Despite being the absolute center of your loved one’s world, you may find that you barely make it in any photos. If you would like to change that, here are some tips!
Get used to yourself.
One of the main reasons you either consciously or subconsciously avoid the camera is because you don’t like the way you look when you see the photos. The very best way to get over this is to desensitize yourself TO yourself. When you look in the mirror, you see the same view in the same light over and over. When you look, if you don’t like what you see, you likely do little micro adjustments to your face (lift your eye brows, push your chin out, relax your shoulders…) so that you DO like what you see. When the camera captures you at a different angle (like for me, shots from the side…. like…. oh damn that jaw line is WEAK lol) it bumps up against the careful interpretation I allow myself to see of my face. But the truth is, I do have a non-existent jaw line and perhaps my eyes are a bit close together and mayyyyybe I have moon cheeks. That is the TRUE me and there is NOTHING wrong with me! My family and loved ones see all sides of me, just like I see all sides of them, and they don’t go running for the hills when they see my double chin, so why do I?
Learn to love yourself, from all the angles.
To achieve a level of giving very few shits about photos of yourself, you must see yourself from a lot of angles and teach your brain to look upon the resulting images with fondness. Easier said than done, I know! Next time you are out with the fam in a pretty spot or snuggling on the couch with the kiddos, hand your camera off to your partner or a friend and have them take a bunch of photos from a bunch of angles. Promise yourself you will keep one! You don’t have to show it to anyone but keep it.
In a few days, do it again! When you are looking straight ahead, take your camera and shoot a photo of your side profile. Hey, girl! That is literally just the side of your beautiful face. Be nice to it! The more you look at yourself in photos, the more desensitized you will be to images of yourself. Suddenly you will see the OTHER things in the photo that really matter. Like how much your kiddos love snuggling you or how much fun you are having in your life.
Be silly, move around a lot and instruct your partner or kid with the camera to keep shooting through it all!
Before my recent snow sessions, I made my husband take a bunch of me. He knows the drill. He shoots high, low, close, far and I move around a lot. Most of them look silly! But I get one I like. Yay! I exist! Should I have the grand privilege to make it 65, I sure will look back fondly at this 36 year old.
I like this one! Weeee!
But all the other ones I didn’t like? Those are me too. I gotta love that girl. She built a beautiful life for herself. She is a good friend and mom. She is a good daughter and a nice person. She also happens to have an at risk chin (meaning at risk of NOT having a defined chin lol). Gotta love that sloping jaw line, wrinkles and very small neck! The whole package is ME. And I do not have to run in fear of photos of myself. That feeling also isn’t my fault. It is the fault of being told for the past 36 years that if I don’t have a cut jaw line, a graceful neck, a tiny nose, slim cheeks and perfect eyebrows that my face is somehow worth less. What a fantastic lie! More worthless to who? My family, kids or friends? No. I deserve to be in the shot and you do too.
