Day Sixty Four by this is waar.

During my collection process off of flickr, I noticed something. Weird. As I was going back & culling through the images I realized I’d only chosen 1 self-portrait that wasn’t done by a female photographer. I started to dismiss this, as I’m more prone to “dreamy” images & as a girl, looking for inspiration for my self portraits, I was more likely to look at portraits by other females. Logical. Except I decided to find 1 or 2 more male self-portraits that I really liked. And I started searching through flickr.

Female self-portraits far outweighed male submissions to various self-portrait groups. Go to flickr & poke around for yourself. You’ll see what I mean.  In fact, I found several groups dedicated to female self-portraits, but not a single one dedicated to male self-portraits (I searched specifically for it, and got general self-portrait groups for the first 3 or so result pages)… This seems exceptionally odd to me since the field of photography used to be very dominated by males.  Of course, this is changing as we female photographers keep joining the ranks, but I still found it odd that I couldn’t find many male self-portraits in a modern photography forum environment.

With that in mind, I collected a variety of male self-portraits that I found artistic & wonderful & am including some of them in this post!  : )  I was going to group them all together & follow up with female self-portraits, but I wanted to mix them together because I think the effect is much more inspiring!

Self-Portrait 10/5/09 by indiphoto

93/365 I’m Back by Ping H

Self Portrait 2 by homeboym

Self-Portrait 2008 by Crystal.

Drowning by kelia is a photographer.

Brooding by oldmanwillow21

Shoes on the Bed by vkreees

I made a Polaroid for myself!  Of myself!  : )  Unfortunately, I don’t have a Polaroid camera of my own, so I took the advice of Rita over at CoffeeShop Photography.  Her site is so helpful & the amount of work that she shares for free is just astounding!

The coloring of the Polaroid, I’m very proud of. : )  I’ve been practicing making photoshop actions for myself & this is one.  I ran through the vintage tutorial over at Veerle’s Blog & then did some adjusting of my own and made a nice little action.  Of course, I haven’t run it through enough testing on my own yet to truly love it, but I may have created a keeper.

I still get a little perplexed when trying to be on both sides of the camera at the same time.  (Partially due to my camera’s moodiness when I tell it to focus early in the morning!)  ; )  As usual, though, practicing & learning is the best way to get better at something.  I have one more week of “forced” practice for this blog series & then I’ll be moving on to something else… but what?  ; )  I know, most of my faithful readers have already shared their suggestions & I love that!  I have an idea of what to do next month, but I don’t make up my mind officially until I do that first post, so if you’re just dying to see something specific over the next month, comment!  I’ll read it, I promise!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday.  Mine has laundry in its future. : )

About a month ago, I did a shoot with a local model.  It was freezing outside, but she trooped through it.  I’m so very glad she did.  I love these images & have been so excited about sharing them with you!

I really do love the angles she makes with her body… She said she’s been dancing since she was a little girl.  I think it shows!

The coolness of the basement in the Student Center at HSU.

Check out the lanterns!  And her pose has wonderful angles!

I absolutely love the framing in this image…

She’s absolutely wonderful to work with, so if you’re interested in doing some work with a local model, I highly recommend her.  To contact her, click here.

Installment 2 of the Self-Portraits.  Cowboy-boots.  My dad’s old camera.  A frame my husband’s grandmother gave us.  My Bible.  His Bible.  Our back-steps.  And, of course, in the corner, my favorite cardigan (which I wore until I took the images since it was a little cold out).  : )  I’m pretty pleased with the image.  I hope everyone enjoys.

If you keep up with me on flickr or facebook, you’ll see a few more of these.  They’re a little similar (more so than images would be for a portrait session) since it’s hard to move the camera around too much when I’m on the other side of it.  : )  But I’m learning this self-portrait thing.  It’s fun.

On another note, I’m sharing a little news. : )  I’ll be updating packages & pricing in January of 2010.  Don’t be too scared, but if you know you really like one of the packages I offer now, book before I change it on you. ; )

I think that’s about all the news I have for this Tuesday.  My husband’s birthday is later this week & I still need to wrap his presents, but they are hidden here in the house. : )  And for the rest of today I have an album to design (which is just peachy with me, I love design!)…

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday.  I’m planning to. : )

I’ve lived near Abilene for the majority of my life, but I had never been out to the small town of Hawley.  It had one main street and most of the others I found turned into dirt roads within a few blocks, just like streets in small towns should.  : )  I do joke about small towns sometimes, since I grew up in Merkel, but there’s also something very sweet about them which becomes especially clear when you visit a new one for the first time.

