Self-Portrait, Take 2

On Sunday afternoon I came home from church, did a quick analysis of the week in front of me, and realized that there was a significant chance that between that moment and my photography class Wednesday evening there would not be a better moment to take a new self-portrait.

A "good" moment to take a self-portrait would include make-up, hair fixed, and not wearing pajamas. Sunday during church is typically a good moment. Other days...not so good...

I grabbed the camera and tripod and took it up to the sewing/playroom with me, having decided that I still wanted my self-portrait to tell that I love to sew.

On the way up I debated with myself about the timing. It was already dark. Pictures are better with natural light. I was wearing makeup and my hair looked decent. There was every chance that once I put on pajamas Sunday night I would not be out of pajamas until Wednesday afternoon. (What can I say? I like my pajamas! And I have lots of cute pairs!!) I decided that it was better to seize the well-coiffed moment rather than to hope another moment occurred during daylight in the next few days.

My first attempt taught me several things.

1. That black sweater might be comfy and warm at church, but wasn't going to work for this picture. (Maybe in natural light, but we're not going there...)
2. My sewing area needed some serious pruning to be used as a backdrop...far too messy and thus distracting.

I went and changed into something that might work a little better (in retrospect, I would have found something without stripes that are less than flattering, but oh well...) and tried again.

Not bad, except for the clock growing out from behind my head, the messiness on the sewing table, and the distraction of the edge of the sewing table.

I also eventually decided that I couldn't get comfortably behind the machine while it was on the table (the table is far to awkward to move if I don't really really have to) and that the display screen on the front of the machine was also a visual distraction. So I turned the machine around and sat it on the ironing board instead.

Oh, did I mention that the camera on the tripod was on the other side of the room, and so every time I wanted to take another shot I had to go across the room, refocus the camera, and then run back to position before the shot went off 10 seconds later? I'm sure you're thinking I'm such a whiner for even mentioning that it was a pain that my camera was 15 feet away.

But really, people...


By the time I had run back and forth across the room 85 times in search of a picture that was the perfect combination of unobtrusive background, revealing prop, and halfway decent expression on my face but no glare on my glasses, I was

and then

and then

and finally

In the end I had 85 new self portraits and no clear favorite, but more than a few worthy of instant deletion.

I don't think these pictures are better than the one I took last week — the lighting was better in that one at the very least. But the background is definitely better in these. I'm still not sure what I'll turn in when it's my turn!

PS--yes, I know I should have closed the left-hand blind differently! But only in retrospect...