June Self Portraits | Thoughts and Camera Settings

I’m running out of a bit of steam on the self-portrait project front. Summer saps my energy. Not only does the extra time in the sun leave me craving a nap every afternoon, but having kiddos home all day, eeeeeeveryday is hard for this introvert-needs-time-alone persona of mine. I consistently find that times in life during which I’m constantly surrounded by people are often my least creative periods of time, as well. Currently, I’m trying to embrace that and not allow myself to mentally beat my lack of productivity over the head. Thus, here we have a light offering of self-portraits, with no apology ;)

Technically, I did not shoot this image. Courtney did, though she sent me the RAW file and I edited it for this post. The prompt that I used this image for on #portraitsofme was “My Happy Place.” Traveling is definitely my happy place, especially when the moment includes my closest friends. A glass of wine and the Caribbean sunset didn’t hurt, either. I like that Courtney chose to use f/2.8 as her ap setting, as it allowed both the foreground and background elements to blur quite a bit, but still remain recognizable. We were amazed when that yacht behind us pulled in sporting all those snorkel sets for about 6 people.

The light in our main living area is overpowering, sometimes. Large windows on three exterior walls flood the space with light. However, opaque blinds help me to tone down the amount of light and if I shoot when the sun is on the opposite side of the house I’m still able to utilize some dimensional light, despite the abundance of windows. This image was shot for the prompt “Favorite Quote.” The quote I chose is “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Henry Ford

These two images were both shot for the prompt “If I could invent anything.” My choice of invention would be a teleporter, a la Star Trek. I’m so glad that I have photographs to transport me back to favorite memories, but there is still nothing quite like digging my toes into the warm Calabrian sand while feeling the breeze pick up pieces of my hair. I wanted the focus of these pictures to be on the photographs in the book, so I chose ‘from above’ perspective for both of them.