It was my birthday last weekend. Yay!  : )  It was a good birthday, in case anyone’s wondering. But I bring this up because of a present I got. It remotely fires my camera, which means self-portraits & family photos (that I’m in) are much simpler. I no longer have to click the button on my camera & then race to get into the image.  Now, I can point my little remote at the camera, click the button & after 2 seconds (so I can hide the remote in my hand), the camera takes the image. Nifty, right? : )

So, of course, I took my new toy camera equipment for a test run.

So these aren’t the most original/artistic images.  In fact, you can tell I’m laughing at myself.  But pretend like they’re fantastical, or at the very least, excuse me because I’m testing equipment. The remote is hidden in my hand by my sunglasses. It’s that small. Neat, right?

Of course, here’s an image of the remote (from Amazon) in case anyone is interested in experimenting for themselves & has a Canon EOS. (Click on the image to be taken to the Amazon page).  After my first test run, I’m very happy with it. It’s simple to use & so very worth the investment if you’re interested in self-portraits.

Canon Wireless Remote Control RC1 for Digital Rebel.  Works with Canon EOS cameras.

And, no, I’m not nerdy for asking for camera equipment for my birthday. I’m super-cool. (If you must laugh, do it where I can’t hear you).  ; )

Well, we got about 1/2 inch of snow here about a week ago… can’t ask for more than that in Abilene, right? : ) At least not in a regular winter.

So, all this lovely brown grass is what I consider a “Winter Wonderland”… and the cold, cold wind. I thought, after living in Lubbock & walking to class in the freezing cold, I might become immune to it. But, no, the fact that the biting wind still gives me a headache if I’m out too long hasn’t changed. Which is why I love scarves & mittens & beanies. : )

Now, how about less of the rambling and more of the picture showing?

As you can see, these images were not taking in our powdering of “snow”…. it all melted within a few hours.

So, as I’ve said before, I’ve always been fascinated by self-portraits… I’m glad I tried them for that run of Tuesday posts… I maybe became just a little better at them. : )  I like doing them myself now a lot more. Now I just need a remote for my camera instead of the self-timer… then I’d feel super-duper awesome, lol.

You know, despite the lack of snow, I still think the Texas winter is very pretty… lots of nice warm colors (not just whites & blues, lol)… even if it is dead grass, it’s still a nice, friendly brown color!

11.4.09 by peterthomsen

Laissons-nous renverser, emporter, caresser par le doux temps perdu by nathalia ~

Ninja Portrait by zachd1_618

Read Their Mind by somewhair

The Fire Dawn by t.strickland

Boxed Up by Once upon a time in Alex land

Pure Vision by schramcrackers

Blurry by metaldoll bites!

Well, last self-portrait!  : )  I spent some time with my tripod out on my mom’s property.  I hope it’s a good ending.  I wanted to make sure I got in a shot of my face (not just my eye) so those of you that don’t know me didn’t feel like I was cheating since you never got to see my face.  Here you go!

I’ll be sharing my 2nd Inspiration: Self-Portrait post later this week.  My husband looked over the first one & immediately asked me: so you only found 3 guys’ portraits you liked?  The answer is, no, there’s another installment coming. : )  And, besides, I had to split the number of pictures (somewhat) evenly & still not post too many images!

On Saturday, I went to a choir concert here in Abilene to listen to my cousin Ryan, a Lubbockite.  Well, while looking over the program I was so pleased to see Emma was also singing!  It was a fabulous concert (and I’m not overly knowledgeable about music & choir).  : )

In other news, I did update my prices recently.  I know, I pushed them through just a little earlier than promised, but with the pre-holiday rush over, it seemed silly to wait, since November & December are full of family events (for me and you, I hope!)  : )  Besides, if you had discussed a particular package with me before this week, your prices are locked in.  That’s only fair. : )

Thanksgiving is coming!  I hope everyone is so very excited!  I love Thanksgiving, it’s a good thing we only have it once a year, all that food is so tasty.  : )

Have a happy Tuesday, everyone, mine is looking very busy!  (good busy!)   : )

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. : )

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. : )

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.