If you know me, or if you check out my blog or know me on Facebook, you know that I take a lot of self portraits. This is not because I like being in photos. Noooooo. In fact, I dislike being in photos very much (even my own) and always think, "Do I really look like that?!" But still, I take a lot of self portraits. A lot. Why? Much of it is because I want to try out lighting stuff before I try it out on anyone else. This is the reason for about 75% of my self portraits. But there are other reasons for this harebrained idea of mine as well. Sometimes I do it because I have such a ridiculously skewed self-image that I feel it might help to view myself through the Eye Of Canon rather than the Eye of Amy. Sometimes it's because I have something to say and when I was young I used to write but these days I'm out of words, or out of time, or something so I take a photo. Sometimes it's because I crack myself up and I have an awesome idea and I have to record it because did I mention I crack myself up? And sometimes it's just because the desire or urge to photograph something is so intense and pervasive (this makes it sound like a serious disease) that I use myself as a subject when I don't have any other, uh, victims. Taking self portraits has also taught me many things. (Including that I like to take pictures of my hands and feet…selfies don't always have to be of your face!). Scroll down to check out what I do in my free time and see a few things I've learned along the way.

For this first photo, I learned (or remembered) that my cat is awesome. My $26 velour couch is awesome. And my hair is awesome, when Amy (I am not talking about myself in the third person) cuts it and does something exciting with it. For one day.

If there are waves (even if you can't see them in this photo), you should go and ride them.

The best laid plans….yeah, the following photos were part of a vision that I had being outside. In the backyard. A vision that looks absolutely nothing like these photos. Because it got cold, and dark. Fast. Much faster than it does on a normal day, I swear. And self portraits take five hundred times the time of regular photos (did I mention how much time self portraits take? So much time. SOOOOO MUCH TIME. They take ALL THE TIME). So you compromise, even though you don't want to, because YOUR VISION. And this is somehow a lesson…of some sort.

A 50" X 50" softbox actually WILL fit in my tiny bathroom.

I learned to take time to enjoy my morning coffee. My Puerto Rican coffee. Which I drink in these same mugs, 24/7/365. Thanks, Aunt Joan!

You will learn again what you already know: that focusing with a self portrait is the hardest part, by far, even if you can autofocus with your remote. You will learn patience, which you didn't have before, and you probably don't have now, either. You will learn that you are glad that nobody else is home when you finally have the camera and focus point set up right and then the halfway set up light stand with the beauty dish falls over and knocks your camera and tripod out of whack and then? You swear a lot because you have to start over from the beginning. PATIENCE. IS. A VIRTUE.

Did I mention that patience is a virtue? I got it tattooed on the top of my back and sometimes I am still not sure that I remember.

You will learn that the cape that your mom made for you, no questions asked, for a photo project, is the most amazing thing ever. Despite the fact that you look as unimpressed as your cat normally does in photos, you are REALLY impressed with your mom's sewing. It's incredible.

And you will learn that obviously the most fun way to spend a Friday evening is right in front of your wood stove, taking a self portrait, because you live on the EDGE.

And! This post is part of a "10 on 10" blog circle that a group of photographers and I are doing…10 photos on the 10 of the month. Yes, I realize it's the 9, but it's the 10 somewhere. Now that you've read my post…click on over to the next post in the blog circle from Trimmer Photography!