Note: Shooting Yourself was first published June 1, 2013 by Ilex. HOW Books published it February 12, 2014 but changed the title to Selfies.
Shooting Yourself by Haje Jan Kamps • contains 160 pages • published June 1, 2013 by Ilex • classified as Photography • obtained through library • read as paperback • shelve on Goodreads • shelve on The StoryGraph
Synopsis:
Turn your camera on the world’s most fascinating and attractive model yourself! Take part in the new wave of expressive self-portraiture, enjoy unlimited creative control over your subject, and reveal your hidden side with confidence!
- Hundreds of inspiring self-portraits from creative photo stars.
- Go on location, add props, get dressed up, or even bare it all dozens of styles are explored.
- Get inspired and gain the confidence to visually tell your own unique story.
- With simple post-production techniques to add style and amazing surreal effects.
How I found Shooting Yourself
Recently I found myself at one of the newly opened local libraries; specifically the one I dubbed the hipster library. Since a lot of the books on the shelves were new, I took it upon myself to check out all the photography books that caught my fancy. One of those books was Shooting Yourself.
What I Expected
The subtitle, Self-Portraits with Attitude definitely captured my attention. I’m generally very camera-shy, so the thought of breaking out of my shell while experimenting with my camera sounded very appealing. Looking at the cover of Shooting Yourself, I was fairly certain this book would contain some how-to tips on how to achieve self-portraits with attitude. Alas, I was mistaken.
The Actual Content of Shooting Yourself
Shooting Yourself contains self-portraits from photographers, accompanied by short descriptions about them and what inspired them to take those particular self-portraits. How-tos were rather introductory rather than the main focus of the book.
Impression of the Book
Nonetheless, I thought Shooting Yourself is a great book to draw inspiration from. The book was broken down into different sections such as dramatic self-portraits, telling stories through self-portraits and dressing up. Breaking down the self-portraits into themes made Shooting Yourself a wonderful reference book if you’re looking for quick inspiration.
The other reason to read Shooting Yourself is if you’re on constant look-out for new photographers. Their websites and social media links have been included so if the style of a particular photographer speaks to you, you can easily find them.
Finally, not to disappoint completely, Shooting Yourself did contain a few tips on how to achieve particular types of photos. Although, I felt that if readers aren’t familiar with these methods, then Shooting Yourself isn’t very helpful. On the other hand, beginner photographers would at least know what they need to learn about taking photos and their cameras (aperture, shutter speed, double exposure, etc) as well as post-processing (blending, layer masks, etc).
No matter how experienced a photographer you are, I’d recommend Shooting Yourself because it challenges readers to stretch their imagination of what they can achieve with photography, particularly when they are both photographer and model. After all, no situation can top on where photographer and model are in complete sync with their vision.
All I can think of at “self-portraits” is selfies, because that’s the most experience that I have. All I have is my phone, and I can’t just set that a stand, set a timer, and then snap a nice, professional looking photo of myself. But I do think that self-portraits take a lot of skill, and they’re really challenging. The book sounds great, for photographers wanting to challenge themselves.
HAHAHA. Yeah, selfies definitely overshadow the notion of self-portraiture for most of us. This reminds me of the time I took my own business headshot. I didn’t own a tripod or remote control back then, so I balanced my camera on books on the sofa, focused the lens on a stuffed toy, set the self-timer and ran to the spot, knocked aside the stuffed toy and hoped I would take a decent photos. I must’ve done this over a hundred rounds before I decided I had a good enough photo. Lol.
And yes! I think it’s really a cool and effective way to challenge photographers and this books has made me toy around with ideas for myself as well. Now, if only I had the time…
This looks like a great book. I’m not much of a photographer myself, but this looks like it’d be funny for anyone! (And I also wouldn’t mind learning how to take selfies with attitude)
Yeah, I think it’s still an interesting book for non-photographers because it has a lot of visual appeal and there’s something intimate about knowing that many of these photos were taking by the photographers themselves, yet they chose to share those photos with the rest of the world.