Picture This!

If you are the photographer of your family, chances are you are not in very many photos for holidays, vacatons, birthdays or other occassions. I would guess I'm in less than 100 photos of the thousands of photos I have in boxes, albums and on my hard drives. You may be in more if other members of your family have picked up the photography bug. I know my daughters both own Point & Shoot (P&S) cameras now so I've shown up in their online galleries the last couple of trips.

I found with a little thinking there's some fun ways you can do self-portraits with dSLRs. I know it's popular to hold small Point & Shoot cameras at arms length but I can't do that with a heavy dSLR too easily.

The first way is to use mirrors. Recently, I found a Got Milk? promotional area when visiting the Dairy building at the New York State Fair with some rather unique mirrors.

Got Milk? Mirror portrait at the New York State Fair.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/30s, f/3.8, 800 ISO, EV +0.3, 20mm Focal length

This second self-portrait uses an IR Remote Control for my Nikon digital SLR camera. If you look real close, it's in my left hand. It's very small. I put my camera on a tripod and pressed the remote to take this photo of me in Letchworth State Park in New York last Fall.

Remote Control portrait in Letchworth State Park.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/40s, f/14, 200 ISO, EV +0.6, 18mm Focal length

Lastly, if you see a fellow photographer walking nearby, it never hurts to ask if they could take a picture of you. I am often asked to do this service and am honored to do so. In the photo of me relaxing in a hammock on the Polynesian Resort's beach, I had my daughter take this with her Nikon Coolpix P&S camera.

Picture This! blogger, Scott, relaxing in a hammock on the Polynesian Resort beach.
Nikon Coolpix 4600, 1/500s, f/4.9, 50 ISO

Next time you are on vacation, find ways to get yourself in the picture! For even more ideas and fun, check out Lisa's Get in the Picture blog from last year.