
I recently saw a post on Reddit that made my heart break. It made by a mother of young children, and she was asking, “How can I get more photos of myself with my kids?”
Of course the main suggestions revolved around berating her husband for not taking photos of her, but I don’t really think it was his fault. Most people aren’t thinking of taking good photos of their partners, they are just thinking of their day to day life. Speaking from my own experience, the main times my husband takes photos of me is when he thinks I look funny, not when he thinks I look good.
Not having pictures of oneself is actually super common. I saw it nearly every time I photographed a client. Mom is always the one taking photos of the kids, she’s never the one being photographed. And sometimes, she doesn’t even want photos of herself because she feels she looks too messy, due to her mom life.
I get it. In fact, I’m in the same boat. Despite spending the last few years photographing clients, I actually have very few photos of myself. It’s the same reasons, my husband doesn’t take photos of me, and when there is a camera, I hide because I think I look terrible. Because of this, I look back at the photos of my kids, and sadly, I’m not in them.
My Old Self Portraits
Back in the before days (before I had kids) I actually did do some self portraits. I wasn’t a professional photographer and I wanted to take photos. I was my own model. I styled some scenes, left others more natural, and just played around. I didn’t know much about lighting, composition, or posing (basically nothing). I just experimented.
By doing it, I learned how much I love bright pastel colors. I love simplicity. I love fashion inspired posing.
But, then I stopped doing it. Life just got in the way, so it wasn’t a priority.

We All Deserve to Be in Photos

I’ve been telling clients for years: They deserve to be in photos. They deserve to have a really good photo of themselves that they can hang on the wall, or use as their online profile picture, or just have to be able to look back on, years from now, and marvel at how beautiful they really are.
Since I’ve been telling clients this, why shouldn’t the same apply to me? Why do I make photo albums full of photos of my family and pets, and yet I’m not in them? That doesn’t make sense, I was there too!
One way is just asking someone else to take my photo at family gatherings, which I highly recommend, it seems very simple, but for some reason people just won’t ask for someone else to snag a quick photo. Just do it!
But I can also just make my own. I can take responsibility for this and create my own photos. I don’t need to wait, the time is right now.
It Improves My Photography Skills
Taking self portraits is tricky. Since I can’t see what I look like in the view finder, sometimes my poses look weird, or sometimes I get body parts that are cut off.
But each time I try it, I improve. I start noticing the little details that can make the photo so much better. Ironically, just like my normal photography, where I realize after each shoot what I could have done to improve.
It also helps me understand how my clients feel. Sometimes I can feel very lost in front of the camera, not sure what to do. When no one is there to tell me how I should pose, I just feel kind of uncomfortable, not knowing what looks good with my body. I can imagine how scary it is for a client when they first step in front of the camera.
(Luckily for anyone else who wants great photos, I can guide you when I photograph you, so you don’t need to worry about that!)
Nothing creates more improvement than just practicing, and I am happy to keep practicing.

YouTube
If you’re interested in self portraits, I encourage you to follow along on my YouTube channel. I’m very interested in exploring this more, and seeing how I can keep improving and creating. I’d love to have you join me!