winter photo

Throwback to a Christmas lights snapshot. Who else is ready for summer?

Happy Monday!
xo,
hannah

selfies vs. self portraits

The fact that "selfie" is now an official word scares me a little. Why? Because when I hear the word "selfie", the word that comes to mind immediately after is "duck-face." For the past few years, self portraits have been brought down to a place where they have a slightly negative connotation. Don't get me wrong, I've taken my fair share of selfies (minus the duck face), but to me, the difference between a selfie and a self portrait is monumental.
You don't see too many people taking self portraits these days, and I think one of the reasons is because they're ridiculously hard to take. I've tried and failed on several occasions to take self portraits, and I've learned a few basic things through trial and error that I thought I would share with you.

first real attempt at self-portraiture, taken February 3rd

Having self confidence and embracing yourself is key in taking self portraits, because you're your own critic. People tend to be a lot harsher on themselves than on other people. Embrace your imperfections and roll with it.

Taken February 17th

When taking self portraits, and just posing for portraits in general, it helps to eliminate the little voice in your head that says things like, "don't show your teeth that much," and "move that piece of hair." As I said before, just roll with it. Just relax and try different things between each click of the shutter. If you overthink, you'll look stiff and unnatural.

Taken February 20th

Initially when I saw the two photos above on my camera monitor, I didn't like either of them because the top one was off-centered and the bottom was blurry. However, I kept them, blew them up, and sure enough they are my two favorite self portraits to date. When shooting self portraits, please please please don't delete them straight off the camera. Wait until you upload them to your computer and look through them, then decide which ones to trash and keep.

Get creative with angles, with lighting, and with editing. I had so much fun editing this batch of photos with bokeh overlays and seeing how different one picture could look. It gives them a fun, artsy feel, and since I am rather an artsy person I love that.

I hope these little tips inspired you to take some self portraits! And if you do, let me know! Make a blog post with your self portrait experiments and leave me the link in a comment. Or post one on Instagram and tag me in it, @hannahlpgirl and hashtag it with #teamselfportrait. If you want to see some more incredible self portraits, head over to Janelle's blog, she's super talented and pretty much a master/expert/genius when it comes to modeling for herself.

Till next time guys!
xo,
hannah

mornings

I wouldn't say I'm not a morning person, because I love mornings and the simplicity and new-ness each one brings, I just tend to miss a whole lot of mornings due to my stereotypical teenager-y habits.  Sleep, my friends, is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

However, this morning I woke up at 5:15, played tennis from 6-7, and then came home, planning to shower and go back to sleep.

But who can sleep when there are fresh muffins, a whistling teapot, and a new drawing table from Ikea that's calling your name? Not me, that's for sure.

Are you a morning person?

xo,

hannah
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beginning again

Yes, I'm back. It actually feels really good to type that, but let me just explain:

I'm not going to be posting all the time. I'll post when I have something I truly want to share, and I'm focusing on quality instead of quantity. Right now I'm taking baby steps, just testing the waters to see if I want to dive back in full-force. And in case you haven't noticed, "hannah therese" is gone and good old "my nutty life" has returned for good.

It's so weird to think I started this blog four years and one week ago. Crazy weird. Where has the time gone?

I've updated my about page and I'm adding some other little linky-doos to the sidebar for the finishing touches. This place needs some color!

Signing off for now,
xo,
hannah