how to get the librarian look on a dime and other awkward things

i'm doin' it, oh yes i am! 

finally going to attempt to follow along with the daily prompts {for taking daily pictures} over on project life 365. i've always wanted to do a 365 project, but i'm usually too undisciplined in my personal, just-for-fun picture-taking pursuits. with me, it's either feast or famine. and lately, it's just a whole lot of pictures of isaac, because he changes daily and i want to freeze each and every minute stage in time so as not to forget a single detail.

but i'm hoping to stretch more outside that comfort zone and get back to looking for a photo in every corner and pocket of life on a daily basis. daily prompts from others who are coming up with the ideas so that you don't have to can be a big help when you're burnt out or when you find yourself too busy to be intentional about it.

enter, PL365!
{middle.of.week.9.oops.better.late.than.never}

i finally perused the daily challenges page on their site yesterday, after having discovered PL365 a couple weeks ago. i saw that the prompt word {or challenge} for the day before was "blue". totally bummed that i missed that one, because i would have had some fun taking pictures of something blue for my initiation into the project. the first thing that came to mind was my vintage, faded robin's-egg-blue desk fan... a most photogenic inanimate object if i ever saw one!

"nook" was yesterday's prompt, which also had me wishing i had stopped by the site a little earlier {not that i can't still find a nook to photograph or break out that fan just for fun}. but when i saw the prompt for today, i knew today would also be a good day to start. the photo challenge for this first day of march was "you_today". 

challenge indeed!

you see, i don't like doing self-portraits {and it would have to be a self-portrait, as one of the rules for submitting to this project is that you have to be the one to take the photos}. i used to like making self-portraits. and i genuinely love when other photographers do self-portrature. but i've found i have a tough time with them when it comes to my own these past few years. in 2012, i even tried to join a self-portrait community of other women photographers doing a year of monthly self-portraits and sharing them in a flickr group. it was called in the picture... a collaboration to encourage those of us who are not too comfortable with self-portrature to get past that fear of switching to the opposite side of the camera.

but i quit after month-one or -two, i think. i did not at all like being in front of the camera anymore. it feels way, way, way more safe behind it. and i never found i could be quite as artistic and expressive with it the way others could {probably because they took the time to do something more creative with it than just holding the camera up to a mirror. snooze}. so i gave up. {see my last post, and you'll know i love to be expressive and artistic with other people in photography. just not with myself.}

so the idea of doing one today had me almost ill. but i made myself do it anyway, because today was a good day to start. 

you see, i just got new glasses, and there are some people {ehem... stacey, just to name one}  who have asked to see a photo of me wearing them. {this is the first time in my life i've ever owned and needed glasses, and i think they're curious about what it would look like.}

so i thought it was perfect timing... i would do a "you_today" self-portrait of glasses-wearing me.

here's what i came up with...

went the blurry route, first. less flaws and more mood. right?

thought bubble: "okay. it's all well and good, but people won't be able to see the glasses, and that was the whole reason for doing this."

take two...

i'll try the serious look.

thought bubble: "nahhh. i feel goofy... anything but serious. i feel like laughing. or crying. i feel uncomfortable! and i certainly don't do serious."

take three...

okay, how' bout artsy-fartsy?

thought bubble: "ooooor... how 'bout you just give this whole thing up, because you know you look nothing like the fresh-faced, young blonde in the photo-advertisement you saw at the doctor's office where you picked out your frames. you look a lot more like {insert the names of every stereotypical nerdy librarian character you've ever seen in the movies... except rachel weisz in the mummy, because you only wish you looked like her, nerdy or not!}."

tip:

if you ever want to go to a costume party and don't have money to spend on a fancy costume, just wash your hair, don't do a thing to it, throw it up in a messy bun {which is the mom-do i sport ehhhhverrry siiiiiingle day}, and borrow my glasses. you're set!

i think i may even have a few librarian-esque dress suits you could wear from my collection of vintage pieces.

it's safe to say that i gave up on trying to be artistic or aesthetic at this point. by now, this was all just an opportunity to poke fun at myself and my thinking that i could do something effective with this.

and when those thoughts came across in my facial expressions too, i clicked away... 'cause this, friends, is the real me. and i think this just might have been the best shot of them all!...

or maybe this one...

=)