Somewhere around 1000 words

[mrissa]

I may hit more than that today, but it seems like a decent estimate. And my birthday pictures are up, here.

So I'm pondering: do you have different standards for what makes a good picture of a friend or loved one as opposed to a good picture of some stranger? I'm torn on this one. I'm not sure what I think. I don't think good pictures have to be flattering pictures in either category. But I guess with friends and loved ones I have more of a sense of whether it's characteristic or not, whether or not it's flattering, and an otherwise nondescript photo can delight me if it's "really" how the person looks to me. On the other hand, a really well-done photo of a friend or loved one can make me evaluate the lines and planes of their face and/or body in ways that I don't usually think of doing. I don't think of my friends as works of art but as people. And I am not a visual artist myself at all, though I like some. (That is, I don't know how to take photos that good, but I definitely know how to appreciate others'. Hmm. Also I'm personally fond of some painters, sculptors, photographers, etc. and even a few writers who are much more visually focused than I care to be.)

Sometimes I'm startled when I see myself in pictures, because it's recognizably me and yet...well, I think of myself as bigger than that, for one thing, and I don't mean in the simplistic "photo on the screen is two inches tall and I am five-foot-six" way. Also, expressions feel a lot more exaggerated from in here than they look from out there, with a few deliberate exceptions. Do you have that, or the reverse, or something else entirely?

Comments

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Viking blood. It makes me non-little.

Well, mrissa, what's your excuse, then? Is it the English blood?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, the tiny tiny English, a very small people, in no way affected by Viking largeness of the past.

I have no excuse.

[cooperati.livejournal.com]

this is funny. i saw a detailed drawing of an ancient east anglian ship's front prow as it was being unearthed either at or near sutton hoo, in suffolk(a frequent stop for vikings). it was the head of a viking-looking man, carved out of wood, but it looked like my dad with a beard! mind you, my family hasn't been in england for almost 400 years. but, being 6', like my dad and his dad, and my being 330 lbs without looking 330 lbs, i can admit there's something more than just a simple western european stock to my makeup.

-=T=-