TUESDAY APRIL 1ST: Selfies

Have you every witnessed someone taking a "selfie?"

(First, let us formally define selfie.  A selfie is where a person uses a camera-type device - typically a smart phone - and holds it out in front of them self in order to capture a picture.  No one has yet found a floating camera.  And most of us do not have personal photographers who follow us constantly.  So we take selfies.)

It is such a strange moment to catch another person taking a picture of them self.  They know you're watching, and so they make haste so as not to make it a huge ordeal.  Because of technological developments, they are not able to see the image that the camera will capture as they take it.  This allows them to alter their hair or make different faces before snapping the picture.

Selfie-taking is so prevalent in our culture today that people are already doing studies on it.  Why are we so obsessed with taking pictures of ourselves.

This is what I want to do a study on - how many selfies have you taken that you are truly satisfied with?  How many have you taken without being critical of your looks?  How many times have you not retaken a selfie - just went with the first one you took?

Selfies are rough.  Our arms aren't long enough to get the phone a proper distance away.  Selfies get us where we are vulnerable - right up in our grill.  So we mask that vulnerability with a pouty lip or scrunched eyes.

In my opinion, a selfie also says it's all about me!  That is an attitude that may get you far in life - but you won't end up in the places that you want to be.

But here's is another problem with selfies - it is a failed attempt at introspection.  It is a good thing to know one's self.  To know your identity - specifically your identity in Christ.  But when we look at ourselves in the selfie type way, we are cheating ourselves.  We can't be honest in that moment when it is just us.  We have to prove something to ourselves - that we can live up to the world's standards; that we can compare to others.

So here is some photography advice:

Give Someone Else the Camera

You are beautiful.  That is not a cliche.  That is a fact.  The one who made you thinks so every day.  He spent time and put care into making you who you are.  He knows you in the purest and most whole way.  He can see what the world can't see.  He can see what you  can't see.  But He longs for you to see it too.  He longs for you to know that you are beautiful because He created you.  It may be difficult to understand, but if you set aside the world's standards for beauty and for living, it can be revealed to you.  You can start to embrace it.

Turn the Camera Around

The beauty of the very first camera my parents gave me was the element of surprise.  It was probably between 1996 and 2000, (that was the year, not age of the camera) and you still had to press a button to pop up the flash.  It was a film camera - not a digital camera - no screen to show you what you are looking at.  So when I didn't know what the images looked like until they were developed.  But they were beautiful.  They were what I never expected.  They were a beautiful moment captured.  I saw what was outside of myself, and it was beautiful.  If I had only spent time taking pictures of me, I would have missed everything around me.

~SP