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#ADENAMADEMEDOIT Day 15

How do you feel when you hear the word selfie? Some of you love them, some of you would go running the other way any day of the week. Haha! Well today I'm going to share my photography skills with you and teach you how to improve your selfies! And then your challenge is to play with it and be ready to capture memories for yourself from now on! (Cue one of my favorite selfies from Wonder Wonder in Boulder a few years ago...)

There are 4 main things I want you to think about when you're taking a selfie...

 

1. How do you feel? If you haven't put any time into what you feel like, it may be impossible to love your selfie. I actually don't care what you LOOK like, it's about the effort that you've put into how you feel about how you look. I'm sure it seems like this one doesn't make sense but let me explain. I truly believe that when you see a photo of yourself, it will remind you of the way you felt when it was taken. If you're feeling awkward or invisible, that's how you feel when you see the photo. If you're feeling beautiful or powerful, you'll feel it when you look back on that photo. Its a crazy thing, but its true! Another example, when you are going shopping and needing to find something new, maybe a new dress for an event, have you ever noticed that if you feel cute when you start it is MUCH easier to find the dress? Compared to if you threw everything together to walk out the door and you're feeling super sloppy. You're already having to imagine yourself in the dress in a pretty place (not the dressing room) and then you have to look past the messy bun and the coffee stains, ya know? SO the first step is making sure you're in a place that you WANT to love your photo. A good selfie isn't magic, its capturing something good, so bring that before you open the camera.

 

2. LIGHTING!! This one is my favorite! If you've ever seen my natural light studio, you know. I want you to put the light on your face. I know so many times we just open our camera and put something pretty behind us but that usually isn't the best lighting. So YES, if you're trying to selfie with something you can't move, get over the lighting and just cherish the picture of a great memory. But, if you want to love the photo of you and be able to really see yourself, walk to a window. If there is direct light, this might get a little crazy but if its just the ambient light coming into the window its perfect. Here are examples of me as I type this...facing the window vs. the window behind me. I didn't change anything but the position of my feet!

3. Angles...they say the camera adds 10 lbs right? (Totally not true if you know what you're doing) If you hold the camera anywhere below your eyeballs, its gonna be too low, unless you're trying to show off your double chin or your DDs. If you hold the camera too high, you're really just getting your dirty floors (Hi Tucker!). I think the best spot is just a little above your eyes and I'll explain where your face should be in the step #4. I do want to repeat...if you're trying to selfie with something you can't move, forget about the angle and just capture the memory!!

4. Posing...ah the last and final piece. You can feel good, have good lighting and a great angle and still look like a deer in headlights haha! If you have shot with me you've heard me say "Chin out and down". To explain, you push your whole face forward (not just your chin, no self inflicted underbites), kinda like a turtle reaching forward and then tilt your face down just a bit. This creates a great jawline and opens your eyes nice and big for the camera. You gotta trust the process! Make eye contact with yourself, tell yourself how proud you are for showing up for this challenge for 15 days now, flirt with yourself a little. It may feel silly but the more time you spend looking at yourself on your phone, the easier selfies will be in the moment.

 

OK, here we go. Time to practice. I want you to open the camera on your phone and turn it towards your face. AHHH scary I know. You don't have to take a photo right away, do a little exploring. Walk to a window and watch how your face changes. Bring it up and down and look at your angles. Not all angles are good! Get ready to be like nope, that's not it! That's ok, don't stop. Play around until you find a spot that you like the lighting and the angle and see if you can take a photo of yourself that feels like you.

 

I made a video that explains everything so you can watch it happen for me in my office. I'm going to try to text that video midday today so you can see it! Its about 2 minutes long so if it's not going through we will work on some other way for you to get it. I'll also be on Marco today to show you there!

 

Today the challenge is to practice but I would love for you to show up for yourself this week at some point, feeling good, and nail it and then send it to me! As I built this challenge I realized I haven't taken any selfies since I finished my Invisalign, so I'm excited to do it this week too! (You show me yours, I'll show you mine? hehe)