A Canadian photographer whose work I really like posted a comment about self portraits recently on a forum we subscribe to. He said that he thought that the great artists of history used self portraits as a means of self exploration and that it was an interesting tool for discovering self. I find the topic very interesting (it appeals to my fine art self) and I’ve been mulling it over recently. Who am I when no one is watching? Do you ever think about that? We all act slightly differently depending upon who we’re around – it’s all genuinely you but different people bring out differenct aspects of your personality. Who are you when there’s no one but you? I stood in front of the mirror with my camera the other day for a good 30 minutes to an hour trying to capture the true essense of myself – the person I am without any outside influences. The camera itself is an outside influence and then when you bring to the picture that other might see the image, that’s a HUGE influence in and of itself. It’s hard to empty yourself of those thoughts and just “be” while clicking the shutter. Well here’s what I came up with:

Is it me without any outside forces coming into play? I don’t think so but it’s getting close. And as a side tangent, how do you know which “you” is the most true to yourself? Who I am when no one is around is not necessarily the most “me” – silence just simply brings a quieter facet of my personality to the surface just as does “girls nights” or meeting new people, or hanging out at home with Sean. People are such interesting creatures! :) I think this will be my new project for a while so there may be updates to the “self project” from time to time. Thank you for indulging my contemplative mood. :)

– Mel

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Yesterday morning we had the priviledge of photographing for Danielle and John. Danielle and I became friends when we were 8 and 9 years old – we go waaay back! :) It’s so exciting to see your friends find the love of their lives – it’s an amazing evolution and I’ve loved watching it unfold for Danielle. We went down to the creek for this particular session and got really wet! It was so much fun – everyone should really start doing more of these! ;)

Congratulations to you both! We love you! :)

– Mel

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

We were so excited when we got the news yesterday that Southern Land wants to feature us as their 5th resident profile for the new ad campaign! What fun! :) But do you know what the saddest part of it all was? When we heard we would be featured, the first thing we both thought was “That’s awesome! What a great post for our blog!” Yes yes – let me beat you to the punch – we are pathetic. :) As you might imagine it’s a very difficult thing to get good pictures of yourself as a photographer so we went out to Sean’s grandparent’s house this morning and I coached his grandfather through a few pictures. I must say, we make a pretty darn good team because these are not half bad!

Beautiful light can work wonders can’t it? :)

– Mel

Original post blogged on b2evolution.