Showing ourselves
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 11:44AM I've never been good at self-portraits. It's the running from behind the camera to in front of it, and back again until I'm are ready to find a 4th career. (Not really Amy, just kidding!) I used to have a self-portrait on my web site, until my son said: 'you're a portrait photographer and the shot of you stinks.' He's very good at bursting my bubble. :-) Then I took one where I stood in for a greycard test and cropped it half-way across my face..you know the shot. We all do it.
So I finally convinced my son, mister Leica/Hasselblad/film guy to shoot my portrait for my web site. He humored me and shot some with his D200, but also shot some Hasselblad ones where we set up the lights as a tribute to Jousuf Karsh. One of those is on my 'info' page now (http://www.adrienbisson.com/about). Not exactly Karsh quality, but cool just the same.
So my wife, Amy, who does a calendar for her family every Christmas, convinced me to photograph the two of us for that purpose. We were both tired enough so that we were beyond caring. And maybe that's why they seemed to actually work this time. Plus, having her in the shot made the mechanics of a self-portrait much easier; you know, focusing, framing, etc. Working tethered and seeing the images come up didn't hurt.
What's a portrait without funny outtakes?
Reader Comments (3)
Glad to hear Career #4 is in theory only.
It IS tough to do photos of ourselves. I'm extremely camera-aware whenever I am having portraits made, and overly conscious of where hands/feet are - and all expressions. It's ironic that we spend so much time making others comfortable in front of a lens and we ourselves are so uncomfortable!! :)
You know I love outtakes -- they made the post!!
Thanks for the comment Rachel! It's all about objectivity. Who is objective about themselves? Whether it is about appearance or more internal aspects, I wonder if anyone sees themselves as others do.
Thanks for visiting!
Adrien