The prompt this week for F4FT is the selfie…. a modern phenomenon (at least I think so) as before the age of front facing cameras (and camera phones) a selfie was a virtual impossibility!
With a traditional camera, (you know the ones with a film inside not a memory card??) trying to take a photo of yourself meant guessing if you were in frame and then waiting until it was developed to see if you were successful. More often than not you weren’t…
I have had a love/hate relationship with photographs for as long as I can remember. I love taking them- I hate being in them!
When cameras became an everyday part of the mobile phone my children were already at school. I don’t have many pictures of S1 as a baby because I was a single mum. By the time I found the camera whatever cute moment had occurred was over. S2 was school age when I got my first camera phone and I was able to take more photos but the quality was poor. I remember buying a digital camera with 2 megapixels and being amazed at the quality. My new phone has a rear camera with 12 megapixel and a front camera with 8 megapixel. Technology moves at an alarming rate.
But I digress…
I didn’t start taking selfies until a few years ago. I took a few photos to send to MrH when I’d had my hair done, but I hated how they looked, how I looked.
When I started losing weight and was stuck at home on bed rest, boredom made me brave. I began taking pictures and sending them to MrH. MrH’s replies made me see myself differently. I began to see myself as attractive. I began to think I didn’t need to be as thin as I was in my early 20’s to be attractive. In fact I began to feel more attractive than I ever had.
The introduction of D/s and then our forays online (especially my blog) meant I began to post photos online. The positive feedback further supported the theory that I was perhaps still attractive.
Now, I have to say I haven’t regretted any of the selfies I have sent, because I have only ever sent them to one person and the ones I post online have been carefully selected, but I do know that there’s many people who have sent pictures that they have regretted.
All I can say is I am glad that I am in a committed relationship and that I can trust MrH (and my followers) with my photos..and to that end, here is a selfie just for this post..
Sweetgirl x
This post is inspired by the Food 4 Thought Topic Selfie, to see more posts inspired by the topic click HERE.
I’m glad you were able to realize you’re gorgeous!
A lovely picture of beautiful breasts!
Lol
Errrrr, more selfies please 😉
Lol
So very, very, nice. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t wish to sound pervy, but those are lovely breasts ☺.
I’m of the opinion that all women are beautiful, well, those who don’t rely on augmentation. I love women who know natural is best. Large or small, perky r droopy, breats are a symbol of female power. It’s great that you’re proud of your breasts and yourself now!
The love/hate relationship with the camera is tricky, eh ? Really good to see you’ve used it for the positive aspects of esteem and relationship. Nice selfie there, makes me a tad envious … lol
melody x
I’m going to interject a bit of art history here, sorry. Since my thesis featured “selfies” (self portraiture to express fleeting memories that shape personality), I have a bit of an inside perspective. I actually wrote a paper once about this, siting Caravaggio as the original “selfie” artist since he used his own likeness in his paintings. That said, there were photographers who took “selfies” at the birth of photography, including Hippolyte Bayard. His photographed himself as a fake suicide to express his displeasure at the French government for giving credit to Daguerre for the invention of photography in 1839(?). (I won’t go into details, but Daguerre was working with another who developed a type of photographic process a decade prior, plus others were creating their own processes at the same time that Daguerre introduced his to the French government and was awarded credit–and money.) Selfies have existed since before photography, as evidenced by Caravaggio, but they didn’t become so prevalent until the invention of relatively cheap digital technology. 😀
Sorry. I have an advanced degree in photography, and I tend to ramble.
I quite agree with you about selfies. Even though I used them in my thesis (my face was almost never captured), I hate photos of myself. Part of it is how much weight I have gained, but even when I was younger I preferred to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. I take photos of HD all the time (which irks him, he doesn’t like photos of himself either), but I don’t like it when he tries taking any of me. I am trying to allow more because I found I don’t have as many of my late sister as I would like (for the same reason, she never let us take any), and I don’t want to do that to others. I don’t want them to be left with just memories and no record of my existence. In the end, it won’t matter that I’m way overweight or frumpy or scowling. It will only matter to them that they have some record of me to look back on and remember me by.
I completely understand the ramble lol… Yes I agree the self portrait (paintings) could definitely be argued to be the first example of the selfie, but as you point out it’s only become so prevalent and (dare I say?) accessible with cheap digital camera technology.
I’m glad you are working to get more images of you out there… as you say.. if nothing else it helps people remember you.
Great selfie – and you have amazed me by knowing the technical aspects of your phone camera! ;-)x
Learning what you camera can do is definitely a good skill when it comes to improving your images. I tend to learn by doing, if that makes sense but I have done lots of reading too and the little tips and tricks have improved things no end
Mollyx
❤