April Self Portrait & Ten Things You Never Knew

I've got to admit that this self portrait series has been a bigger challenge that I originally thought. I mean, how hard can it be taking your own portrait? It's not that its HARD per say, but rather incredibly inconvenient. Because in all honesty, I wear yoga pants and puffy sweatshirts ALL.DAY.LONG. It's rare that I do my hair or even bother to put on make up let alone get dressed properly. I mean I work from home, there's no one to impress unless you count the dog, and quite frankly she really doesn't care! So the self portraits. It means I have to stop what I'm doing, go put on make up, try to make my hair look semi managed, and dress myself in something other than my pjs. Then I have to actually take a half decent image of myself! After this one, I immediately wiped off my makeup, put my hair in a bun and crawled back in my sweatshirt. Pretty sure you don't want to see that picture though;)

All sarcastic comments aside, I still truly enjoy the challenge. I try to use different lenses each time (the 35mm for this one) and put myself in different scenarios. It's growing me as a photographer and pushing me out of my comfort zone. I think that's worth the inconvenience of putting myself together;)

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Part of the reason why I started this series was because I wanted readers to get to know a bit more about who I was by seeing pictures of me! (Crazy red head anyone?;)). So when I brainstormed about what to write with April's self portrait I came up with my top ten. Behold, the top ten things you never knew about me. (You're on pins and needles I know;)) Ok, here we go!

Top Ten Things You Never Knew About Me

1. I'm an only child. Yep, it's just me. Every year though I begged Mom and Dad for a baby. They gave me a doll.

2. I was born two months early. Kind of crazy to think about now. But today would have actually been my birthday. If I wasn't so impatient and all;)

3. I have size 11 feet. I think I was supposed to be taller. I have the feet and hands of Micheal Jordan.

4. My nickname is Goose. Aka Goosie. Yes after Top Gun.

5. I secretly (oh gosh I can't believe I'm admitting this!) used to be obsessed with Star Trek. *Hangs head in shame*

6. I was on the weight team in High School. I was the girl that threw those frisbee looking things (discus) and those heavy balls (shot put). I kinda stunk.

7. I was a Girl Scout. I even received my Gold Award (equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle Award). But don't look to me to start a fire or build things out of twigs and leaves.

8. I'm absolutely terrified of flying. You really don't want to hold my hand if sitting next to me one a plane.

9. I saw Titanic (when it first came out) five times in the theatres. Remember when Leo was a teenage heart throb?!

10. I made up my own dance move called the Debbie Butt Wiggle. It became a signature move during college. Don't hate, I've got mad dance moves.

Those are ten things you never knew about me. What's one thing people don't know about you?!

March Self Portrait : A Disaster of Camera and Coffee

A post of self portraits? YES. Because you have no idea what it took to get these! A pink, beautiful, velvet couch may have suffered in it all and I feel I owe it to said couch to post these for you.

Ok, I'll back up, as you're probably wondering WHY I'm even post some self portraits... Remember way back to January when I said I was going to take a self portrait every month and blog about it? Well January was a success! And then February came and went without any portraits. (I was in Las Vegas and then got REALLY sick at the end of the month...) But we did have our portraits taken by the amazing Justin & Mary so those will have to count;) Suddenly that brings us to March and with the month already half over I knew I had to get back on the wagon fast or this challenge was just going to fall to the way side.

I decided it would be cute to take a picture of me in my studio journaling and drinking coffee. Do I drink coffee? YES. Do I journal? Not so much. So why I thought this was a good idea is BEYOND me. C'mon Debbie, let's keep it real, k? So as I was carefully balancing my journal and pen and cute blanket and trying maneuver with a FULL cup of coffee around the crap stuff on the floor, well you can probably guess what happened. The coffee spilled! Here is a before the coffee disaster picture. Clearly this was NOT working. Don't be fooled, sitting calmly on my pink couch looking cute with a cup a joe and not a care in the world, does not happen. Like ever.

After said coffee disaster, a few choice words were said and then I tried to clean up. I knew the show had to go on and so I sat over the wet spot and continued on. WITHOUT COFFEE or JOURNAL. Just me and my silly self. (btw, I'm still lovin' the VSCO presets, especially for personal projects!)

Trying to do self portraits is NOT easy, but I have to say I'm enjoying the challenge so much! (Minus the coffee mishaps.) I was giddy as I was uploading the images. Giddy because this series allows me to explore an artistic side that I don't pursue everyday. It gives me an excuse to get out from the desk and enjoy some time in front/behind the camera (didn't think it could be done did you!) If you're looking for a creative (and challenging) outlet, I would encourage you to start your own series! But remember: keep the coffee far away!

January Self Portrait: A Start To A New Year

Ugh. Is there anything worse than taking your OWN self portrait? As almost all photographers can attest, I don't think so! Photographers are meant to be behind the camera, not in front of it and I always find myself cringing at the thought of being on the other side. For this exact reason though, I wanted to give myself a challenge. Photograph myself once a month for an entire year. I have to be honest and say that this idea wasn't entirely my own. I grabbed this idea from Gail Werner, another photographer! Every month she's taken an image of herself as a of way of documenting her life. I LOVE this idea, (and so does my friend Katelyn, who started her own series earlier this month!) and decided it was going to make it onto my 101 in 1001 list. I WAS GOING TO ACCOMPLISH THIS! I've been putting off doing this series for several months now, mostly because I was afraid to put myself out there, literally in front of the camera. It's vulnerable and uncomfortable and weird. BUT, I knew that in order to grow I need to stretch myself and let all my insecurities and worry go! Because I just KNOW that if I put a little bit more of myself out on the web, someone is going to connect to it. And even if it's just one person, taking that risk will all be worth it!

Look forward to getting to SEE more of me over this next year:) I want this to be a way of documenting my life as it happens. I want to remember what I was doing, how I was feeling, where I was at. Life flies by too fast and often we don't take the time to just sit and reflect on where we have been, where we are at and where we want to go. I need that. I crave that. And now I am making time and space on my blog to do just that!

S0 2012, where am I at? I'm a soon to be 28 year old. I've just finished my first year working from home. I'm moving into 2012 with a sense of joy and hope for the future. 2011 brought new relationships, new friendships and a deeper love for my husband. 2011 was a year of cultivating and I look into 2012 with a goal to invest deeper into these relationships:) This photo? This is me being happy and laughing to myself as the dog runs around the office. I put makeup on, but today was a lounge around the house kind of day. I figured you didn't' want to see that:) This is my office, which I've been too self conscious to blog about. Silly. But even this shot makes me want to delete it immediately. Oh yea, taking risks, I forgot. I'm hungry, I want to eat everything in sight, but alas I am trying to loose weight for a family cruise in March. I'm so excited for WPPI that I could burst. I'm thinking about signing up for Jasmine Star's Boston workshop since I tweeted to her she NEEDED to come here. I like to think I helped make that decision ;). I'm trying to stay off Facebook, I'm newly addicted to Downton Abbey and I just took a bunch of clothes to the tailor, who is a miracle worker. Enough randomness for you? That's just a peak inside my brain but that's where I'm at right now. I'll see you next month!