Taking a self-portrait photo shoot is a mean affair. I would rather say it is not for the lighthearted souls. It is like a horror film that slowly unfolds in front of your own eyes. Never ever will you even imagine in your wildest dreams that, after taking 50 shots or more, you look like a completely different person in each photograph you yourself have posed for. I asked myself after every shot, who is this person?
Before I started the photo shoot, I looked up at some reference photographs from social media (damn! every single shot was a dream shot). I started imagining myself in those shots and boy! did I look pretty, perfect and poised. I was super excited to make it happen (little did I know what was going to be in store for me). Half an hour later, I was all dressed, my camera was set up on the tripod, the morning light was perfect, my art and pros were in its place now all it needed was me in front of the camera imitating all those sexy poses which I saw. I was very excited yay!
Lights! Camera! Action!
Setting the camera to 10 second self-timer (why do they have only 10 seconds? Batting an eyelid will take 10 seconds, forget reaching your spot for a perfect photograph as 4 seconds goes in running away from the camera and 6 seconds to get into a proper pose), I run to my designated spot, quickly arranging myself and my clothes into one of the poses I saw, smiling my prettiest smile, waiting to hear the clicking sound of the camera, only to realise that I didn’t press the button hard enough (rolling my eyes and moving my head sideways in disapproval of myself), I run back to the camera, made sure that I pressed the button hard enough, almost rattled the tripod, and repeated the above scenario of running, fixing and posing. It felt like I was running a marathon 😊
I was hopeful after my first shutter speed shots, thinking that it will be perfect in my eyes, and I am done for the day. Well, I was in for a rude shock when I saw the pictures. My after thoughts were:
- Why the hell am I looking at the ceiling.
- I don’t remember writing anything on my palm.
- The camera is in the front not down.
- Where did this weird hair strand come from.
- Look into the camera not at the pretty imaginary bird which is sitting on your window.
- Stop moving your hands, the camera captures still images not images in motion.
- Blur! Blur! Blur! So many blurred photos.
- Why are you feeling your heartbeat.
- The placement of your hand has almost covered your entire face.
LOL! You get what I am saying right?
This sequence goes on for a while of clicking, running, fixing, posing, hoping, strolling, checking, experiencing shock, sighing, and restarting. I started to believe that I was a masochist enjoying this pain 🤣
Taking a deep breath of hope, I quickly looked up on YouTube for “how to stop pulling your hair while doing a self-portrait photo shot 😂 (keeping some points in my mind in case I get tempted), I brace myself, face the camera, feeling very tired, pose, pause, go back to the camera (my energy has slowed down in writing as well just by recollecting that moment) and voila! I am loving what I am seeing. Finally, after many rounds of running to and fro, posing, sweating, swearing, flinching, hoping and smiling, I get a perfect picture I am happy with, it just requires some brightening up as the light had almost faded after 6 hours of photo-shoot, phew! Sharing the pictures that I like and feeling proud of what I achieved.
Now if I ever say to myself, ‘time for another photo shoot’ I will shoot myself, pun intended 😊.
Thanks dahlings for walking, nope, running with me through this photo shoot 😊.
