A long, long time ago, when I was in my first call
“Strange, isn’t it…” he mused, brow wrinkling in thought, “how when you look at photos everyone else looks the same as they usually do, while you look completely different.”
I knew exactly what he meant. You probably do, too. How you imagine you look is very often not how you actually look, and this is Reason Number One as to why I hate being photographed. We’re visual creatures after all, and in just one split-second flash, you can be forever judged on the basis of an awkward snaggle-toothed smile, or those piggy eyes you definitely don’t have in real life (honest!).
I’ll let you into a little secret: I had to be coerced into having a photo taken for my website. My wonderful web design team told me I had to; I was selling myself after all, so people would want to know what I look like.
I relented, and our first attempt was a full-on smiley picture that I absolutely
So we settled on the picture we actually used. The one where I’m not actually looking into the camera at all, but down at my writing pad instead. Any awkwardness can be interpreted as my being deep in thought about what I’ve just written down (clever, eh?).
I’ve been stubbornly avoiding the camera for most of my life. In group
I’m not trying to say I’m not vain. In
This is Reason Number Two: with all the selfie-taking and dinner snapping, we’re losing our appreciation of a really good picture.
(Yes I know. That sounds like something only an old person would say, doesn’t it?)
Despite my picture-reticence, I arranged a
Maybe that’s the secret to a really good photo: the camera doesn’t lie, so accepting that you’re not perfect (and neither is anyone else!) will make you feel more comfortable, far more natural and more…well, you. Warts and all.
(Just pass me the photo-editing software, and we’ll be done here).