Self-Portrait or First Frame

I sort of hate what self-portraits have turned into. They seem to modern, too easy, too digital. Most importantly, they seem a little self-indulgent and narcissistic.

In the days of film, you framed a shot on a tripod, pre-focused, used a self-timer and then you ran into the frame, hoping to beat the clock. You wouldn’t waste that kind of time and film on random shots of yourself unless you climbed Mt. Everest or something. You made “self” portraits with your family. It was a vacation activity, and it was actually social. Not just for something on a social media site.

Before that, painters stared at themselves for days in a mirror and for them it was an exercise. They wanted their skills to be up to snuff when they paid a model to come sit for them.

Now people just hold their arm up and click. Then they check the back and do it again if it didn’t turn out. BORING!

All that being said, I have for you today a pseudo-self-portrait. But I’m would rather place the photo in the long standing tradition photographers call “first frames.”

Let’s take a trip in the WayBack Machine to when people still used film. After loading a new roll, you would hammer off a few frames to make sure you shooting on an unexposed piece of film that wasn’t tainted by the loading process. Most of the time these frames are dark or screwed up because the lens cap was still on or your exposure wasn’t set yet. But sometimes, they were cool. Photographers often saved these frames and printed them and they were shared amongst the photographic community. It was sort of fun and interesting. I bet a lot of photographers still have some “first frames” lying around.

Now that we shoot digital, we don’t get first frames anymore. But occasionally, I’m screwing around with my flash or I just accidentally hit my shutter release. I did that recently and noticed that I got a cool shot, so I kept it.

I just realized that I’ve taken you on a very long journey to get to a picture of my shoe, but I hope you like it anyway. Unless you’re friends with me on Facebook, then it’s about as close as you’ll get to seeing a photo of me. I do really hate having my picture taken.

A short note on the photo-a-day project. It’s launching this Thursday, so stay tuned.

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