WEEK 1 Portrait: Self Portrait

Start things off right with a "selfie"! Explore the self-timer setting on your camera.

This self portrait took two sessions.  I wasn't a stranger to taking a selfie on my phone, but transferring that to my DSLR was a different process.  The main problems I came across were focussing, as well as allowing myself to be comfortable in front of a lens.

When it came to focussing I found if I reached out to the camera with my arm the auto focus would just about find me. Solution: Get a Remote Shutter Release.  But seeing as this is the first of many weeks, I thought that could be saved to later.  After all, this is amatuer photography at its most amateurish.

When it came to being comfortable, well, the first session, I just couldn't do it.  I was either way too serious, or way too uncomfortable.   I did however have a nice make-shift photography studio set up in the living room after pulling out the couch, putting in a fold up chair that looks rustic (although never actually seen), and using a lamp that was so bright that it substituted quite well as a flood light.
Either way, I went through a lot of photos, that eventually I thought fuck it. And called it a day.

The next session I wanted to put a lot more emphasis on the subject, and inject some personality into the photo.  Changing rooms to the study, and once again creating a make-shift studio with a lamp/floodlight, I began to use more props. The only prop I retained throughout the shoot was a Batman dressing gown that I threw over a chair, that with the lamp behind it created a nice shadow, comicstrip effect I enjoyed and wanted to keep.

Every other photo I changed clothes, there's a lot of self-esteem issues involved when taking photos of yourself.  How many photos has someone taken of you and you've gone 'oh god that looks terrible'? That was about 2 thirds of this shoot for me.

The rest of the props included covering myself in tinsel, and looking like a twat, using some light guns I owned and shooting them at the camera, which made me look like a twat, and finally using the same light guns and striking a 'cooler' pose, with sunglasses, that at least looked intentionally funny.  Although, still making me look like a twat.  And also I felt, captured a bit more of my personality than the other photos I'd taken.

So there you have it, it doesn't look like much, but there was an awful lot of thought and effort behind this selfie!