QUOTE(Lynette @ Oct 4 2006, 01:45 PM)
Oh, believe me, I've done plenty of self portraits in my artwork. If you'd like I'll PM you some examples. I think that having an interest in art, I have a great appreciation for photography as an art form, I don't claim to be a great photographer though. I've never taken a photography class. I believe that I have an eye for good composition, contrast, color variation, and etc. Every so often I see a photo that really touches something inside and moves me the same way a great painting would, and wish I could do that kind of work. Maybe I'm just not that confident in my ability to take the quality of pictures that I'd like to. The pics I HAVE taken of myself have been a little disappointing in my judgement. Like I said, I don't make nude photos just for the sake of having naked pictures. I like pretty picutres. That's cool, Lynette. I understand being disappointed in the results and maybe feeling like it wasn't worthwhile to try again. However, I feel like the self-portrait things I've tried in the past couple of months were way better than stuff I tried years ago. I'm always willing to go back and try again.
I think what should happen is that you get a concept in advance of what would look good (in terms of a pose and backdrop) based on photos and drawings you see. Then, just like when you look at clothes in an advertisement, you have to be realistic in assessing whether you would look the same as the original model.
The other element, which took me a while to get used to, is that you have to take a lot of photos to get a few that you actually like. I'm sure your S/O discusses things like exposure bracketing +/- when he is photographing you. It's tedious and time consuming sometimes. From that standpoint, I can understand why it would seem like a little bit of a drag to you.
My wife did some GREAT photos of herself about 17 years ago (right before I met her). I think she was enough of a ham to let loose and get the photos right the first time. I still have one of them in a secret area of my wallet.....