Category Archives: Self Portraits

January 30, 2013

What 28 Days of Self-Portraits looks like…

As part of Be Your Own Beloved, I’m inviting the participants to take a photo for each day of class…as it takes 28 Days to instil a new habit. The habit we’re exploring being turning the camera on ourselves and cultivating a practice of looking at ourselves with kindness.

So in preparation for class, I’ve been taking a photo every day this month.

While taking self-portraits feels like a habit already for me and I take them almost every day to check in with myself, to tell the story of the day and to document some beauty I found….I wanted to see what would happen on those days I might have normally skipped. What the in between days would tell me about this journey. What the commitment to the process would feel like.

I wanted to show up in the feelings that might arise (and they did) and experience exactly what I’m asking the participants to do.

Years ago I did a 365 day challenge and definitely helped solidify my love of taking selfies as a regular act, but it had been a long time since those days. I wanted to challenge myself to take one on those days when it had been too rainy and grey to take a photo outside or on days that I simply forgot until just before bed.

To be honest with you…some of what I discovered surprised me, mainly the rhythm of creating this new habit and it gave me some beautiful new insights that I’m adding to Be Your Own Beloved to honour that flow.

Here’s what happened:

The first few days were beautiful and exciting. I felt inspired and had big plans for the month of selfies. By Day 4 (I know…already) I was rethinking the whole idea of doing one every day (not really of course, but this is the reaction I was having…and I think the participants are likely to as well). I wanted to stop! Once I pushed past those few days, I got why I wanted to stop….because I was indeed creating a habit of doing one every single day and our bodies/minds naturally have resistance to it.

After I got through that first week it just felt like I was flowing with the journey. It just became a part of my life each day and I stopped feeling resistance to it. That didn’t mean that some days I would totally forget, but on those days I actually made some great discoveries I’m sharing in the class…as those times were opportunities to really be the narrator of the story I wanted to tell of that day and tried to embody the feeling of that day in the photo.

It was a beautiful adventure and I’m excited to continue along this month ahead with the participants in Be Your Own Beloved…and I’m kind of in awe that it feels like the lessons I can learn from taking self-portraits keeps unfolding.

I also wanted to share the photos with you. Every one of them.

Many days were taken with the iPhone, some on photo walks as I went along my daily adventures in life. Others (mainly all of those black and white or clearly indoor photos) were taken with my iphone usually in the evening when it just hadn’t happened to manifest any other photo during the day…or when I forgot!

I wanted to share these with you in case you’re nervous about joining in for Be Your Own Beloved and wondering what 28 days of self-portraiture might look for you. I want to tell you that they can look like anything you want them to.

Of course I’ll be giving you daily inspiration and guidance along the way so you won’t have to pull an idea out of a hat for your photos!

I wanted to share with you all the ways that we can be in our selfies: our hands, our feet, our faces, our whole bodies, parts of ourselves, even our shadows. There is no right or wrong way to take a self-portrait!

I also truly believe that there is no one kind of self-portrait that is more worthy than another. The tips of your toes or your shadow is just as powerful in telling your story as a full body photo…they are all expressions of you on this path to self-kindness.

Be Your Own Beloved starts soon and it is such a powerful way to spend a month that is so focused on external love. Let’s cultivate self-love this February!

So here is a glimpse of what 28 days looked like for me. Just me showing up in the rythmn and story of this month in my life. The first 3 days are above and the rest of them (in order) are below:

January 25, 2013

Hiking + Photography = Space for Self-Compassion

The forest has been calling me lately and when I saw that this afternoon was the only sunny patch forecasted in the week previous and the week ahead, I knew exactly what needed to happen!

I headed to the same hiking trail I did a couple weeks ago in the beautiful Deep Cove area. This trail is amazing, challenging, beautiful and busy! Busy being very important as there are so many people on the trails it feels like it is a safe one to do some solo hiking on those days when I want to just wander with my camera. It was even busier this week but there were still enough moments of quiet that I was able to take a few self-portraits.

Speaking of the camera, I’m so loving discovering what a beautiful duo photography and hiking are…and not just in the obvious way! This trail is pretty intense compared to the average forest wander and there are tonnes of moments where I need to take breaks. I made a big discovery in these last few hikes that feels pretty empowering.

I realized that in each of those moments I need breaks, there is always something beautiful to stop and take a photo of. I know for me, sometimes in those moments where I can’t go up another stair and need to pause, I might let myself feel shame that I need a break (note: i think breaks rock, and am all good with taking them). For some of us physical activity or not feeling like you can do something can be triggering of things like shame and invite us to berate ourselves…..but not in this case. In those spaces where I might have felt shame, I have a camera in my hands to refocus and shift the energy. Once again, photography is such a dreamy tool for cultivating self-love as it fills those spaces, those breaks with beauty and leaves no room in those moments for shame to appear.

It truly was a gorgeous hike…even warmer than last time and breathtakingly beautiful and here is a visual tale of today’s adventures…

January 23, 2013

Why Take Self-Portraits of Your Feet?

And if this makes you want to dabble in self-portrait fun, ponder joining me for one the upcoming self-portrait online class: Be Your Own Beloved!

January 11, 2013

Flee to the Wilderness

Today was one of those days. That I just needed to flee to the wilderness. To clear my head. To breathe wide open air. To soak up this January sun.

To tell you the truth of today, it was one of those where fact that I am 35 and not yet a Mom has me walking around with a mighty tender heart. Its these days that I find myself needing to avoid my regular cafes where moms gather. Needing to get offline big time. So that I did.

I headed out to a town just outside of the city called Deep Cove and went for a photo walk that turned into a big beautiful hike to a lookout and back. It was exactly what I needed to clear my head, to be in my body and to just be grateful for the life I have now, with space to create, to do my creative work and yes, to go on afternoon hiking adventures when I need them.

I bet at some point I’ll look back at this time and wish I had this kind of freedom. So this seemed like the best way to try to be in the beauty of life right now. To flee to the wilderness.

January 10, 2013

Double Exposure Fun

On a photo wander yesterday I was experimenting with the multi-exposure feature in Hipstamatic and took the above photo that made me do a happy dance…I’ve been playing around with it for a few weeks but this was the first photo that wasn’t wildly overexposed.

So after taking a few shots with my digital camera too, I got inspired to experiment with doing some double exposures in Photoshop. I realized it had been a pretty long time since I had experimented with double exposing…but its pretty addictive, I think I might have re-sparked my love for it! What I love about it most is that it feels like I can’t predict what is going to happen…like these!