Tuesday, October 4, 2011

tuning out

blah and blurred

No one likes self portraits. Its one of the hardest things you'll encounter. You will take a deep breath and fire off a million shots only to find yourself scrutinizing over the slightest sign of aging or flaw. It's natural after all we are our own worse critic. We see things through the most harshest of filters, our ego.

When I was doing a daily prompt class last year we had an assignment for self portraits. My stomach clenched, after all I had just finished a painful audit with the IRS and personally was in no shape mentally or emotionally to turn the scrutiny of the lens upon myself. I trotted out the camera and figured out how to use the timer and just sat there staring with no idea what to try to express. How do you express the feeling of numbness? When I went back through the 20 or so images, there were a few that just totally missed the focal point and what I was left with was the photo above, myself through a fog of blur. But that was EXACTLY how I was feeling so out of focus and that's when I knew that this was in fact the most perfect and accurate capture of myself. I treasure this photo, it reminds me of where I was and how far I have come from that feeling of emptiness.

As I went through the Mortal Muse Pool I came across this beautiful image from photoangie the combination of saturated colors, textures and blur are so dreamy and absolutely timeless. Red and turquoise are one of my favorite color combinations. The polka dots make me very happy a welcome departure from days passed.


blur with dots

blur with dots by photoangie

9 comments:

Ashley Sisk said...

Beautiful reflection - I love the pairing.

Holly ~ Soupatraveler said...

i know what you mean about the blurry selfie, i've done a lot myself. sometimes it captures a funny moment, sometimes it masks a sad one. lovely thoughts and lovely pairing

christina said...

oh i know what you mean. such a lovely blur to this selfie.
love that you paired it with these sweet dots.
xo

Angela Zuill said...

That is a captivating photo. Wow.

GailO said...

Through the blur there is so much in each of these photos...Lovely!

Kat Sloma said...

I love all that you have written Lindsey. I know that feeling about self-portraits. You captured it all beautifully in your images and words!

Chelsea said...

Love both shots and I think everyone can relate! There are a few selfless I have taken that I didn't think were anything special then looked back later and remembered how I was feeling. Pretty special really.

radish38 said...

I read your post and decided to try a self portrait. When I could find myself there were a couple of good pictures. But I was so embarrassed that I looked good, I couldn't post it. "what does she think of herself". How stupid is that?

Kirstin said...

Oh you remind me of my first self portrait and how I started blurry, slowing coming into focus. This is a wonderful post. Beautiful.

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