take a picture

and you could be the happy owner of this fine addon called TAFFETA. if you'll remember, this was an addon that sold out so quickly that it made my head spin. studio calico brought it back and they've agreed to let me give one away as part of our NSD celebrations.



here's the deal: each team member at SC will be holding their own challenge. starting today. you have ONE WEEK to complete the challenges. you can do as many or as few as you like. the more you do, the more chances you have of winning some fabulous SC addons. but my blog challenge is the ONLY ONE where you'll have the chance to win the TAFFETA add on. check out the other gals' blogs to see what they are up to as well. you can enter as many or as few as you like. but since you're here, i'd love to have you enter my challenge.

what's my challenge? recently, i've gotten a few comments from friends about my self portraits and how much they enjoy all the different versions. come, sit, let me tell you my self portrait story. since i started scrapping, i've fallen in love with taking self portraits. i can capture me better than anyone else because i'm patient with myself. just me and my camera, no tripod thank you, spending quality time together. i'm sure if you were to be a fly on the wall, you'd see and hear some pretty hilarious things. i'll laugh like a fool because the smile you get after a fake laugh is truly a smile. once you've done something silly like fake laughing, you naturally smile at yourself, and it's a good smile. i will stare blankly into the distance and try and shoot from a side angle. i will roll my eyes and shoot. i'll perch the camera on my table and stretch my neck up and out to get an unusual angle. i take thousands of shots--thank goodness for digital--and i'm only happy with one or two of them in any one shoot. however, i know it's important to have ME in my scrapping, so i keep doing it.

so i want you to try and get that ONE perfect shot of YOU. start playing with your camera, i'll post some suggestions that have worked for me and others throughout the week. send me a link to your self portrait and i'll enter you into the drawing. if i find the composition of that photo extra creative or interesting (i love the camera in the mirror photos, but then it's kind of obvious you took your own photo, i want to see some different ideas going on...), i'll enter you again. do a layout with that photo and i'll enter you again. please just enter ONE photo.

if you are the winner, which i will choose on at midnight EST, at the end of all the NSD festivities (that's may 2nd--next saturday), you'll need to get me your mailing information ASAP. so please make yourself easily contactable, or make sure you check out my blog late saturday night!

i'm so excited to see what you come up with!

i like this quote by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. i think it's very true.

. “It is not merely the likeness which is precious... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think -- and it is not at all monstrous in me to say that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist's work ever produced.”

just as an example of a recent photo shoot for you... i used my 50 mm lens, which is why it's so close up. i like that lens, but the 28-80mm can give you more variety, which is good sometimes. there are no rules on that. hold the camera at a 45 degree angle from your outstretched arm (imagine yourself as a T, lift your arm 45 degrees above that horizontal line.), and start clicking. change sides, move your arm forward or backward, etc. i took over 40 pictures in this particular shoot. it was night, the lighting was horrible, but let black and white mode be your friend :) i went with the one in middle, not because it was the best one, but because it captured something in me that i liked. the cropping was horrible, but for some reason the camera focused in on one eye and made it super crisp against a little fuzz for the rest of the photo. that spoke to me. we'll talk about cropping later in the week.