Why do I take so many studio selfies?

Some people, seriously seem to think that I take lots of selfie shots because I love myself too much. It has also been suggested that I can’t shoot other people.

The truth is, I shoot myself because I am a convenient model. I am not married and I don’t live with anyone else, so at 8pm in an evening, when I suddenly feel inspired, it is hard to just ring up a friend and ask them to drive across London, to have their picture taken. So I have always been happy to shoot myself because it is the quickest thing to do.

Currently, with Covid-19, it is even harder to shoot other people. Yes, I can shoot out doors but getting clients is not easy in the current economic and unruly hair environment. A lot of photographers are pinning their hopes that clients will start to come back once they are able to get a hair cut and I hope they are right but I am not convinced that they are. A lot of people are not going to put themselves in a position, where they could get Covid-19. I know personally, I will be avoiding going to the cinema, despite being a bit of a film nut and I think the same is going to be the case for photographers.

So at the moment, I continue to practice on myself because practicing is good, it means that when I do open up, that first client won’t have a dodgy shoot. It also means that I am trying different things, from the shoot, through to the edit.

The photo above, is an example. I have been shooting with wides recently, which can be a great focal length but due to Covid-19, unless I shoot through perspex , shooting wide isn’t practical so I shot this at 135mm (full frame equivalent). I wanted a seriously cropped in camera shot and I wanted the shot to be black and white, with no flash lighting the background (which is why the bottom corner is dark It does look like their is a halo on the right hand side but that is actually due to hair light and flash, hitting the white background., which caused light fall off on the background.

So, I hope that clears that up. I would much prefer to be shooting other people but for the moment, until clients return. I will have to stick to practicing on myself..