One Little Word Update: May 2022

It’s the last Tuesday of the month and that means it’s time to join with Carolyn and talk about my One Little Word, practice.

This month’s prompt from Ali Edwards was, fittingly enough . . . practice. Ha! An entire month focused on my word, it doesn’t get much better than that. The suggestion was to find one thing and practice it in whatever way felt right. I chose to do a daily selfie as my monthly practice. My goal? To become more comfortable with how I look right.now as part of my journey towards accepting my body. My plan? To take a selfie every day, incorporating different angles and body parts.

I met my goal of taking a selfie every day. I didn’t really do much with the different angles and body parts, though. And honestly, I’m okay with that. I liked that I was able to capture a range emotions on my face, from curious to frustrated to tired to content. I will share a mosaic of all the photos later (I haven’t taken today’s yet so it’s not complete) but in the meantime, here are a handful of my favorites.

I enjoyed this practice quite a bit. I’m not entirely sure what I’ve learned from it yet but I know my editing skills have gotten better and, as a photographer, I’m glad about that. And allow me, for just a moment, to comment on editing photos. I never, I repeat never, share a photo straight from the camera. No matter the subject, as a photographer, I always edit the photos I take. Whether it’s to remove a shadow, enhance a color, adjust the lighting . . . every photo needs to be tweaked before it is shared. I don’t for a second believe this makes it fake or perfect but it can be tricky when it’s a photograph of a person. I try not to do anything to make it less than authentic while also showing someone (including myself) in the best possible way. Photography is a practice that takes skill and there’s no shame in using those skills to make a photo more impactful.

Practicing selfies this month was fun, I learned some things about myself, I improved my photography and editing skills, and I call that another successful month of One Little Word living.