Self-portraits are something of an achilles-heel with me. I find it very difficult to be both photographer and subject, and when acting as the subject I get deeply mired in a strange desire to reflect my inner self in some kind of semi-idealized way which further confuses my process.
I try to move away from this, but it’s difficult. I’ve learned that I might manage to take a somewhat decent self-shot when I’m not stressed, but it’s difficult.
Earlier this evening I had an hour with nothing special planned and I decided to attempt some impromptu experimentation with high-key lighting. This is a technique I desire to have at least some grasp of, and so far my attempts have (in my own admittedly very biased opinion) failed miserably. Strobes were already setup so I just slapped my camera on a tripod and used my bedroom door as a white background.
It was surprisingly fun and meditative. I was originally going to just use some inanimate object as a subject but ended up using myself and doing a fair bit of running back-and-forth between the back and the forth of the camera. I opted on using my 35-70 since I just wasn’t in the mood to fiddle about with the manual focus 105 despite it being my preferred lens for this type of business.
End results were better than expected. I learned a bit more on how to not pose myself. I now feel more confident in attempting this style in the future. I learned that my version of Spock-lifting-one-eyebrow looks like crap.
Not bad for just an hour of goofing around with some flashes, a camera and a bedroom door.
