But then Saturday evening I watched the Vivian Maier documentary again and I was in awe of her self portrait photography, capturing reflections of herself as well as her shadow and that got me thinking. You see I'm usually the one behind the camera, I don't think there's many pictures of me, not recent ones anyway. What if something should happen to me tomorrow? Would there be pictures for the kids to remember me by?
So, Sunday morning I took this picture using the door of the microwave as a reflective surface, I didn't know if it would look ok, I didn't know if it would work in black and white, but it did (and everyone loved having a glimpse of my kitchen - even if it was a bit messy)
So I had decided on a theme within the theme for the week, I wouldn't focus on street photography of other people, I'd try and capture a self portrait in unusual and experimental ways. I did plan on hitting the street and using shop windows, mirrored buildings etc, but that all went out of the window when I stepped out of the back door Sunday teatime and took a tumble, badly spraining my ankle and rendering me immobile for most of the week!
I spent Monday on the sofa, completely unable to walk, so I cheated a little and used this shot I'd taken on Sunday when me and Ems had gone to the supermarket to get things for her birthday cake. This was obviously before the ankle incident and was supposed to be a practise shot using reflective shop windows, hence the not so good framing.
Another day was spent resting on the sofa on Tuesday, so this reflection of me in my iPad screen was the best I could do.
On wednesday I still wasn't really walking, except for one or two tentative steps. I had so wanted to recreate a shot of mine and Archie's shadows I had taken a few weeks before and while I was staring wistfully at it wondering how I could possible recreate it without walking (or hopping) far, I realised I could see my reflection in it. Took me ages to get the angle right between, me , the iPad and Mr Nikon to get this one and avoiding having the camera in the reflection though
On Thursday I was able to walk a little, P had been out and got me a walking stick so that I could control how much weight I was putting on my foot and help keep my balance. So I took Mr Nikon upstairs and had a play with the bedroom mirror. I ended up with 2 shots I liked, one with the camera as part of the image and one without. I went with this one (I even put the dress on specially!)
For Friday's photo I utilised 2 mirrors and my iPhone. It was dark in my room with the curtains closed and so I put the lamp on, but there was still quite a bit of noise. I liked the lamp because it gave light spots in my eyes, but it created a distracting flash of light on the frame of the mirror. I do like the image, even the graininess as it makes it look like an old photo, but there's something (perhaps that light spot) that bugs me about it.
I tried to re-take it with Mr Nikon in better light but just could not get the angles right between me, the camera and the two mirrors.
Here's the original iPhone shot
And here's the best of the Mr Nikon versions
On Saturday I was a lot more mobile with my walking stick and was able to get outside in the garden for the first time this week. I remembered a fab photo I'd seen during reflections week which involved reflections in spoons and so I did my own spoon reflection image. Sorry for the frowning face, it was so sunny that I was squinting to see.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
All images are owned by Nicola Dawes unless otherwise stated
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