I don’t take a lot of selfies. When I think about taking pictures, I’m more interested in other subjects – not myself. Unfortunately that means that the majority of our family pictures exclude me. I’m the one behind the camera.

But when I am feeling creative, and want to mess around with a new photoshop technique or brush up on my skills, I’m usually left with myself as the subject. That means that I have a growing catalog of weird, strange, overly dramatic “self portraits,” as I call them. It’s an oddly vulnerable feeling, to post these types of pictures of myself. They often carry some sort of symbolism – either by design or by accident (I wonder if my subconscious mind is projecting itself through these images?). I’m essentially opening myself up to anyone who views these portraits. Not only are the pictures themselves open for interpretation, but in a way so am I.

These little experiments often turn out to be my most complex and rewarding projects. They’re not easy to make. And throughout the process of making them, there are many times when they don’t look like I want them to. But somehow they always turn out okay, even if they’ve transformed into something I hadn’t even imagined.

Here are a few of my favorite self portraits, for your consideration.

To just view a gallery with these pictures, click here.

 

Tree Adam

This is my latest creation. I’ve done double exposure projects in the past, but I hadn’t done one in a while. I’ve always liked the style of them.  As I was going through my 2016 photos – I’m currently attempting to do a “Best of 2016” catalog – I found a rather ordinary picture of myself. But I realized it would be the perfect type of photo for a stoic double exposure picture. The hard part is finding a background image that fits, and has that aesthetic appeal. But I’d recently taken a series of pictures at my father in law’s farm, and I had more nature photos at my disposal than usual. After playing around with a couple options, I finally landed on this combination.  And honestly, it couldn’t have turned out better. Everything just seems to fit right. This is definitely one of those that didn’t seem like it was going to happen for a while. But after a good amount of tinkering, it all fell into place. The decision to make it a 1×1 square was pretty much the last decision, and it was the right decision. This photo has sparked my creativity like it hadn’t been sparked in a while. Hopefully there are many more to come – though hopefully of other people, and not myself.

Zipper Mouth

The question: Is my mouth being unzipped or zipped?  I specifically called for interpretation on this one. And I got a number of responses on social media. There’s not supposed to be one answer, which is the fun of a picture like this. I made this a couple years ago, which actually seems like a long time now. But this image feels ever more relevant in today’s world.

Lightbulbs

This is actually one of the first ideas I had when I started on Photoshop. It’s an idea that came to me by daydream one day. One of those spur of the moment revelations that swims past your mind’s eye. You only get a glimpse of it. And then it’s up to you to remember it, form it, construct it into something visible. And this is one of those pictures where I accomplished exactly what I wanted. It turned out just like I’d originally planned. I captured that fleeting moment of inspiration, and I made it into a reality. Thus, it’s probably one of the most important images I have ever created. This took a long time to make, mostly because I was learning Photoshop as I went. But this project taught me techniques and tricks of Photoshop that I still use today, even for non-fantastical images.

Lost In the Story

Another flyby vision, captured and expressed as I’d originally envisioned. I had a string of successful photoshop projects, and this was one of my favorites. It’s just got a good look to it, and a cool, creative concept. The only thing I regret is not putting on some better clothes. I’m in a t-shirt and gray sweatpants. I think we were snowed in, and I wanted to do something creative, so I just went for it without really preparing much. Oh well. It still turned out great.  I’ve done a few photos with levitating objects. They are some of the most time consuming photos I’ve ever done. You never realize how much time and effort it will take when you start. I hand held each of those books at different spots in the air, and then had to combine them all into one. I had to remove myself and my fingers from every book you see flying in the air (shadows too!). But it all came together by the end, and it was totally worth the time and effort.

Face of Trees

This was my first excursion into double exposure. There were many different versions of this picture throughout the course of making it. I kept thinking I was done, and that it looked finished. But then I’d come back to it, tweak something here or there, and it would be a new picture, a better picture. An artist’s work is never done, they say. But I finally rested on this version. It’s the closest I could get to my original idea. I’d like to think that it’s actually better than what I originally planned, because it morphed and transformed throughout it’s creation, into something wholly new.

At the Peak

I experimented with size and perspective for a little while. I did a bunch of pictures of people shrunken down, or things enlarged to bigger-than-human. This was in the dead of winter, and the 2014 Winter Olympics were going on. That was the inspiration for this photo. Standing on a mountain in triumph, with the sun shining down on the cold earth. The base picture is outside my old house, in the street next to the mailbox. The snow trucks had come through, and the mounds of snow piled in the streets looked like mountains. I think the thing that makes this picture work, and look realistic, are the little footprints I added, showing the trek to the top of the cliff. It’s often those little tiny details that really pull a picture like this together.

Expand Your Head

This is the first Photoshop creation I ever made. There are tons of Youtube videos out there that will teach you to create an image like this. So thats what I did. I just followed along and did what the video told me to do. That experience opened me up to a multitude of different things you can do with your photography, and with Photoshop. It also reminds me that I am constantly finding new things I can do, and new ways to do them. Every time you think you’re mastering this stuff, you realize that you’ve only just scratched the surface.

For more self portraits, or to see them all in one place, click here.