Friday, October 16, 2009

Foto Friday - Self Portrait

This was hard for me. As you can see, I have taken self portraits of myself before. But since my hair cut (I am still recovering) and the fact that I cannot take pictures of my eyes in FOCUS.... well it took some prompting from a good friend to get some more self-portatis done.

Here are two of my eyes. Since that is the area I have the most difficulty taking pictures in FOCUS on, I tried Rebecca's tips. I opened my eyes REALLY WIDE, focused the camera, then made them normal and took the snap shot. These pictures are a bit cropped, but I promise they are of JUST my eye. :)

I cannot tell which one I like better. Which one do you like and WHY? Help me learn to be better!

Eye

me-eye

Of course ME?? I like the first one better because it does not show the DARK circles under my eyes. LOL!! :D I did not do any photo touch up (to make me look better), but I did work on the shadows to help the colors pop. I LOVE that I was able to capture the sky in my eyes!! WAY COOL!!!

I really like this next one. Not NEARLY as good as some of yours I have seen, but still a nice one. You can REALLY see my grey hairs in this one. Oh I am STILL recovering from a BAD hair cut!

Me in thought

I thought it would be fun to do a triptic (sp?) with self portrait pictures to say "i love you." So for fun:
I love you - body

You can of course click on it to see it bigger.

And as I was outside taking pictures of myself, my husband was inside behind the glass door dancing. So of course I had to dance along!! :D I HATE my hair in these pictures, but did this in memory of the adoration and joy I have for my husband. Please forgive the AWFUL hair! I was being au natural just being myself with my wonderful husband.

Dancing with my baby

You can click on that one to make it bigger too, but why?!?! LOL!!!

9 comments:

Bonnie said...

I think I like the first eye photo best.
Love the little collage at the bottom!

Full of Grace said...

I like the first one better because of the angle and the curve of your eyebrow :)

I also love the I love you collage and the thoughtful picture- they are all beautifully detailed :)

I'm sorry about your haircut, I've had those before, but the good news about haircuts is that hair grows back (even if that is little solace now)
:)

Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads said...

I like the first eye photo best. I can't say exactly why though... Not much help, huh? I happen to love the dancing photos as it captures real happiness and fun. I'm drawn to the joy in your face. :)

Jemit said...

I love that profile one in b/w !
Really wonderful

Rebecca said...

I thought you said you had a hard time focusing on your eyes?! These are phenomenal!

My preference is the first eye one and here is why:

The top one applies more the rule of thirds which says, in essence, a subject will be more profound if not placed directly in the center of the frame. The top eye shot is slightly to the right and slightly to the top. I also think the skin coloring has a more natural, consistent feel to it and that the gorgeous reflection doesn't cover up the pupil of the eye, it works around it.

I think you did a great job with them! Nicely crisp--you nailed them.

The black and white is beautiful. I can see why you like it! Since you seem to like advice (please let me know if you don't) might I suggest a different crop for that image? What if you cropped just below your shirt sleeve to make a more rectangular shot? It seems like the bottom of the picture has just some excess black that doesn't really add to the photo. (Plus, as an added perk, it would fit in a frame better!) Just a thought. It is a beautiful capture, which ever way you slice it.

And lastly, I *LOVE* that (what did you call it?) triptic. I have never heard of that and wish I knew how to make one myself but I bet you must need Photoshop or something huh? I LOVE that idea. SO MUCH. That would make such a phenomenal Father's Day/ Anniversary card. Like, the best one ever.

You are a clever girl!

PS.(Sorry I was such a stalker today. Guess my excitement got the better of me.

PPS. I know Brian is into photography too. Tell him he can join in the fun too if he'd like, we'd love to have him. (It isn't a girl's only club, after all)

Have a healthy dose of friendly family competition going on. Whoever wins gets a kiss or something like that! hehehe

PPPS. I tried to answer your questions on my blog but I am not certain that is what you meant. Let me know.

Tabby said...

Great photos! I, too, prefer the first eye photo. There's a warmer feel to the lighting, I think, and your eye color is more prevalent. Brilliant idea for the triptych (sp)! Too cool! And your hair isn't bad at all in the dancing photos. The b&w profile is awesome. Thanks for sharing. :)

Unknown said...

Great photos! :) I especially love the "I LOVE YOU" collage! What a wonderful idea!

NO! Holy cow, no! My photographs WERE NOT straight out of the camera :P :)! First of all, I take a billion and one photos! Second, I head over to a FREE photo editing site called Picnik.com that I love...

why do I love it? Well, it's SUPER USER FRIENDLY! :D

Then I played with the color of my photos, the exposure, and then I added an EFFECT called Cinema Scope! This changes the color a bit, zooms in, & frames it so beautifully! :)

I'm going to try with the berries TOPIC for next week to do more of a "raw" photograph not so much editing...although it is so fun and so simple to do!

Sorry for the long winded comment!:) I LOVE your feet photo in your banner! SO SWEET!

Bless you!
Amy

Auntie sezzzzzz... said...

I don't understand all that "focus" stuff. But I love your pictures. Especially the last Dancing Ones! I guess I really like spontaneous.

I also don't understand the "recovering from a bad haircut." Your hair is long and lovely..... I totally don't understand. But I also know that our self-image of stuff like our own hair cut, is very, very, very personal.

Aunt Amelia

Auntie sezzzzzz... said...

Ooops, back again. Thank you for saying that you love the picture in my Header. It's from an old 'Victoria' magazine, and I love, love, love it too! It just 'says Autumn' to me, in such a sweet way.

Thank you for enjoying it too, and saying so.

Aunt Amelia