic erasing to emphasize my upturned face in the original layer.

In this one, both layers are at 100% opacity,  with strategic erasing to create the effect.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Selfie

This week’s photo challenge called for something a bit different.  I’ve been sitting on these after-the-shower photos for a few weeks now.

I eat, work, sleep, and dream in these earrings. With rare exception, I have them in my ears at all times. I feel naked without them.

Left.

Right.

The same goes for this necklace;  a gift from my daughter. You can also see the shadow from my pacemaker and the insertion scar. My less-than-perfect heart – also me.

Snap!

My Hands

I have my mother’s hands. Strong, peasant stock. I’ve always been a bit self-conscious of them. With my short, crooked, bony fingers, I’ll never be a hand model.  But last Mother’s Day, my daughter wrote something very special for me and I’ve never looked at my hands with loathing again.  I’ve combined her words with a self-portrait I shot this past weekend.

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First Run

I received some special  photography gifts  for Christmas. The big gift is a 47″ octabox from Paul C. Buff (for my Einstein strobe). I also asked for a second Cyber Commander receiver and a hot shoe converter for my Speedlite so I could use it in tandem with the strobe.

I broke everything out of the boxes this morning and with no one but me or the critters to shoot I took everything out for a test drive. I shot this in our living room with my back to the bay window. Octabox to camera right and slightly feathered. My Speedlite providing fill was at camera left (shot into a white umbrella to soften) and angled down. I opened the blinds behind me and to camera left to provide a bit of back light (I have a bay window and the blinds that I opened sit at a 45 degree angle from the main window.

The light behind my head is caused by the octabox wrapping around me and reflecting off the surface of the blinds.

I’ll keep working on it.

In this second one I had closed the blinds behind me.

 

“Smile, Baby!”

For Alain and Emilio.  Happy now?*

* Sometimes a portrait is trying to be more than a grinning face, and being told that my self-portraits would be ‘better’ if I smiled, feels a lot like the experience women have when they walk down the street and have strange men tell them to “smile.” Why do they feel they have the right to do that?  My body.  My self. My smile.