Weekly Challenge 90: Photographer’s Blog Reader Selfie

Happy New Year! We start the year and we do it differently. This week we have a very special challenge, we want to see you.

How does it work? (Reminder)

Every week I will propose a new challenge, it is a topic that you will have to capture in a photograph and upload it to the Facebook page of the blog, putting in the description the keyword that I will indicate for each topic. The themes will be varied, from portraits to Macro photography, through landscapes, black and white photography, or babies. The topics will be proposed on Saturdays, so that you have all the Weekend to work them. You will have one week to upload your photograph (one photo per participant), until Friday of the following week. On Friday or Saturday I will update the article with the photo that has captivated me the most and I will propose a new topic, and so on…

Weekly Challenge 90: Photographer’s Blog Reader Selfie

As we have just started the year, I want to propose a somewhat more special challenge, it is about putting on faces. Week after week we communicate through the articles, the challenges, your images and comments, the team and yours, but we haven’t seen each other’s face, so it’s about time, right? But don’t trust yourself, I’m not going to lower my guard and I’m going to settle for asking you for the typical “selfie” here I’ll catch you here I’ll kill you with my arm outstretched like Inspector Gadget anywhere or by shooting you in front of the bathroom mirror. Of those “selfies” we have already seen many out there. This is a photography blog and that’s why I ask you to work a little harder, because what it’s all about is learning and taking better photos every day. Several articles that have been published on the blog talk about portraiture, I advise you to take a look, for example, at these 10 tips to get wonderful self-portraits, the complete guide to lighting your portraits, or what you need to good portrait photography. And if you want to go one step further, get to know body language in portrait photography.

If you want your “selfie” to be among the most prominent, do not settle for having an ad face, if you have it great, but that is not what I look at. What matters most to me is the originality, the framing, the composition, the approach, the colors, what you say about yourself… and those portraits that, in addition to transmitting part of your personality, manage to communicate what your purpose is for 2015. The one on the cover is me, recently woken up, facing the day with a smile (shy, not knowing what the day will bring me, but with a smile at the end and at the cape) as I start my year, smiling. Do you sign up for the challenge?

As usual, to participate in this week’s challenge upload your photo to the Facebook wall from the Photographer’s Blog: In the description of the photo please mention the keyword “Selfie Challenge” followed by a title of your choice.

Alternative Means to Participate

For those who do not be from Facebook I have enabled new social networks to participate.

• Flickr: accessing the Group Mural of the Photographer’s Blog and uploading the photo directly. Give your photo a caption and be sure to mention “Selfie Challenge” in the same.
• Twitter: uploading the photo directly to Twitter with the hashtag #SelfieBdFChallenge

Happy photography.

Update

It has been a pleasure to face you, especially some of you and you who are almost fixed in the weekly challenges. Thank you very much for participating in this very “personal” challenge. I would have liked to add a few more self-portraits to the gallery of examples, but that would be too many! That is why I invite you to get to know each other by taking a walk through the Facebook, Twitter or Flickr galleries where the rest of the readers have left their “selfie”.

The portrait that I liked the most has been that of Jesús Laguna, who has also worked well, not like some who should hit you with a tug on the ears for not reading the call for the challenge, eh? That I said that it was not enough just to stretch your arm like Inspector Gadget, that this was a photography blog and you had to get a good photo, right? Well, that is exactly what Jesus has done, in addition to his self-portrait, he has achieved a magnificent image. With excellent light management, a great composition and a very good choice with black and white (like the chessboard that presides over the table… and the photo). I love that smoke that seems to come out of the cup, very worked too, because it is possible that it is more from a cigarette or incense than from the steam of a drink, it still works 😉 . As a self-portrait I find it very funny and original. It shows the two versions of the same person, as the black and white protagonist, the good side of him and the bad side of him, the passive and the active Jesus, the reflective and the impulsive. We all have two parts of the same me that constantly fight like in a game of chess, sometimes white wins and sometimes black, in this game, the game, it is not yet clear who wins, but in the pixel game it seems that are on boards, white and black fight equally in the image, in a formidable balance, just like the one that Jesus must feel when his two “I’s” fight against each other. In 2015 a new game begins, from your hand is the one who will win, Jesus, for my part I wish you white to win, for everything that is associated with that color 😉 . Congratulations for this fantastic image and may this year be a great game for you (and for the rest too, huh?!)