Having photos taken of myself is so commonplace now it's almost comical. As I was setting up my tripod for these photos, a few walkers and runners passed by and I waited for them to move out of my background before continuing. One of them was running towards me from the background of these photos as I was just setting up, getting my focus set, and figuring out my other settings. He slowed down and stopped as he was about to pass me, took out his earbuds and I braced for the questions about what I was doing, but instead he goes, "Did you just take a picture of me?!" I said no, as I hadn't even taken any photos yet, and he goes, "are you sure?!" "Um, yes. Very sure." It was one of the more odd encounters I've had. Usually people are weirded out by the fact that I'm taking photos of myself, not thinking that I'm taking photos of them. I'm not entirely sure what his beef with having his photo taken was, but it was a reminder that it's not normal for most people to have photos taken of themselves on a daily basis. I was chatting with my tax prep gal and she was taking about being photographed and how she avoids it like the plague. Most photos of my grandma also include her hand shoving into the lens. I love the idea of having life documented, and it's so fun for me to look back at photos of me and Dan from years ago, or of Dusty just a few months ago when she was a tiny fluffball.
I remember Danielle did a post a while ago about how we edit out "unattractive" photos of ourselves, ignoring the fact that the photo might have special people in it, or document a special time. We can't see past the fact that we have a stupid face, or had a bad hair day. But that photo becomes precious when a person in the photo dies or moves away and we realize that the important part of the photo isn't how great we look, but the moment that it captured and the loved ones by our side. We also realize that we aren't judging the other people in the photo the way we judge ourselves. We see our nit-picky little flaws and decide the photo is awful, but we never nit-pick the other people in the photo that same way, failing to realize that other people who see the photo probably aren't going to notice the little fold of armpit fat that one time we wore a tank top.
