Tag: selfies

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NaBloPoMo Day 8: Focus

Today’s NaBloPoMo Prompt: Do you think you smile more honestly when you’re taking a selfie or when someone else is photographing you?

For years my mom, who is herself a real shutterbug, would holler at me whenever there was a group photo. I was always making faces. Nowadays, it’s my wife who yells at me. I guess they’re the only two people who simultaneously care and feel like they can speak their minds.

Not that I smile in selfies all the much. So the real answer is: my smile is captured in its most genuine state in candid photos. And oh boy. Nothing reinforces my disdain for being photoed than seeing my goofy doofus smile.

Here’s what’s sad. Most of them time if I know I’m being photographed, I make a face. Finally I decided to stop taking myself so seriously, and one time I didn’t make a face— and my wife still hollered at me. I was trying to be normal, and she still that I looked silly. Sigh.

Today’s NaBloPoMo Photo Prompt: Focus

A photo posted by Jason Edwards (@bukkhead) on


I got into photography for a variety reasons, and one of them is a fascination with depth of field. This picture is one of my favorites— I took it with my DSLR,then saved it as JPG and manipulated it a bit further in Pxlr and Instagram. Depth of field let’s me focus on one key element, and the rest is balance.

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Selfie (And Let’s Get Started with NaBloPoMo)

Can you believe I had these #SanDiego sunglasses for 5 days before I thought to #selfie them?

A photo posted by Jason Edwards (@bukkhead) on

Here’s why I like selfies: they’re spontaneous. A person has a camera and wants to take a picture. They decide to take a picture of themselves. I say, psychologically, the order here is important, as the desire to take a photo happened first.

Go ahead and tell me I’m wrong, if you want. But it’s true for me, which is why, technically, yes, I like taking selfies. Cause I like taking pictures. Selfies also keep me from relying on just my DSLR for all of my photo urges. “The best camera is the one you have with you.” I always have my cell phone with me.

And I’m always with me, so there’s never a good reason to not take a photo.

I think some people think selfies are shallow, but I don’t think they are. I suppose one could say that so much-self regard is conceited… but I think selfies have the potential to be more mindful than that. And so what, if the ultimate point is to share? Well, maybe that’s conceited too… but let’s step away from being judgmental, and look at selfies for what they are: fun.

My number one rule is: don’t make a person feel bad for liking something. Which is why I get a little defensive when people bash folks for doing what they like. Go ahead, take selfies. Use a selfie stick if you want! Share your selfie on Instagram and Flickr and Tumblr and Facebook and Twitter. Frankly, rather than all the negativity and nonsense in the world right now, I’d prefer to see your face.

And mine 🙂

 

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Selfies, Helicopters, Chicken Wings

Postaday for January 20th: A Moment in Time. What was the last picture you took? Tell us the story behind it. (No story behind the photo? Make one up, or choose the last picture you took that had one.)

The last picture I took was a selfie. I was heading out the door, and I was thinking how I hadn’t posted anything in Instagram for a while. Then I got my reflection the mirror. I was wearing mirrored sunglasses and a hoody. That, along with my full beard, and I looked like a real ne’er do well. So I snapped the shot, in anticipation of messing around with it later.

I haven’t even looked at since, cause life, being busy, etc.

Before that, the last picture I took was with my DSLR, but only because it has a zoom lens. (Technically, it’s not actually a “zoom” lens since it only goes up to 200mm— but it gets closer than my other lens, and better than the digital zoom on my phone). There was a helicopter flying above our house, and I could see it through our skylight.

The story is that some ne’re-do-well decided it would be a good idea to empty his revolver, firing six shots and who knows what. I’ll let you down now— no one was shot at, no one was hurt, and no one was caught.

But at the time, I and a bunch of other people called the police, and they, apparently swarmed. This included a helicopter, which I took a picture of, like I said.

FULL CHEAT MODE— given that I am writing this on May 7th and back-posting, perhaps what I should do is write about the last photograph I took as of January 20th.

It appears that the last photo taken at that point was some chicken wings on a plate. Made ‘em myself. And by “made ‘em” I mean I went to the grocery store, bought a box of pre-cooked frozen wings, heated them up, and drank beer while watching the NFL playoffs.

I live in Seattle, so you know how THAT story ends.

Hello, happiness! # nflplayoffs

A photo posted by Jason Edwards (@bukkhead) on