SELFie | Nashville Photographer

Now I love a good selfie.  GOOD is the key word here.  And, trust me, there are some really bad ones out there.  You know what I am talking about... The girl with the duck lips trying to be super sexy.  The guy at the gym with his shirt off.  But the worst of all to me is when someone can look so much better than they look in their selfie.  Bad light and bad angles are the major causes for bad selfies.  So we need to stop this unnecessary dilemma now.  Below are my favorite tips on how to take a good selfie.  

1)  As I always say: FIND THE RIGHT LIGHT.  And, yes, I just screamed at you but you need to get that in your amazingly smart brain of yours.  Look for shade as close to the sun as possible.  But never stand in direct sunlight- that will only cause unnecessary dark shadows on your face making you look so much uglier than you really are.  Because YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL so let your selfie show it!  

2) MOVE AROUND.  The best way to do this with your iphone is to turn the camera around to face the screen and literally move your body around to see where the light flatters you most.  Now I love backlight with my subjects because I can control so much more on my camera but with an iphone selfies usually don't work well with backlight.  The most flattering is usually with the sun hitting your eyes while you are in the shade.

3)  YOUR CAR!  Your car is an amazing place to take selfies.  That is why you see so many girls with their seatbelts on looking amazing.  The light filters in through the windows creating a soft light that flatters anyone.  Now make sure you have your sunroof closed if the light is too bright from above.  Or open it if there are a lot of clouds.  The only rule here is to only take selfies while parked (or at a stoplight while your neighbor car watches on and laughs).  Who doesn't laugh at someone taking a selfie?  And who hasn't been caught taking a selfie?  Of course not me.  

4)  Go easy on the filters.  This is HUGE.  Many of you just pop a filter on your selfie and don't ease up on the opacity.  Always make sure you put the opacity at least to 50% or less.  Because you don't want to look like an orange.  

So, there are my tips for making yourself as beautiful as you really are.  I really do love seeing photos of you all on my instagram and not just your kids or dog or grandma.  It makes me happy.  So please keep posting and try these tips!  If you do let me know.  I would love to see!  Have a great weekend friends!!!  

This is a selfie(s) with my youngest boy... Love him so. 

What I think about #selfies | Nashville Photographer

A question was asked on facebook the other day by one of my very best friends: "what do you all think about selfies?"  She is one of the most gorgeous people I know, inside & out.  Her "selfies" always radiate such confidence & joy flowing right out of the photograph.  Since she lives far away from me, I am always happy to see her beautiful face on my screen.  But it got me thinking.  What do I think about selfies?  And I had a pretty strong opinion that I shared on her facebook post that I will elaborate on below. 

I have been seeing so many remarks on social media about selfies and the people that hate them.  They tend to view those who post selfies to be narcisstic, selfish human beings.  But I actually think of it a little different.  My question to those haters: why are you not able to look at another human being, created by God, and celebrate their beauty?  And I can hear the haters now, well so+so posts a photo everyday in a bikini or at the gym with their abs glowing in the light.  Ok, those are not the selfies I am talking about.  I am talking about the regular, "I am feeling beautiful today, there is some good light so I am going to take a photo of myself" selfie.  Friends!!  I have got a mission for you!  CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF THOSE AROUND YOU!!!!   But not only that: CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF YOU!!!!!  I am guessing that if you are a hater of selfies (or a recovering hater of selfies) then you might have a little trouble not only celebrating the beauty of a friend but also of yourself.  You are beautiful.  Right where you are.  Not when you lose another 10 pounds or finally get those grays covered.  You.Are.Beautiful.  

I was so inspired by my friend, Amber Lehman, as she told me why she wanted the below photograph.  She had been inspired by another mutual friend, Ruthie, and the incredibly, gorgeous photographs of her mother when she was younger.  Amber wanted her children and grandchildren to see the beauty of her youth.  Now that is CELEBRATION friends!  

Another inspiration behind this idea was the photograph below that I found of my husbands grandmother and her twin sister when they were in their 20's.  It captured them in their beauty of youth (though she is still incredibly beautiful and still has blonde hair at 90!) .  It made me think, why we, as women, don't take the time to really capture beautiful images of our self?  To give ourselves permission to live in the very essence of our beauty.  Our children and grandchildren will cherish these images for generations.  Nothing seems too selfish or narcissistic about that.   

This is the year that I want myself, along with all of you to let down our fear and truly honor the beauty in ourselves along with the beauty we see in others.  So, take those selfies!  Like those selfies!  And hire me to take beautiful photographs of you, wherever you are in life.