When I was in Minnesota in the middle of August I was fortunate enough to spend lots of time with my precious nephew. We spent a day together, along with my mom, which involved a walk to a pier for some rock throwing, eating popsicles, throwing plums into the garden, and playing with water. It was a blast to see this little guy constantly on the move, and I made it my goal to photograph our adventures that day.
The same day that I shot this self-portrait, I also shot some more simple images. I finally got around to editing my favorite, and thought I would share here for you all on this lovely Friday evening.
Happy weekend everyone!
I have had the self-portrait itch for some time now, and since the light in my apartment was beautiful the other day I rushed about to take advantage of it. I also kind of rely on self-portraits to express certain things, and so it felt good to finally get those feelings out as well.
It had been almost a full year since I last shot a self-portrait, despite the fact that I have had the itch to create one for months. Last Friday evening I finally had some time to kill, and someone to assist, so we went out into the woods and took advantage of the perfect light.
I’ve been going back and forth on the editing of this one, so I may potentially post the original in the near future, as well as some others from the shoot that turned out, and maybe even some behind the scenes images.
Here are two others that I liked from the shoot a month ago. I have found a new obsession with fabric in my self-portraits, and have a couple more images in mind with it. Hopefully I can get those shot in the next few weeks.
Rise
Untitled
And a few behind the scenes shots for you all. And a chance for me to introduce you all to the greatest photo assistant of all time, Scott. He was willing to sit there wrapped in tulle while I figured out my composition and such, and still managed to look manly 🙂
It had been ages since I shot a self-portrait before this one. I had some vague ideas that I was wanting to shoot but never seemed to have the time, energy, or motivation. This summer has been a bit of a slump for me artistically, but I’m hoping I can turn that around once the craziness of this month settles down.
Anyways, about a month ago I went home with Scott (the boyfriend) to his parents’ farm. They have some big wheat fields, which, as previously posted, are one of my favorite things. I had the itch for a self-portrait, though I didn’t really know what it should be. Before we left for their house (which is close to a two-hour drive) I had thrown in a bunch of tulle and other fabric thinking I could do something with movement and wind (since Kansas is ALWAYS windy). That evening, around sunset I decided to just go out and see what would happen. It was all very spontaneous and unplanned, which is often the best for me. When we were walking to the spot that I wanted to shoot at there were some hazy clouds covering the sun and light wasn’t very exciting. I was sort of bummed out and even debated not shooting that night. But, I decided to go for it anyways, and it paid off. The haze ended up lifting while I was shooting, making for some wonderful golden light in most of the images.
I have sat on these images for a while, unsure of how I wanted to edit them, and share them. Finally, as I am sitting in a hotel in Lexington, KY about to shoot a wedding I decided I was sick of having them sit on my hard drive. I will make another post with a few more, but this one was my favorite, and when the title popped into my head this morning I thought it deserved its own post.
Happy weekend everyone!
I finally made time for a self-portrait that I have had in mind for months now. The light was just right and so I grabbed my camera and tripod, covered myself in paint, slapped on my new fake eye lashes, and started shooting. I ended up with a few that I was really happy with, and may share at some point.
I had the itch for a self-portrait for quite a few weeks, and finally had a chance yesterday to do one that I had sketched out a while ago.
For the most part it turned out how I had wanted it to. I do wish that there was more glass on my face, but it just kept sliding off. I plan on doing a sequel of sorts, and have figured out a way that should get the glass to stick, so hopefully I can get to that in the near future.
I am really drawn to the one with the eyes closed, but have heard from many that the prefer the opposite. So I am curious to hear, which one do you here on my blog prefer? I would love to hear some feedback!
Last Thursday Joy Christiansen Erb came to my school to give a lecture on the Intimate Portrait. Her work influenced the series of self-portraits that I did a couple of summers ago, so I was very excited when I found out she was coming to give a workshop. There was a pretty good sized group there, and we discussed various things relating to portraits and photography for a while. We also did a writing exercise to come up with ideas for self-portraits, which I found very helpful. She then gave us an hour to take a self-portrait, but because I was helping other people (and because it turned out how I wanted it to very quickly) I ended up only taking 5 minutes or so on mine. For being such a spontaneous shot, I was really happy with how it turned out, and felt it conveyed what I wanted it to.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I am going to try to be better about posting here on a more regular basis. I am still producing work, but have been pretty busy and focused on other things. But I feel as though sharing my work here on my blog is important, so hopefully I will be able to step it up. Thank you to everyone who has stuck around lately!
Here are some self-portraits from past shoots. Sorry for overloading everyone with blog posts lately!
Abigail Thompson Photography 