Pass Your Camera to Someone Else!

I know, Be Your Own Beloved is all about taking our own photo, right?

So why am I telling you to pass the camera to someone else?  Here’s why.  I want you to be in the visual story of your life, but it could be through taking your own photo or through saying to someone “Hey, will you snap this photo for me?”

Either way, you are the one saying that this moment is of value and that you want to have a moment to remember it.

I love starting off an in-person workshop by asking everyone to introduce themselves and share what their favourite photo of themselves is (be it a selfie or a photo someone else took…and at any point in their lives).  I love the way people light up when they answer this question!

Often our favourite photos end up being candid shots of us that someone took without us knowing.  We had such fun in the How to Rock a Selfie Photo Shoot class taking our own candid selfies (it can be done) but it also got me thinking about how sometimes we just need to say to the people in our lives “Hey, this is a special day for me. Could you be in charge of snapping few candid or posed shots of me throughout the day?”

It can feel vulnerable when someone else takes our photo though, right?

So one thing I recommend is to ask them to indeed take it on your own camera, not theirs.  That way you aren’t waiting for someone else to send you the photos, nor are you getting the ones they think are the best shots.  This way, you have the photos at hand and can choose which ones feel like the one’s you want to keep or share.  Of course we can be our own worst critic, but a big part of this Be Your Own Beloved journey is to reclaim our personal power in photos and well, we aren’t going to do that by not being in photos at all.

We can also say YES when someone offers to take a photo of us too! At Lucky Star Art Camp last weekend someone asked if they could take a photo of me with the gorgeous sign for my class and I said yes and it made me so happy to come home and see this one on my camera, that I wouldn’t have thought to take myself.

I’ve been trying to do this for friends too lately. Saying “Could I just see your phone for a second so I could snap this moment of you”.  Usually they say yes, but we all have a right to say no too, of course.  As we each get to decide if we want to be in a photo or not.  But it’s been bringing me joy to see that indeed they say yes! Sure I could capture it with my phone, but why not send it away with them to choose if they want to use it and process it the way they want.  To help them be more in the visual story of their lives but in a way that isn’t me snapping their photo for my purposes but capturing them with their consent and to leave the power in their hands.

I do often have people who come across me taking a selfie say “Do you want me to take that for you?” and usually I don’t….so I don’t necessarily mean taking over someone’s selfie moment, but instead seeking out a moment that you just notice that they look so blissed out holding that baby and just might like a photo, or you see the light pouring on them and just think they look so radiant today.  It can be a way that we can offer kindness to others and share what we think is lovely or special or beautiful about them!

So could you pass your camera to someone this weekend?

Or maybe a moment will arise where you ask someone else if you can capture a photo of them when they may not have thought to capture the moment?

We usually only use the hashtag #beyourownbeloved for selfies but if you do ask someone else to take your photo inspired by this and want to share it with the Be Your Own Beloved Community…don’t hesitate to use the hashtag to share it!