i'm in... the picture

so i made a daring decision to join urban muser's project for 2012 called in the picture. i say daring because, although i love the art form of self-portraiture, i am not at all close to feeling comfortable being in photographs... whether taken by others or myself {in which case i have more control over how the photo portrays me}. but the reasons i don't feel brave enough are also the reasons i wanted to join. i won't get into them now. i'll wait until the next time i participate in the selfie link-up party on urban muser's blog {or maybe next week?}.

i missed the link-up party yesterday, but it's only saturday morning, so i thought it's still okay to join in. i had taken some self-portraits yesterday after trying to get some spontaneous shots of issac with me playing on the floor. but i was not finished with the processing in time to submit them for this week's round {except for the blurry shot above}. so i'll post them later next week.

instead, for this week, i submitted a recent self-portrait shot... my book photo that i posted last week and used for my first texture tuesday submission.

the in the picture theme for january is a piece of me... a perfect way to start out for someone who is a little bit afraid, uncomfortable or shy to look at themselves through the lens. that's me. so christy encouraged us to shoot just "a piece" or only part of ourselves... whatever we feel comfortable with. {by the way, you have got to see her ultra cool floating-in-air selfie!}

anyway, the prompt theme made me think back to this shot that only shows my hands. it was not meant to be a self-portrait, but rather just to highlight the wonderfully worn pages of my vintage book and convey a theme of open. but the photo was there, it was fitting, and i had not yet taken self-portraits for this week, so i submitted it. i'm getting a lot of mileage out of this photo {a convenient thing to do, for time's sake}!

in fact, i have been asked to submit it to a gallery showing... so excited about that, but i need to get it printed and framed first.

okay... that's it. the level of comfort that i can muster for selfies today is a mysterious level... in a blurry shot and a hands-only shot. but a little mystery never hurt anyone, right? maybe by next friday, i'll get braver. i'm looking forward to a year of exploring this project.

you can check out the first round of s.p. images by several others here... some who were more brave than i... some who, like me, went with a more mysterious approach.