Self- Portraits: January

january 20, 2024

First self-portrait session is officially DONE! 

And I have THOUGHTS. 

Before diving into this session, I want to preface that I have attempted self-portrait sessions in the very distant past and they went quite poorly. I’m not even sure I have a single image from any of those sessions, and I don’t delete anythingggg. 

So right off the bat, I can say this went better. I have so much more experience, so much more knowledge and have the skills necessary to take a vision and actually bring it to life now. Well, for the most part anyway, but we’ll get to that. 

Most importantly, I can say I had fun. Even though there were some hurdles to navigate, I had fun and enjoyed this process. It didn’t feel like a chore and I didn’t walk away feeling frustrated or disappointed, which is already a huge win. 

The concept for this shoot was very simple: just some straightforward branding images that I can use for LinkedIn, the re-do of my website I’ve been meaning to get around to, etc. I had a few outfit options, but really didn’t spend too much time planning for this. 

The biggest challenge with this shoot was the shift to studio work. Maybe a year or so ago, I decided I wanted to start doing studio work, did tons of research, bought the gear, and then let it sit in the closet collecting dust. This was essentially my first studio session and, trust me, it was far from perfect. Literally as soon as I finished, I looked at the lights and realized I absolutely had them in the wrong places. Whoops. 

The next major issue was realizing, after I had everything set up, that my main camera, a Canon EOS R, does not in fact have an interval timer. Since just about every Canon model has an interval timer, it’s not even something I thought to check. But the R does not have one, so I had to use my backup body, the Canon 40D, which is a crop-sensor. I forgot how much of a difference there is between these two cameras, but it is quite a stark contrast and after editing the images, I did miss the R quality. 

From a technical standpoint, this shoot was a disaster. But it was a great learning experience, and I will likely attempt a re-do in the future, especially since it really did not produce any great branding images like I intended it to. 

A got a few decent images, but overall the victories here were just having fun and building momentum for the months and shoots to come. It would be so easy to deem this shoot a failure, but I really don’t. Besides just having fun and enjoying myself for an afternoon, I learned more about my camera and its specific limitations (and what to look for in my next upgrade), and I promise I will never misplace my lights like that ever again. Surely, I’ll misplace them in a different way, but not like that! 

As a perfectionist, it’s so easy to beat myself up when I’m not immediately good at something and it was freeing to simply say, I’m new, this is the worst it will be, every shoot after this will be better. 

With that in mind, I can’t wait to see what my photos look like at the end of the year.