Oh, well. I knew this was coming and pretending to forget didn't make it go away. The exercise for this week was -- gulp! -- a self portrait. That is even worse than getting photographed by a professional - after all, THEY know what they are doing, THEY can direct you and tell you that this look you practiced in front of the mirror is actually not very cool at all. Additionally, Chris Orwig is upping the ante by asking us to do not a single self portrait but 10 each of three different kinds: reflection, outdoors, at arm's length. I thought it best to divide this exercise into three parts, so here are my 10 reflection self-portraits. Just one note: I live in the countryside and there aren't that many reflective surfaces around. It's not like in a big city, where you get tons of mirrors and shop windows and whatnot. I didn't think it was the sense of the exercise to go somewhere else but to work with what I had. Just to keep that in mind.

As an inspiration, Orwig gives a list of photographers to check out. My favorite by far was Vivian Maier. She's really mastered the art of the self-portrait. I could look at those photos all day long. But now, for mine:

1. This photograph was taken in the reflection of a framed picture. The picture shows Gandzasar Monastery in Nagorno Karabakh, from a trip we took there in 2007 (I believe). I had to take it off the wall in order to put some homeschooling posters up, and the frame fell and the glass shattered the next day. If you look closely, you can see the shards. I aligned my legs roughly parallel to the lines of the roofs, and placed my body in the central structure of the monastery. I didn't want to make it too contrived but there is intent in the composition.

2. This is my Dali impression. The reflective surface is a digital frame, turned off. The little blurred statue is a work of a local artist who died recently. I love his work and my parents, who were friends with him and his family, gave this statue to us for our wedding present. The melting lines of my face and the graceful lines of the statue are in clear juxtaposition to the sharp angles and straight lines of the frame.

3. This one is a classic - the view in the car mirror. I thought that double reflection made it a bit more interesting.

4. We have a chain of little round mirrors in one of the old apple trees in the backyard. They catch the light and produce little lightspots that dance through the garden. The end piece is rectangular. This was a very tricky shot - it was blustery and the mirrors swung back and forward and went in and out of focus. I had the camera on manual focus, of course. This is the only one of a series of 15 or so that was acceptable.

5. A reflection in our living room window. Maybe I ought to have cleaned up the couch first - the kids love the window bench behind the couch and pile pillows and blankets there for a cozy reading nook. I decided this one was better in black and white since the pillows are very colorful and took the focus away from the reflection. The double panes of the window created a blurred reflection.

6. Another window reflection - this time, in one of the windows of my Dad's hunting cabin in the woods. Again, the double panes blurr the reflection lines.

7. Near the cabin is a large pond. We walked there and disovered tons of dead frogs - they die after they... spawn. Very stinky. It was hard to find a space without bloated, drifting frog cadavers.

8. A simple mirror reflection, in our downstairs bathroom.

9. A picture frame reflection. Reflections on roundish surfaces are tricky.

10. The final reflection in our Kingfisher kitchen shelf. Also in the reflection: our homeschooling bulletin board.

Gosh, these are more pictures of me in a few days than in the past 10 years! Some things I learned from this exercise:

Pointing the camera blindly is hard. I had to do a lot of trial and error to get this right. I found that I have to see the camera in the reflection because otherwise the camera doesn't see me. When you give it a moment's thought - angles of light reflection - that makes perfect sense. Never thought that my 10th grade physics course would come in handy one day.
It's better to look into the lens instead of into one's own eyes, it creates a more natural look.
One absolutely has to use manual focus.
It's impossible to do this without putting lots of thought into the composition and technical aspects of the image. That, of course, was the main goal of this exercise to begin with.

So tell me: Which one is your favorite self-portrait?

As always, don't forget to check out the blogs and websites of my photog friends for their results. Not all of them are still doing the exercises - many are just too busy at this time of the year -- it's wedding season! But their blogs are always worth a look, so do go and enjoy:

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily