Portraits
I used to take photos of my son, lots of photos. My mother said to me, that she had never known a child who had been photographed that much. This was before digital photo was introduced, and before everyone had a camera in one way or another, mobilephones, computers…you name it. (I´ve just seen a hat with a camera as this weeks offer )
Time has changed, and so has my son, he is grown up now, and not willing to be my model anymore.
The other day, I told him that I needed a model for a portrait to this assignment. He was busy with his own camera, and mumbled “What´s the problem – you can take a self portrait”. 🙂
All right, a selfportrait then. At least it won´t give me any trouble with the model.
I had some difficulties with the strong sun light, (chosen to underline the b/w) not to be blinded, but the most difficult part was to look at the camera in a friendly way, smiling out in the open, with nobody around. It felt a bit silly, I did my best to look real friendly, but a good portrait ought to show more than a smile.
My 2008 blog 
What a beautiful self-portrait. You’re much braver than I am 😉
I love that last one, very funny.
Thank you Michaela. I don´t feel very brave, actually you were among those who inspired me to make a selfportrait. I admit that yours usually have some kind of blurry effect on, but never the less, they are portraits. 🙂
giiid, don’t give Scott any idea, otherwise we would be in trouble. 😉
On a more serious note, your self-portrait came out real nice. Your black and white looks natural and you’ve captured a lovely smile. I like the shadow of the last photo, what long nose you have. 🙂
Thank you Ginger. It was fun to play with B/W, I think I will do that more often. After all this is how I started, many years ago, with dark-room and everything. I wonder if now days computer programs and digital photo can reach the same high level in gray tone scale?
Wonderful selfportrait, giiid ! Very creative. I love your words too and the B&W is just perfect for your shots. Bravo !
Thank you Isa, you´re always sending me such kind and positive feedback. It is interesting to think of how easy it apparently is to understand or “read” a photo even it doesn´t have any colors. It could be interesting to find out if colors increase the main impression, or in what way they move the focus, and if routine in looking at photos has any influence…
I too love those self-portraits, very creative. And the black and white softened your face so beautifully, I must try that too, haven’t played around with black and white photos yet.
I’m curious: Did you hold the camera at arm’s distance to click the shutter release, or did you use a tripod with a self-timer?
Thank you Reggie. It is indeed appealing to be softened a bit by the B/W. I didn´t succed with getting all gray tones, some parts of the photo are too white, but this was just a fun studie. And yes, I did hold the camera in my hand, the right hand as you can see at the photo now you know it. My camera has a “selfportrait” function, a certain position of the lense to avoid too much distortion. I haven´t found it usefull though, and doesn´t use it. I will be looking for self portraits at your blog 🙂
Very creative! I love the black and white – your beautiful face has a lot of character.
Hi Jennifer. Thank you very much for your nice comment. No one has told me that my face had character before, so I am feeling very interesting now 🙂
Scotts assignments is a very nice way to meet new bloggers, I was glad to see you here.
Oh Birgitte, this is hilarious! Bless your sense of the absurd. It’s always nice to visit you.
Knowing a place where letter-mix of more or less understandable combination are recieved in the same way as they were meant, is like knowing a place to breath freely. Thank you for your hospitality.
Not only artistically talented, but lovely and HILARIOUS, too! YOU and I would be great friends!! 🙂
Tracy, I am smiling when I read your comment, I imagine how nice that would be, to drop by for a cup of coffee and a good laugh. And to see you in action with your camera, making amazing wild life photos. Thank you for the very nice comment.
So glad I could make you smile….means, I returned the favor! 🙂 Swich out the coffee for tea and I’m so there!
Both your self portraits turned out great! They are hard to pose for, I agree.
Hi Deanna. Thank you for sending me a comment. Scott´s assignment is a good way to meet other bloggers, I enjoyed to see the photos you made of your daughters. They are very cute. I saw that you have posted a blurry self portrait yesterday, very nice.
I think you did a fabulous job with this assignment. I’ve always found self portraits so difficult. Perhaps I’m overly critical of the subject!
Thank you very much, Karma. Self portraits or just portraits, neither of them is easy to like. We never see ourself as others do, and have to be content with imagining how we look, how we sound, how it looks when we move, by standing still in front of a mirror. Not very natural. One should have an almost perfect regular face, to see the same face at a photo as at the mirror image, so I guess we just as well can accept what we see, even it is difficult sometimes. 🙂
Birgitte, love your sense of humour in the second one! Awesome idea. I think you probably stopped too early for the first one to show the real you. I still like posing-for-the-camera-Birgitte, light and shadow has a great effect. Maybe if you didn’t look directly at the camera would have been easier. I think you should experiment more with self-portraits by capturing different moods at different times.
Erika, it is interesting to read your comment, because I know you are looking at a face from a sculptors point of view. By looking to the side the expression could possibly loosen up a bit, I think you are right about that. And I did stop early, that is truth. I feel like making experimenting now that you have given me some ideas, it could be interesting to see how much depth (3D effect) I could make. Thank you. 🙂
hehehe…I love these.
🙂
[…] Birgitte is one of my favorite bloggers and photographers. Her take on this assignment introduces us to another side of her, the front side in her self-portrait post. […]
Thank you, Scott, for arranging the assignment and for this nice compliment. 🙂