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