Yep – time to rant.

You cannot be actively social on social media with NO pictures of yourself.  Your photo doesn’t have to be your profile picture, but if you send me a friend request and I’m not totally sure who you are and you have no pictures for me to see of you then why would I accept your request?  It’s like knocking on my door with a bag over your head.  I’m not going to judge how you look – you look fine – I just want to see who you are.  If you are comfortable enough to reach out then I will likely accept you especially if I know you.  But if you are not a friend offline – close enough for me to recognize you instantly by name – then you have to show yourself to be my friend.  I can’t be friends with a sunset or a landscape or you based on all the other people you have pictures of in your profile instead of you.  If you want to be on Facebook to connect with your close circle, remain private to everyone else and not be found by the public then you can choose to have no pictures of yourself and that’s fine – really.  I’m talking specifically here about people who send me a friend request and expect to be social online.

Embrace You

Okay – got that off my chest.

Now let’s talk a little.  Listen I don’t know exactly why you are reluctant to put yourself out there.  We have clients who think they “photograph terribly” and “have never taken a good picture” and on and on and on…  I see both sides of the coin here.  On one hand the camera doesn’t completely lie in the sense that yes – that picture is you so it’s for the most part what you do indeed look like, but on the other hand there are plenty of factors that can contribute to a good picture.  I could go into all those factors that a professional photographer brings to the table (there is obviously a huge difference and maybe that is what you need for your profile picture), but instead I want to focus on YOU first.  This may sound cheesy (okay significantly cheesy) but the fact is that everyone is unique and beautiful.  It is as true as the Earth is round.  You are the only one of you – perfectly unique and the perfect version of you.  Sure maybe I look at a picture of myself once in a while and think “ugh” for a second but you just gotta let that go – it’s that simple.  If you can do that, if you can accept yourself, then you won’t “photograph terribly” regardless of whether you are in front of a friend’s iPhone or a pro’s Canon 5D and anything in between.  If you are scrambling to figure out what your resolution will be for 2014 then first resolve right now to forgive yourself of any of your self-perceived flaws and shine!  Embrace you!  You absolutely deserve it.