Getting out from behind the Camera

I have been following some of Kristen Duke's Photography tips on The Idea Room. One was about getting out from behind the camera. I would much rather take the picture than be in it, but she suggested to start putting yourself in more pictures with your kids and hubby. One of her readers commented about a woman who decided to do that very thing. She decided that she was going to be in a photo with her family every month, and she wasn't going to care that she didn't look perfect:) And so she did. Here's the quote taken from the She Left Proof Project:

"Many scrapbookers knew Aleida Franklin. She was a wonderful wife and mother and a brilliant artist. I didn’t know Aleida personally, but she taught me something I will never forget.

She emailed me last year to tell me she loved my blog and to ask if I liked my short hair-cut. This lead to a series of emails which eventually led me to remark that I really loved how often she posted pictures of herself with her children on her blog. And she replied to me, “Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn’t wearing make-up? Or wasn’t dressed in a glamorous outfit?” Of course my answer was no.
She then responded with saying that she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child.

Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away in an auto accident in September of 2008, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs. I have made it my personal goal to follow her wise suggestion and I try to take photos of myself with my children….double chins, make-up free, bed-head and all.

I invite Mothers everywhere to take Aleida’s Challenge. To photograph yourself with your children each and every month. And to post them here so that we can see Aleida’s legacy unfolding"

It's not the complete story though I'm sure you could search for it. I found myself thinking that what she left her family with is something so very priceless. Her children will always have a memory of her, even when that memory may start to fade. This really got me thinking of what kind of legacy I want to leave my kids. Pictures is an easy way to start!

So I've decided that, once a month, regardless of how I look or how crazed I am, I will try to get a picture in with the kids, or Doug, or what have you.

Starting now.

There have been a few people that have asked to see my new "do" from the 'To be Blonde or not to be Blonde' post, so I am going to post a photo of myself. Even though that post was meant to be about the possibility that Blonde's really do get more attention more than it was a hair post. Not that I ascribe to that theory, but it was food for thought anyway. So as much as this makes me TOTALLY uncomfortable, I am going to do it:) Gotta start somewhere I suppose.

Why is it that it's so hard to post a photo of oneself? Does anybody else have this problem???

This one is me trying to take a photo of myself using the bathroom mirror.



Doug wondered why I didn't just ask him. Me too:) I guess I'm just used to being the one behind the camera. So I did. And he was happy to oblige.



So there you have it. I am going to count this as the photo for the month of July. Hopefully this will get easier as the months go by, especially since I won't be doing any more self portraits!