There’s a world of difference between shooting portraits of your friends and family when everyone is young … and doing the same thing forty or fifty years later. I’m always bemused … and occasionally infuriated … by people who think we will love pictures of us which advertise what time hath wrought on our faces. The liver spots, wrinkles, eye pouches, jowls. The weariness.
Seriously? Does anyone want to look old, haggard, or merely unattractive in a photograph? How often do you see the picture someone took of you and say (out loud or in your head) “That just can’t be me! Who is that person?”
I try to take non-awful pictures.
Many of us have few pictures of ourselves because we hate the way we look in them. Who would blame us?
I believe that no one wants unattractive pictures. No one wants to look fat or wrinkly or haggard. Unless you are a dog because when you are a dog, cat, or horse for that matter … you always look great. Which is why I wonder why most of my dogs run away from the camera.
I do my utmost to smooth out the wrinkles, fade blemishes, and make the people I love look in pictures they way they look to me. I don’t see them as old. In my mind, they are and always will be young and beautiful. What I want to see in pictures is joy, love, and beauty. Someone else can go for “truth” in photography. I’m serious about flattering.
I participate in WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge 2016
A world of faces: WordPress Weekly Photography Challenge
Share this:
Categories: #gallery, #Photography, Composition, Family, Friendship
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
What a wonderful collection for faces and friends. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLike
Thank YOU for visiting 😀
LikeLike
These are all lovely.. I especially like the two of you in the Scottie T shirt–Not necessarily because of the T-Shirts, although they are nifty, but because I love the photos of you. And you are right. That pooch is one big photo opportunity. This is another wonderful one of him. Garry always looks great in photos.. Love that one of you with him..Had to look close to see it was you under that lovely red hair. Did I know you were a redhead?
LikeLike
The red head is Bette Stevens, a blogger buddy in Maine who we visited while we were up there 🙂 I had reddish brown hair a million years ago, before it went gray, then white. Now it’s sort of yellowish white because there’s a lot of iron in our well water. It turns my hair an icky yellow. I try not to notice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you ever tried fanici-full by Roux? White Minx? It takes all the yellow out…I mix it in with my leave-in conditioner and spritz my hair with it after I shower and shampoo. I’ve been using it for over 50 years. Yikes!!!. It comes in a gray bottle with hot pink lettering. You can find it at Walmart and most drug store chains. I swear by it. Be sure to get White Minx.
LikeLike
If I can find it, I will try it. I hate the yellow. Someone once accused me of being blond. I am NOT blond. I’m worse. I’m YELLOW.
OK. Amazon has it. Do I want the “ultra” or “regular” or are they identical, but one merely costs more? You know, my mother used the same stuff to get the yellow out of her hair. She also hated that yellow and apparently, it happens to all of we white haired people.
LikeLike
The last bottle I bought was ultra white minx..I’d never noticed that before.
LikeLike
Looks like the last I bought was ultra. i don’t know the difference. I use infusium 23 leave-in hair conditioner and mix it half and half with the White Minx. I towel dry my hair and spray the mixture on and comb it through. Try this and if it doesn’t work, then follow the instructions where you apply just the white minx to roots of hair and work it through with fingers and a comb to ends. Don’t rinse. Easier to just spray it on and comb through though, unless your hair is very thick. Let me know how it works. You advise me on cameras, I advise you on hair rinse. Ha!
LikeLike
I use WEN which is a cleansing conditioner, so I figure I mix a little of that with it and see how it works. As far as I can tell, the ultra and the other stuff are the same, but I guess I’ll find out. Not much information, but I’m pretty sure this is the same stuff my mother used for many years with slightly updated packaging.
LikeLike
What do you mean by cleansing conditioner??? You mean shampoo and conditioner? Won’t work with anything you have to rinse out.. as it will rinse out the white minx as well.
LikeLike
Look up Wen on Amazon. It’s not shampoo. It’s instead of shampoo and conditioner. It saved me from complete baldness. Very expensive, but I don’t have to wash my hair very often since I started using it. It’s very different than regular shampoo and conditioner. My best friend is a true believer and she explained how to use it and what to expect, otherwise I would have given up. But I started using it and my hair, which had been coming out by the handful, stopped falling out. It hasn’t all grown back, but I’m not losing it anymore. I was afraid I was going to have to wear hats all the time. It was scary. I’ve been through cancer and heart surgery and many many other surgeries … and each time, my hair fell out. But it came back. this time, it showed NO sign of coming back and I didn’t mind having heart failure or fake breasts nearly as much as I mind being bald.
