Self Portrait Week 5: The Needlewoman

Depression slithered under the door last week and is sucking at my ankles like a primordial ooze. It's all I can do to keep from allowing it to pull me under.

When thoughts go sour and energy sinks, it's a good time for this needlewoman to pull out her crochet hook and soothing colors of yarn, creating a river where I can drift on calm waters. A meditation of movement, the rhythm of stitches and color change rearranges the pattern in my brain.

I tread in steady beats, waiting for light to break through.

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Photo Lessons I Learned:

A portrait does not necessarily require a face in the photo. This picture tells a bit about me with only a bit of me in the picture. It shows I'm left-handed. I'm married (ring). I know how to crochet. I like to surround myself with vibrant colors.

It actually took quite a bit of finesse to set up this shot so that there was enough light on the afghan that individual stitches could be seen. I had to hold my phone's camera over my right shoulder with my right hand while holding the crochet in place with my left hand and knee. It also took quite a bit of fiddling to get the afghan to flow in ripples across the shot. I also had to keep the background from being too distracting by moving furniture out of the frame.

I learned to use a voice command to have the camera activate the shutter.