Often I find myself with out a subject to take pictures of. Comes with being an introvert and not sitting around waiting for other people to lead the way. I just go. Anyway, over the course of a week and a half my friend Cassie and I came up with self shoot challenges to keep out creativity flowing and give out lives some focus in the midst of a crazy time.
Day 1: glass of water
I wanted to have the initial focus on the glass of water and then your your focus turns to me and the surroundings.
Day 2: Reading
My goal for this shoot was to get out of my house. Get some sun and listen to birds and the creek as I read. simple. This shoot was about quality me time.
Day 3: Upside down
I had no idea what i was gonna do when i made this challenge. It’s kinda fun to put myself in a situation that i have to start from nothing and let pure creativity flow from the start. I don’t end up copying anything. It’s just what happens in the moment. lot of cool art happens that way. can’t say these are my favorite upside down pictures but that’s just what happened.
Day 4: Tunnel Vision
I decided with this one i’d jump on the blur trend. Had a fun time making things that attached to my camera to make it look right.
Day 5: Yellow
Personally I’m not a big color fan for my life. I love blacks and greys and white. Playing with color is something I’ve wanted to mess with for a while. Was gonna save it for someone else shoot but might as well get some practice. Pulled the fruit idea from Photographer Jessica Leigh and messed with gels for the first time to get the light i wanted.
Day 6: Grass
honestly didn’t want to shoot this day. I also started a job this day and was tired and mentally spent. I had wanted to use some bamboo(biggest grass) behind my house for this shoot but wasn’t able to. So i grabbed my drone and rode my bike over to the elementary school down the street. Big grassy fields and a great place to lay down to do my daily assignment. I love that as it zooms out you start to get a better idea of where I am.
Day 7: Hair
I wanted to do darker with this one. Black and intense. A lot of times longer hair can be used to show openness and carefree spirit. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to make it feel daunting and off-center and intense.
Day 8: Leaves
Wasn’t excited about this challenge. Figured there was a bunch of stupid ideas that had already been done that i could pander to. couldn’t really think of anything original that i liked. Finally just cut down some bamboo and filled my tub and accidentally suffocated myself several times with $5000 worth of camera hanging over my tub. One of the weirdest and hardest self shoots i’ve ever done.
Day 9.5: Lines
So i missed this challenge. just didn’t want to shoot. Was tired from work and tired of taking pictures of myself. the second day i wanted to get that emotion out. I also didn’t want to use traditional lines like fences or buildings or clothing. I wanted light to create my lines. I left these picture relatively raw and unedited other than adding some grain because i felt like it portrayed the emotion of reality better.
Day 10: ……
This day wasn’t really a challenge. But a couple days after that last shoot i wanted to do a self shoot that showed me how i felt after all the challenges. I was proud of my pictures and the different stuff i was able to capture. Self shooting is so much harder for me. You have to think out what you want and how it’s going to look and what i’m going to look like and how to hit the timer or remote before you get to see what you captured. It just takes more thought and time and I mess up a lot more. So at the end I wanted to showcase myself in by “studio” with a celebratory glass of whiskey and coffee.
The challenges here and the challenges I have faced in life over the last couple months have made me grow and fall. Which i will most definitely continue to do the rest of my life. Thanks for reading. Stay excellent out there.
