These days I self shoot almost all my outfit photos. That means I set up a tripod, pre-focus the shot, turn on the timer, and jump in. It’s a lot of work and requires different location specifications than shooting with a photographer. For example, I don’t like to shoot anywhere that’s too crowded, A) because people gawk, and B) because it puts my equipment at risk. It has to be spacious enough to get the whole shot, not too windy, aesthetically pleasing, etc. And in most Boston months, it has to be somewhere where you can’t see all the dead foliage.
I also have to be “feeling it” to shoot. With a photographer it’s easy to throw on a fake smile even if you’re having a bad day, but if I’m self shooting in a bad mood, my photos just won’t come out. If the creative spirit isn’t there, if I’m not inspired, it shows. As a result, I often attempt to shoot many times before I get anything usable.
Last week I lugged my tripod around every single day trying to shoot and I ended up with nothing. It can be very frustrating to keep putting in the work in and to yield no content. Today I tried three different times to shoot this outfit. I only ended up with one good photo.
Doing creative work requires a lot of emotional labor of this kind. Whereas with some jobs it’s a matter of pushing through, with self shooting I find it’s often a matter of accepting when I can’t make it happen. Today I only got one shot. But it was a good one, and perhaps tomorrow I’ll get another.
Jacket: H&M, Shirt: Primark, Necklace: Forever21, Pants: thrifted in Paris, Shoes: Nine West c/o Macy’s