Selfie Saturday

I take a LOT of selfies.  Most, you'll never see... for various reasons lol... but certainly my friends will know they see plenty (I am constantly changing my profile pic on fb and everywhere else).  It's partly because, like many people, I'm pretty insecure about myself and how I look.  It's nice to remind myself that actually... I kinda look ok.  I'm good... I don't need that paper bag lol.

The second reason is I just love playing with light and I have an almost obsessive drive to find spots where the lighting is just right.  I am incredibly fortunate to have several of these in my townhouse, just with natural light!

So for a little selfie like this I've got 10 shots, all in different spots and now I know "just" the one to get light like this which is my favourite of the 10.   I've seen the tricks and lighting setups they have in studios to try and get lighting like this (because it makes your skin look ah-mazing lol... I have great skin but it's by no means flawless) and here it is, just naturally, coming through my back door. 

The third reason I take lots of selfies is it's all practice.  It's that ten thousand hours rule really, and I absolutely plan to put every moment I can into honing my skills.  I figure if I can take a good... or even great image on a phone of myself, then I'm much more likely to take an amazing image of you with a great camera.

As my assistants would have me say... look at my butt lol.  I took it, I'm in it, it's my bed, and completely natural light.  If I can do that for myself... phew... just let me get my hands on you!!

The Birth of Scarlet Harlotte

Once upon a time... no just kidding, this story is far from a fairy tale...

The concept for Scarlet Harlotte came about from a very personal event that saw me turning a huge negative into a positive - for not only myself but anyone who wishes to be part of the story!!

I'll try not to bore your pants off... but hey who's watching... make yourself comfortable ;)

I am a woman.  There's really not much doubt with curves like mine.  I was immensely excited when I first got my new camera, and so took some shots of myself to see how Nancy (yes, my camera has a name) fared.  Well, not yet having a tripod, using available light, having a bad back and having to just throw on a timer and cross my fingers I didn't pull a stupid face meant 90% of the photos I took I wasn't happy with.  But there were a couple that were ok.

I take a lot of photos of myself, because (well maybe I'm just a little vain but...) I like to play with images.  I like to see the light at different times of day, the shadows and natural vs synthetic light.  So having so many of these snaps of myself, I do tend to change my profile pics about the place quite often.  Facebook is no exception.

Well of course with a new ok pic with great light from a great camera, I figured I'd pop it up as my new facebook profile image.  Remember I mentioned that I'm a woman?... with curves?  Yeah so some people - all of whom I am quite close to - took issue with the fact that some of those curves weren't completely covered in the image.  Now, I'm not talking about nudity here... far from it!  I'm simply talking about a bit of cleaveage.  How bout I show you... might be easier...

It's funny because the whole reason I chose this particular image is the placement of my hands - conveniently masking most of the cleaveage showing!  I wouldn't exactly call that a come hither face either.  It's more like a "ok I'm a bit sick of this posing and it not working because I can't see what on earth I look like and there's nobody to direct me" face.

Anyway, I digress...

Long story short, comments were made and I removed the image.  Further comments were made and a friend decided to take a stand.  The people making the comments and blowing this not fabulous image out of all proportion (even to the extent of insinuating I was somehow unfit to be around their children because of it!!!) were losing sight of what, to me is the most important point of all...

This is ME
This is MY profile
This is how I look
This is how I choose to dress
I am a WOMAN
They're called BOOBS
I like them, and the rest of my body
(and after 34 years of hating myself that is a HUGE statement)
AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THEM!!!!!!!!

I was angry, and anyone who knows me knows that when I get angry, I get just a little cheeky.  I am such a visual person, that I just had to express myself visually.  With the inferences being made about my personality from the images well... there was only one conclusion.  I did a photo shoot in a red dress with a big scarlet A on one side of my cleaveage.  Nancy's batteries had gone flat and I wasn't prepared to wait.  So I did it all just with my phone, never imagining it would lead to more...

After that, the whole incident went around and around in my head for days until I came to one simple conclusion.   So many people, especially women, are not only unhappy with what they see in the mirror, they're scared of it.  It is that fear which makes them want to put everyone else in the same little box, and cut down anyone that dares embrace their body, and look good doing it. 

I am adamant that through my kinda quirky and often unorthodox style of photography, myself and my trusty camera can bring out the beauty in everyone.  I want to show people as themselves, bursting out of that box, having fun, and making beautiful images from it.

I hope you can join me in my quest to bust out of that box of the ordinary.  Let's have fun being ourselves - whether it's flirty, silly, sexy, strong, seductive or just outright hot & heavy.

Watch this space, it could be very interesting... xx