Self-portrait.

Near the end of the semester I ended up taking a bunch of self-portraits so I could use the pictures as reference shots for my final pieces for drawing II.

My previous experience with self-portraits was incredibly limited. It mostly consisted of myspace style shots of me using a point-and-shoot digital camera at arms length and trying to look as adorable/moody as possible depending on the vibe I wanted to give off.

My only pseudo real experience with real self-portraits was senior year high school photo class. I was in a photo 3 class but doing photo 2 assignments... which sucked, haha. So she told me I had to do self-portraits but failed to explain how the heck I was suppose to do that. Mind you that was with a film camera, which is a bit more difficult than working with a digital slr. Those were somewhat successful but the images came out kinda of dark and kind of blurry... which, I enjoyed that kind of feel, but my photo teacher wasn't really having it, haha.

Those original self-portraits failed to have concept or composition. I was essentially just making sure I was in focus at all, haha. I think there was a potato involved at some point... hmmm...


This was one of the self-portrait shots that I took. I used an actual tri-pod with this one, as opposed to setting the camera down on a desk... which is just classy. This was taken with my digital SLR [nikon D90]. I placed a music stand where I was going to stand then focused my camera on that. Then I set the timer, ran over and then counted day in my head then at the last minute flung my hair to one side.

I must have taken like... 40+ shots. It is really hard to time out movements exactly so it was mostly all about luck. After working through everything the most challenging part of it for me was capturing the moment.


When you are behind the camera it is a lot easier to see the moment as it happens and pull the trigger. But when you have to run in front of the camera it seems almost impossible to count down the time exactly, and you can't tell if you are positioned correctly in the frame and you can't tell if your expression is totally stupid.

At one point I was trying to take a few shots where it looked like I was in pain but when I looked at the shots after I took them it just looked as if I was half girl, half dead fish and half socially challenged beaver. Really embarrassing... needless to say, I deleted those.

Here is the drawing that I made based on the first picture that I posted. I have a sketch in the sketch book of the second one. If I ever scan that one, I'll post it up here.

I don't really do self-portraits often but when I do I really like them. The luck and chance involved in it makes it a really fun and challenging experience. You never know what is gonna come out of it. You just hope that one of them makes you look good. :)

-Havana

First photo blog post!!

Thought it would be good to start a photo blog to keep people up to date on what I am shooting, experiencing and creating.

I hope people actually catch on to this because I think it would help me to get some much desired feedback. I thrive on critique. I want to know what people like and dislike about each one of my photos. I want to further develop my style into something that anyone could enjoy looking at. I love talking with people about photography and would love to hear what others have to say, not only about my work, but their work and other photographers work.

I'm so excited!
I'm gonna force myself to update this more often than my past blogs!

I might have to do some back tracking to catch everyone up on recent projects, but that should not be too difficult.

Also with this blog I would love love love to hear peoples suggestions for future shoots! Or even people who would like to model for me, photographers who would like to shoot me, or along side me, etc., etc.

I hope everyone enjoys the blog!
Thanks for your support!


-Havana