I used to do self-portraits quite frequently when I first started photography. Inspired by talented flickr contacts (Miss Aniela and Karen Ilagen were my earliest inspirations), I began a 52 week project where I tried to take one self-portrait per week. The purpose was to practice photography, post-processing, and portrait-taking (albeit the lack of models), but the goal was to visually express an idea or mood -- usually related to something that happened during my week.

It was a great exercise that forced me to pick up my camera regularly. It also helped me figure out what kind of photographic/visual style I liked, as there are many choose from! The nice thing about being your own model/client is that there is no risk in wildly experimenting : ).

I took a hiatus last year when I started doing photoshoots for other people. While that's been thrilling and rewarding, I've also missed the unlimited amount of creative freedom that comes with doing self-portraits. So, last week, I finally found some time to take self-portrait #43.

Below are two (of many) in-between images. The image on the left is straight out of the camera; it was shot with a speedlight through a small Lumiquest Softbox III with a small light panel on top to give a bit of directional light. The image on the right is what I overlayed onto the first image to give the slightly red/rustic color that I was looking for.

As usual, this was a couple of hours of fun and frustration : ) Now that I have a blog, hopefully there will be many more to come.