You rinse out Wen, but most of us use some also as a leave-in conditioner too. It’s both. It’s everything. It’s great.
http://www.amazon.com/WEN-Chaz-Dean-Cleansing-Conditioner/dp/B00VGNWFZS?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
LikeLike
My nephew (20 years old) has alopecia… He is totally bald, but I think it is because he has so little hair that she shaves the rest off. I wonder if it would help?
LikeLike
I don’t know, but it’s probably worth a try, though you do need some hair to work with I should think.
LikeLike
Hair starts with follicles and I would imagine that’s what was affected if your hair grew in thicker…But perhaps not.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think it’s a cure for baldness. It didn’t make my hair grow back, but it stopped the fallout.
LikeLike
great faces and all so true- I am happy for that blurred look available on my phone to mask the lines 🙂
LikeLike
We are all happy about soft focus. It is a gift.
LikeLiked by 1 person
At last I have got some time to look at your wonderful collection of “character” faces. I do not take so mny photos of people, but I should. There is so much to discover in a face. What a great variety you have.
LikeLike
One of my favorite things about you is that you often offer a different perspective on life than many of the other friends I have on WP do. I can think of a few of the people I follow (and who I know don’t follow you) who might have been anything from miffed to infuriated about the topics of a couple of your most recent posts. They NEED to feel that nobody under no circumstances is ever “ugly” to boost the confidence in their self image they don’t naturally possess. They NEED to fall back on those worn and trendy platitudes you scoffed about the other day to maintain anything resembling a positive outlook on life to counteract their depression. While I do respect where they come from and what they are dealing with, I absolutely love your candidness and ability to accept the reality of things much more! And I proudly admit I look like hell in every picture of me ever taken…
LikeLike
that should be “blue eyed”
Leslie
LikeLike
A smiling face always looks good to me. (it makes the years melt away) Thanks for the lovely photo of my blued Bishop.
Leslie
LikeLike
What a beautiful way to behold your subjects. Truth at a more sincere level laced in love. Good for you! G-uno
LikeLike
There’s a reason why all photo packages include tools for smoothing skin and giving portraits a “glow.” Even when I was (briefly!!) shooting wedding 50 years ago, the bride wanted to be beautiful. She wanted her big nose to look small and dainty and those pocks on her face to be invisible. There’s nothing new, here. Everyone wants their pictures to look like their mental pictures of themselves.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great point about our furry friends. They are always so photogenic. Oh to be as elegant as a cat in photograhs. Or as happy and beautiful as a dog. It’s funny how animals are always taking fabulous photos even when they aren’t ready. On the other hand, I need perfection before I even think about being in front of a camera. Great post and happy blogging!
LikeLike
Thank you. And Bishop, the Australian Shepherd, thanks you. He is always ready for his closeup 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awww that’s so sweet! Hi Bishop! Such a beautiful dog!
LikeLike
He is beautiful and ever at the ready to pose for a picture … while the 2 Scotties scuttle away like thieves in the night. They have guilty consciences.
LikeLike
Hahaha! Animals and their personalities.
LikeLike
Love those photos, and yeah, I rarely take people pictures, but when I do it’s a kindness not an act of vengeance.
I know several people who tend to go after you, camera-wise; they take the most unflattering picture they can, and then slyly show it to you as a kind of “he he look what I did” thing. I figger, someone says please don’t, then you don’t. Not even secretly.
My birth mother was big on the surprise photo, her sister was more into controlled photos. I dont know now which one of them drove me crazier, lol. I just realized not too long ago there are about a dozen “grown up” and voluntary images of me in the world, five of which are old driving licenses. I like it that way. =)
LikeLike
I like to think that most people who take unattractive pictures of their friends and family are just lousy photographers. You know, the people who are sure that an iPhone is as good as anything else and “wrinkles are interesting.” Other people’s wrinkles are interesting. Mine are merely depressing!
LikeLike
Beautiful faces!
LikeLike
And GREAT people!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes indeed 🙂
LikeLike
I appreciate your thoughts and efforts to make your friends and family look good /young in pictures. Great collection of happy faces.
LikeLike
We all strive to look at least reasonably good. I will maintain to my dying day that no one wants to look bad in a photo. Sometimes we settle for less than we want, but we all want to look good. It’s not vanity so much as we want to look the way we “feel” we look!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not happy with the way I look these days, but a couple of women friends with “bad eye sight” say I’m still handsome. GO figure…, Seems things, including perception, even out with time,,, 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Omni, nothing wrong with my eyes and nothing wrong with that photo. Older is cuter these days, lol.
LikeLike
Men get to be ruggedly handsome. The ruggedly handsome thing does not translate well to “females” of a certain age, however.
LikeLike
You are still a handsome devil, my friend. Or is that devilishly handsome? Or both maybe?
LikeLike