Project 52: Week 6 - Self-portrait

I was hoping that this week’s challenge might encourage me to try taking a photo of myself for a change, but I just didn’t get around to finding anything that I really liked. I’m going to have a look at some portrait photography blogs and sites that I like to see if I can see if there’s something I can attempt myself to try for the future.

My two immediate ideas were to take a photo of my shadow being cast on a wall, which would’ve been perfect if I could’ve rigged up a lamp or something to actually cast a shadow on one of the walls in our house. I think this would also work best with a tripod and a remote for the camera. Mr Click has recently bought a very expensive tripod at a bargain price for his radio equipment (and since discovered he might not actually need it) so I’m hoping I might be able to borrow it at some point in the future.

My other idea was to take out the contents of my bag and lay it out to take a photo of it. I’ve seen this done before and I like the effect of it, especially when everything’s laid out very geometrically. The problem with this one would be organising it someplace where Tara would walk through it/run off with bits and pieces as well as finding an interesting way to arrange the things in my bag. I think what’s in a person’s bag is really interesting and can say a lot about that person. Mine will always have a book in it, there’ll be my phone and some pens, random medication, my purse and usually some old receipts and things that’ve just been tossed into the bottom.

Then I got a better idea while rearranging the book boxes in the spare bedroom. I found my old baby book. This is one of those big hardback things that my mum filled in after I was born with all sorts of little things like when I first smiled and took my first steps. One of the first pages has a card from the hospital glued in with all the details about how much I weighed, the time I was born and how long I was. I was so new when it was filled out that the name slot just says ‘Baby Girl’. One of my favourite toys from when I was younger wears the hospital bracelet that was put on when I was born (so tiny I can only fit two fingers into it now), and it says ‘Baby Girl’ too.

Week 6: Self-portrait

So I thought that would make an interesting ‘self-portrait’. I realise I’m taking the term loosely but I think it still counts, it’s a photo that I’ve taken of a snapshot of my life nearly twenty-seven years ago. It’s a little weird to think of myself as just a baby girl, not Cait, with such tiny little wrists. It’s like I was a whole other person, but at the same time, it’s still me.

I had to be careful when I was taking the photo to make sure that my surname back then wasn’t showing, I just didn’t want that in the photo. I wanted to make sure that the fact it said ‘Baby Girl’ on the card and bracelet was really obvious as well. I wish I knew the exact moment that I stopped being just ‘Baby Girl’ and started being me. The other little bits of information weren’t quite so important somehow, but I’m glad I included some of them in the photo as well. Somewhere I have my hospital bracelet from my operation last year, I should fill in a new card with my weight and height and do a then-and-now version of this photo.

Next week the theme is baking so I guess this will be an excuse to whip the bread machine into action and get a photo of whatever comes out. We’ve been running low on bread making supplies so this may be a tricky challenge after all.