This was a hard one.

The photography group assignment this month (one of them) was to take self-portraits. At my current weight I try to stay behind the camera as much as possible. So this was hard. (Even harder to post them.) But I buckled down and did it. I tried several kinds of setups, but I liked pictures of me reading a book the best. I tried to really look natural. And since I just had to do the timer and run back and forth a million times, that was not easy. But I narrowed it down to two:

This is the one that looked best to me as a portrait of myself and probably the best composition. Jake chose this one as well. It's probably the most flattering, and it looks the most natural. Down side, my face is in shadow (except my nose!), and my eyes are very dark. Since my eyes are one of my best features and my nose one of the worst, that's just really the wrong way to go. (But I did do some editing to soften that contrast.) My hands were really bright and I poorly (for now) shaded them a little. And last but not least, the picture is not quite in focus. Is this really just a portrait of my hair? So there you go for that one.

Next:

Pros on this one, the lighting is much better. You can actually see my eyes. And it's silly, but I actually like the way my hair is going a little crazy. I don't look quite so tired. (I was tired, so this is the least tired shot--they bags are less visible.) And it is in focus, but still looks soft enough to flatter my skin. Cons are, I wish I were a little lower in the frame, my hand is a little prominent, the top of my nose is cutting the far eye in a weird way. Are those deal-breakers?

Anyway, I'm having trouble choosing. Any suggestions? The color ones looked a little weird, so I'm going for BW on this one, but did I do an ok job of converting? The second one had some really bright whites to work with.

The second assignment was a chronological series of something. The only problem I have with that one is choosing 3-5 of either A. Janey walking, B. Janey eating chocolate cake, or C. Janey eating strawberry shortcake. That's about it.