This message is inspired by my last Facebook post in which I showed this picture of Jack & me which I was really happy with, except for the placement of my arms.
Alot of people were very sweet about loving the photo, and I totally love it too.
Alot of people thought I was crazy and that nothing was wrong with it.
One of my very oldest friends encouraging said I often look good in my FB pictures to which I replied that it was all a carefully constructed ruse; Because 98% of photos that are taken of me or that I take of me are not awesome. Sometimes this is nitpicking and doesn't take away form my enjoyment of the photo and the moment it represents. Sometimes people actually wouldn't recognize me because the bad photo doesn't look anything like the photos I allow on FB and hopefully doesn't look like the real me either. Look, I'm not saying that I only accept beautiful photos as memories I'm willing to keep. But, as a photographer and someone who loves photos and someone who yearns to be able to capture the beauty of love and real life in a beautiful photo, learning how to represent myself in a manner pleasing to me DURING a beautiful moment so that a camera can cement it is important.
For a lot of you, pictures are just plain a pain in the butt. In a lot of ways, the artifice of getting a good photo ruins the result for you.
For a lot of you, love IS beauty and therefore bandying around with whether the representation meets with ridiculous beauty standards is immaterial.
These tips are not not for you people ;). I validate and appreciate that you exist and that you are there to remind us that life is more important than the representation of it. BUT for those of you heading into the holidays, sick of feeling beautiful in the moment only to either have NO pictures to commemorate it or pictures that make you wonder which mirror you were looking in that you felt beautiful in the first place. These tips are for you. So...
Getting the picture you want of yourself in TWO steps:
Lean In Physically: The camera does actually lie and can actually be tricked. Even if you don't know what sort of lens you're being shot by (hint: camera phones are wide angle), leaning yourself toward the camera as naturally as you can is probably a good idea. Whatever is closest to the camera is biggest, so leaning away not can create a double chin problem, but also leaves your hips out in the front by a few important inches.
Lean In Emotionally: If you want to take a great picture, you have to let go of the facade that you don't care what you look like or if you get a great picture. You have to put some emotion, some spirit into your face/ body language. You have to be ok with people knowing that you tried to get a good picture. And that can be very uncomfortable.
In the photo below (taken by Tim Scheidler). It was Christmas Eve 2010and I was in the stage of life that I hated my hair down unless styled. The only pictures of myself from the last several holidays had not been what I wanted them to be. So I swallowed my pride, grabbed poor Steve Scheidler as my prop, handed my brother-in-law the camera and asked to just please take a bunch to see if any worked out. I knew I needed to lean and look the way I wanted in order for the camera to capture it (despite my feeling like there would never be another good picture of me again and if the camera was actually representing what i look like walking around then I needed an intervention). Steve was thinking I was crazy, so he was joking around and messing with me. But I wanted a good picture, so, rather than pull away and give him an eye roll and a "you're such a dork" face, I put the expression on my face I wanted to portray (i.e. I really really love this dork), leaned in and boom. Out of the 20-30 snaps I awkwardly posed thru, this was the ONLY one that I didn't look really really lame and too desperate in. It was a moment.
And a turning point for me. Kinda like that first time you bother to study and you actually know all the answers on the tests. From then on it seemed POSSIBLE; not always easy, but POSSIBLE.
