Self Portrait Week 36: Ooowieeeee

I've been stressed out over some extended family business, so my creative juices are not running high this week. On top of that, I got this giant blemish right on my brow line. Believe me, it's looking better today than a couple days ago! So what was I to do to create a beautiful self-portrait? Make the blemish the star!

Truly. I have no shame when acting the fool.

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Photo Tips I Learned:

• Seriously, go with the flow.
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• I like to watch home design shows. One of the best tips I ever learned was that if you have an ugly feature in your home that you don't have the time or budget to change, don't try to hide it. Turn it into a focal point. I did that in my bathroom. We have an old gold formica counter top. We didn't have the time to revamp the entire bathroom and tear it out. So I painted the walls a very pretty yellow in the same color family. Now the ugly feature looks like it belongs in the room and doesn't look as ugly any more. So I applied that principle here. Don't try to hide it; use the blemish as the focal point.
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• To look truly miserable, I frowned and tried to cross my eyes as if looking at the blemish. It helps that I look sweaty, too. Tilting my face down slightly, putting my forehead closer to the camera, accentuates the blemish and gives me the strangely proportioned face I wanted.
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• I cropped in very tight to make the photo long and to accentuate the strange proportion of my face. I wanted to cut out all light around my head and get my eyes right at the top third of the crop. I made sure to crop into my eyes and chin so no edge of my face was touching the edge of the photo. I kind of wish my wrinkles showed up more.
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• To take it to the next level, I removed other blemishes so they wouldn't compete with the main attraction. Then I added more dark circles under my eyes in editing!  What woman does that? I would not make a good spokesmodel for a cosmetic company!