Dichroic Reflections

photo project, weekend 1

Rachel has inspired me to start a collection of self- and Rudder-portraits. Partly this is because we don't have enough good pictures of us around; partly this is because I photograph badly most of the time (this would be why we don't have a ton of pictures of us around) and partly it's because my landscape photo skills are decent but my portrait photo skills suck, and I'd like them to improve. Unfortunately, I may have to buy a separate flash and diffuser to get this to go well. Rachel's project is to do one self-portrait every day for 30 days, but given my time constraints, I'm going to do one (or more) each weekend, and one of Rudder too. (He's much easier to photograph well, so that will be the carrot on the stick.)

I did the Rudder one first, and am happiest with that one. I was going for a very protective feeling here.

"Embrace"
I cropped it, softened the focus (using a film-grain filter) and turned it to black and white in Photoshop.

Here's the one of me.

"This is what almost 40 looks like"
I wanted this to be very uncompromising: no makeup, hair pulled back, the clothes I knocked around in all day. I've done a little Photoshopping, but only to crop the photo and adjust brightness and contrast; no soft-focusing or air-brushing or anything like that. Oh - I did edit out the logo on my shirt.

An outtake:

"Basking"
I was thinking the bare wall would help with that uncompromising feeling, but I didn't get any with that level gaze in them against the wall. I do like the shadows here, though.