Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Photoplay: Portraits of Me

Sometimes I think that a historian looking through our family photographs would think that our family consisted of a single dad with three kids. And some strange woman who pops up once every six months or so. Because I'm usually the one behind the camera, I am rarely in front of the camera.

In Elevate the Everyday, Tracey Clark writes, "Including ourselves in the shots of our children's progression is a very important––yet all too often overlooked––part of our lives. Forget the tired eyes, extra pounds, and bad hair days. All that matters is that you are using your camera to bear witness to your being there for and with your kids, cheering them on all the way. Consider unique ways to get yourself in a shot that captures a moment of your life that you want to document."

To that end, I've been playing with taking pictures of myself (admittedly in two out of the three shots here my kids were nowhere around, so they're not necessarily documenting my life with them, but they do document my life):




Are you the sole documentarist in your family? How do you incorporate yourself in your own photographs?

3 comments:

  1. Generally, Lone Star Pa is the camera person around here. I got dressed down by a member of his family once because he was always the one behind the camera instead of in the pictures and I thought about it and decided that I really did not need to add any responsibilities to my list whatever she thought.

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  2. I really love that last one. That, for me, is such a reality of my life right now. On the road, in the car, looking back at the kiddos in the rear.

    Like Lone Star Ma, I'm not the photographer in our family. That's usually my husband's thing. It so rarely occurs to me to take a picture - which is odd, since it very often occurs to me to write something down.

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  3. Every so often I have to just hand Sweet Husband the camera and say, "Here, take pictures." I find that I've noticed it a lot more since the Kid was born. I don't want him to grow up and look back and say, "Where were you mom?" It's also meant that I have to get over a lot of my self-consciousness at being in front of the camera.

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