30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 1 - Self Portrait

Yep, the 1st photo for this challenge results in my ugly mug in an extremely unflattering photo... a simple, plain, boring photo.. yes? Not for me though. This photo actually has several "layers" to it (and yes, I can be an Ogre at times! ;-P every time I hear that word, I hear Donkey's voice! Weird, I know!).

First off, taking it caused me to step out of my comfort zone in 2 different areas: 1) I hate, absolutely HATE having photos taken of me, and 2) I feel very uncomfortable & self concious taking photos out in public, and this was down a street with lots of houses and people/cars moving about, so I'm sure there would've been at least a couple of people who spotted me, like a weirdo, standing on the footpath in front of this tree in someone's yard, taking a photo of myself. :-/

The next "layer" is that this photo is the 1st of several things: 1) the 1st photo of this challenge, 2) the 1st photo I've taken this year, 3) the 1st photo to kickstart my many months-long photography block, and 4) the 1st photo of me since making the decision today that it was time to stop avoiding being in front of the camera. I have bugger all photos of me with friends, family, my pets, etc.. my "memory" photos always contain the things I love, but almost never with me with them. This is one of my changes for this year, 2012: the year of change - more photos of me with loved ones and doing what I love.

The 3rd "layer" to this photo is that this is who I am, right now, at this moment... seriously overweight, constantly tired, badly dressed in sloppy clothes, hair pulled back to keep it out of my face... basically me not giving a damn about my appearance, and caught up with the depression that has been hounding my heels for so many years, steadily getting worse. Another of my changes for this awesome year of change will be to give myself a bit of a make-over! A completely new look! I want to start taking more care with my appearance, the way I dress, do my hair, etc, as well as getting fit and hopefully losing weight. I've never been, and will probably never be, a "girlie-girl". Complete and utter tomboy since I was a kid. But, I am starting to find a few small "girlie-girl" type things I like... painting my nails, using hand cream, wearing dresses/skirts. So these will be part of the new "me", along with a hair cut... and COLOUR! I want to do something completely crazy with my hair, just to help throw me out of this funk I've been in for years. So I plan to dye it for the first time ever, with some crazy colour... which is the main reason I took this photo where I did! The tree behind me has gorgeous dark plumy purple leaves (crappy photo does not show the colour properly, so just trust me on this... those leaves are dark purple, not brown or anything), and being an absolute purple loving nut, I've decided when I dye my hair, it will be a shade of purple. I'm currently bouncing between 2 shades of purple that I really like... a dark plum type purple similar to the leaves, and a deep "royal" purple which is far more vibrant and in your face.

So as simple and plain as this photo seems, it's not.. not for me anyway. When I first decided to do this challenge, I'd originally seen it simply as a way to get me back into photography in a nice easy manner, because the topic to focus on was given to me each day. Yup... I'd planned to do just a quick, bugger all effort, shot of "just something that fits the daily topic". At least it would get me clicking again right? In the process I might just get inspired to start taking other photos... but at least this was a starting point, yes? After taking this photo... HELL NO! Although the topic for each day in the list is pretty plain and ordinary, & most of the time the subject of each of my challenge photos will probably be just ordinary things, I now plan to put a LOT more effort & thought into each photo. I want them each to actually mean something important... not just some random photo of a plant, person, or object simply because it "fits the topic". I also want to start working more on the composition, lighting etc too... I've slacked off for so long that my photography skills are extremely rusty, and I'm rather appalled at just how bad this photo is technically! So, time to work on it, get my minimal skills a bit more polished once again. Time to challenge myself properly!