Nobody Cares What You Ate For BreakfastWhen I look at this picture I feel scared and tense. I’ve watched my share of Cold Case Files and Unsolved Mysteries to know that a man in a skimask is a man to be feared. Know what I mean? But then I read the post that goes with this picture and it turns out he is not a heartless killer, but rather a man who feels like he “just wants to hide.” But still….he makes me feel like making sure the windows and doors are locked tight.
Looney Tunes
Another masked person. Only she is not scary. She must look like a movie star under that ninja-like mask of hers because those are some amazing eyes. She makes me feel like asking for her autograph.
Bogi Bell
It looks like she tripped and fell into the tub. I love that you can see her legs in motion. She makes me feel like asking her if she is okay.
Amystery
She is enclosed in a season and it is breathtaking. The red of the leaves and her red hair are an amazing combination. Even though it is hot as an oven where I am, when I look at this photograph I can almost feel the crisp autumn air. Ahhhh, it feels good. She makes me long for the fall.
Enclosed on a plane. I like this photo a lot. Maybe because come this Saturday I will be eclosed on a plane just she is. She makes me feel like I was sitting next to her going home.
A bit of a looser theme for September - but still some restrictions. - Begins September 1.
September is ‘with someone‘ month - that means you must include someone else in your self portrait. Someone meaningful to your life or to the moment or to a specific event that you wish to document.
Guidelines:
1. each week in the month use a different person in your self portait.
2. either talk about that person or illustrate in the photograph why you have included them and how they are meaningful.
Sari lives in Finland and works in an office. Sometimes she sneaks photos while at work and tells her colleagues that she is pretending to do something important with her shots of paper clips and magnets.
She has a son and husband. Her photos are luminous and provocative. But, she doesn’t reveal much about her motivation: Why she does self-portrait challenge.
I need my space, I need invisible walls around - just for a moment.
After the rush of the week I sit here on Saturday morning with my coffee and I often find myself at a loss for words. As much as I want to write a witty and thought provoking post… lately between the Boy Scouts, the constant singing from my daughters Alphabet magnets (to the tune of Farmer in the dell: “B says ‘b’, B says ‘b’, Every letter makes a sound, B says ‘b’), and oh help me, my own homework next week… I’m lucky I can formulate sentences at all it seems.
Sometimes it’s so nice to just sit. I look forward to losing myself in your lives each week, so let’s get lost.
Oh how I know this feeling. That California Real Estate market was crazy when we left 3 years ago and if they didn’t get you at the door, they’d get you on the phone…. If they could get through between all the automated calls. Do not call list? HA!
What a nice photo.
If I had the space and money I’d have a car full of dogs too. The area we live in is horrible when it comes to abandoned animals. It’s nice to see another dog lover, and what great family photos!
I like this shot, partly because it’s just a good shot, but also because I’m a bit jealous she has a COMPLETE shower…
Oh, the most wonderful colors here! It’s hard to tell if this was planned or if she just walked out to the pool and snapped a shot.
I think this image would look so great printed large. How she managed this, I don’t know, but both the photo and her post are intriguing.
I’ve been out of town at my parents’ for a month now. And after 30 days of sleeping in a twin bed with my two year old, I’m afraid that I’m without words. But I can’t rest until I share five of my faves from this week with you. Here they are, in no particular order sans commentary.
I’m going on holiday in 7 more days!!! 7 days!! I’m so excited. So excited I almost forgot that it was my turn on SPC:) So many more lovely lovely enclosures this week. eye candy, I tell ya, eye candy. this week MY picks fall into 2 categories, amusing, and beautiful:
Beautiful first:
enclosed within
enclosed in darkness, headed to the light
submerged
enclosed in cozy
Now onto amusing:
enclosed in hair
enclosed in dinosaur
Danny’s been around for a while and his photos have consistently been selected as some of the greatest of Self Portrait Challenge. There’s a lot more to the surface though, for example, it turns out that Danny is an animator in his home town and that he avoids using digital for most of his images, which is pretty unusual these days.
1 How Long have you been a member of SPC?
I’ve been a member since November of 2005, back when SPC was Self Portrait Tuesday. :)
2 What is the most difficult self portrait that you have taken of yourself?
I’d have to say that my “self portrait as a fragrance ad” (http://blog.dannyngan.com/2006/07/04/spc-self-portrait-as-a-fragrance-ad/) was the most difficult one to shoot. Conceptually, it was easy to figure out what I wanted, but the actual execution of the shot and subsequent post-processing took far longer than what I’m used to. I was shooting with my new 50mm/f1.8, so I was trying to get used to the tight framing as well as the incredibly shallow depth of field of f/1.8. I was also doing this as a hand-held shot, so I had to take several shots before I could get both the framing and the focus correct. The post-processing to get the high-key look took a while to figure out as well, since I had never done any sort of high-key work before. I tried several iterations to find just the right balance of white area versus black area, and I probably could’ve kept on tweaking if there wasn’t the deadline of SPC keeping me on schedule.