Enough of that, now onto the real fun.  Daniel was my first Senior guy since moving here and I had a lot of fun.  And got some handsome photos!

Look at that blue sky!  And the tall grass… talk about the perfect country/small town setting!

Daniel plays baseball & football.  And since that’s about all I know about sports, that’s about all I can tell you.  : )

There is the coolest set of “junk” behind their Ag building.  Seriously.  I was so excited when I found it.  I mean, I honestly have no real idea what the rusty “wheel” above is for, but doesn’t it make for a fantastic photo?

Okay, I’m going to brave it. Though I adore self-portraits, I’ve yet to get very good a them since I got an actual tripod for the first time less than a year ago. And I maybe just a little too used to being able to see the shot I’m composing. But it should be fun all the same. A wonderful challenge at least. : )

I just couldn’t avoid texturing the image up a bit.  I’m way too fond of it.

I hope you have a lovely Tuesday.  I made pot roast (in the crock pot) last night & the smell is permeating the house.  So I’m pretty happy this morning.  : )  I hope everyone else’s Tuesdays shape up as lovely as mine is.

That’s right, they’re that gorgeous!  See?  : )

Kat is my Senior Rep from Winters High School in Winters, Texas.

And Emma is my Senior Rep for Wylie High School in Abilene, Texas.

I told you they were both gorgeous!

Check out their eyes!  Seriously.

I’m not done processing either’s pictures yet, but I wanted to share how fantastic they are!  Full posts coming soon!

PS If you’re a senior at another school & are interested in the Senior Rep info, go here.

Alright!  Finally, I have finished the Noah images.  Yay!  : )

He was born on September 3rd at 8:53.  And I got to photograph him on September 5th & 6th!  That’s right, he was less than a week old. I guess that’s what I get for being the auntie.  : )

Now, I promise I won’t make you wait any longer.  Here he is!

Room details. : )  Cute, right?

You can’t see it, but his arms & legs are kicking like mad.

He has my brother’s feet.  His mommy said so.

And, of course, the oh-so-proud mommy & daddy & Noah.

I love his expression.  : D

One of his aunts on his mommy’s side painted the lovely image that you can only see a piece of here.  But it’s fantastic.  Curious?  Here’s Noah & a full shot of the image.

His mommy is musically inclined.  Very musically inclined.  In fact, she has a website to prove it.  His daddy is computer inclined, but they decided an image of Noah on his computer wasn’t worth it (Noah was getting tired of being a model!)

And, of course, a final, beautiful sleeping picture.  Isn’t he precious?  I’m so very proud of my newest little nephew (and Caleb & Gabrielle’s first little one!)

Congratulations to the new mommy & daddy!  Be sure to stock up on diapers & make sure to get some coffee for his daddy! ; )

Okay, I admit it: I’m moving a little slowly on the Noah pictures.  I’ve had some other projects I’ve been working on (sorry, not photography related).  But I wanted to get up at least a preview of my sweet littl(est) nephew.

Isn’t he wonderful?  And he’s got so much hair!  Yes, I know, I mention that often, but I just love all his hair!  I was a bald little girl until about 2.  Isn’t that sad for me?  But it seems Noah is definitely not going to have that problem!

My mom and 2 of her friends have dubbed themselves the “3 Amigas” (with just a little help from my husband).  All three are school teachers & so they did a mini-shoot together the week before school “officially” started (aka the week when they are doing workshops & work days).

They met when I was in Kindergarten (so long ago!).  My Kindergarten teacher is the one on the left in the image below, my mom is on the right, and in the middle is the mother of one of my kindergarten friends (who went to another school about 3 years later).  Anyway, they’ve stayed in contact (and a little bit out of contact) over the years.  So here they are, the 3 Amigas!

As you can see, they had a great time… and I got some wonderful laughs for myself too… oh, yeah, and some cute pictures!  : )