3 Why do you take part in SPC? Has your photography altered from your participation?
I spend so much time photographing the people and things around me that it’s a nice change of pace to turn the camera on myself. Well, doing self-portraits used to be a change of pace, but, ever since I started participating in SPC, it’s become pretty normal. I think doing self-portraits adds a lot of personal touch to my overall work. You can look at my regular photos (http://photography.dannyngan.com) and see something that could be taken by anyone else. However, seeing my self-portraits mixed in there really makes the work feel like it’s from me. You see my facial expressions, and you really get a much better sense of who is behind the camera and why some of the shots were taken as they were.
4 Craziest pose you’ve stood in to get a photo?
The craziest pose has be the one I did this weekend for this month’s challenge of “enclosed space”. I contorted my upper body inside my laundry hamper – with dirty laundry – and I somehow twisted my arms around enough to point my camera at my face and fire off a shot. I’m not sure what the photo looks like yet (the film is undeveloped as I type this up), but it sure was fun trying to get inside my hamper.
5 How would you describe your style of portraiture?
Playful. Whimsical. Spontaneous. Random. Fun!
The BONUS QUESTION
6 If we saw you walking down the street, what thoughts would be in our heads and what thoughts would you want to replace them with?
Thoughts in your head: “Hey! It’s that crazy Asian guy who takes funny pictures of himself! Wonder if I should go say hi!”
Replace with: “Hey! It’s that crazy Asian guy who takes funny pictures of himself! Let’s go say hi and maybe he’ll take a picture of me!”
He’s infectious and bubbly, like I said, who could resist?
Gorgeous Gay lives with a guy and two dogs. Several grandchildren visit. She loves to garden and knit and take photos. Welfare case worker by day and free spirit motocyclist by night. She lives the best of both worlds. She knits, too. Did mention how she knits?
but after my last spc i was reminded of the grateful dead concerts i have attended in my days. i remembered the dancing deadheads and i wondered if i could capture that phenomenon in a self portrait. so i proceeded to try and as my best and favorite pictures happen, it happened on one try which is a good thing because let me say this i didn’t have too many more tries in me.
the whole concept of a photo diary is kind of interesting and for a
lot of different reasons, which will become clear as this goes along. when i discovered the self portrait tuesday web site i was disappointed that they could not take anymore members…for now… but still i wanted to experiment with the idea and so i shall. in february the members posted a self portrait every tuesday on their respective blogs, the all of me challenge. every picture tells a story and there’s a story behind every picture. this month the plan is to post a picture every day in march, as a way to document time. check out self portrait tuesday for all the particulars. i got a late start but started never the less. i decided to do portraits of my rituals, probably morning rituals…
i have been practicing the self portraits in private…until i can officially join, and love them because i’m getting to know my face and i’m seeing the parts of things now not just the whole and i’m hoping to learn more about myself and about the things i look at. i am technolgically very challenged, i cannot even cut and paste, i can cut and paste my ass off in the real world but have to date been unable to do so in the world wide web. so i give you my favorite time of the year…the dogwood days of spring…
i spent the last week end of may sweaty, dirty, exhausted and HOT from gardening, grass cutting, tearing out carpet and car washing and june is for pop art so…i bring you my memorial day…fudge pops and ponytails (with a little extra color for POP!)
It’s been a long week of going to work and then coming home to continue my master bathroom renovation. I was so antsy to get started this morning I nearly forgot about my weekly picks… and if it doesn’t kill me first, my picture next week will be of me in my newly tiled walk-in shower….
As you can tell by my one track mind and my rambling… I’m beat. So it’s just picks from here on out and I’ll spare you even more of my mumblings today. These are my favorites this week:
This is beauiful. I love, love, love it. It is so dreamy, airy, and just pretty. She makes me feel like I’m dreaming
Rainbow Stitches
Three sisters, all gorgeous. They make me feel like I’m missing out by not having a sister to be “equally young/old now” with.
Bits and Pieces
Gosh, when I look at this all I can think is that I wish I was the one walking on the beach. She makes me feel like I wish I were there.
Powerful. Those eyes, those eyes! Oh my gosh, [his] eyes. The white and black are striking, but those eyes make the photo. [He] makes me feel like encouraging you to go to [his] blog and read the post that goes with the photo.
I am fascinated with the muscles in her back, in the way her hair is falling, and the way she is able to fold herself up so tightly. She makes me feel like I could do this same pose even though I know I can’t.
