Lea Koop
patreon
Insecurities & Selfportraits
🕑 Added 2024-02-12 15:00:11 +0000 UTC"But Lea, how do you find the courage to take selfportraits and post them online? I feel like I am not pretty enough."
This is a sentence, I hear more often than I'd like to.
I think we all have our little (or big) insecurities, and sometimes we let them stop us from living life to he fullest. The good news: we can work on this and even overcome them!
When I started taking selfportraits and showing my face on social media in general, I was so so nervous about all of my insecurities. It was hard to look at the photos from my sessions since a lot of them caught me in unflattering angles. But I did not stop to do it, because there also were some pictures that made me feel so confident, when the lighting hits just right, and the angle is flattering.
So I did more self portrait session, and after a couple of months I noticed, that I got used to my face. I looked at myself in so many different angles and lighting situations, that I simply got USED to it. Looking in the mirror is simply not the same since we see the inverted verison of ourselves there, and that's why we might feel insecure in photos or videos that show us "correctly".
I still do have insecurities, would you believe me if I told you that I was insecure about my hair for this shoot?
I bet you don't! Usually I wear wigs for my selfportraits since my own hair is not as longs as I'd like it to be. But for this session I wanted to overcome this insecurity and I had two goals:
1. prove to myself that my hair can look great even if it's shorter than my wigs
2. prove to myself that it is fine if my hair doesn't look perfect and that I can still create beautiful photos
Luckily, I love how the photos turned out, and even though I still want to grow my hair longer, I feel confident to share the photos from this session with the world.
So: if your insecurities are holding you back from creating art, try to get out of your comfort zone, one step at a time. You are not alone and I bet y'all are the most wonderful human beings ❤️
ps: here is another result from my latest shoot, you see it first hehe!
Comments
Lea Koop
Exactly! im just a girl , and i promise i seem way more professional than i am 🫶🏼 this is a good reminder for me to try to keep it more real!
Katharina
It does help. We all love things about ourselves and we also feel very insecure about other parts of our bodies. So accepting is definitely the best way to go, I think. And also acknowledging, that it is simply normal to struggle with seeing yourself from angles you usually don't see yourself from. It's just good to know that even pros like you have issues with this topic as nowadays everyone seems to be so confident in front of the cam. But it's just a matter of training, I guess :)
Lea Koop
Dear Katharina, I think you are absolutely amazing for continuing taking self portraits, even if it's pushing you out of your comfort zone! I know exactly how you feel, and I just wanna let you know that you are doing amazing ❤️ please keep in mind that it is okay to have "bad photos" and the goal is not to love your face / body in every angle ! The goal is more to ACCEPT those photos, and move on from them! After a self portrait session, I only transfer my favourite photos to my computer. I acknowledge the bad ones, I look at them, and I accept that this is just my normal body/face , and then I move on ❤️ We get so caught up in trying to love every inch of us, that we sometimes forget , that we don't have to! You can love your favourite parts , and ACCEPT your not favourite parts! I feel like this goal is way more realistic so maybe this can help you?🫶🏼
Katharina
I know it's been a while since you posted this, but it really helps to read that you also struggled so much. I try to take photos of myself, which is a pain in the ass tbh as it is so difficult to handle the angle etc with only a tripod. Also I feel like I definitely need one of the remote control buttons, as it is quite difficult to always hide my phone. But in addition to that, I find it so hard to see myself in a bad angle. I feel like my face looks weird, also I am quite muscular which makes me look way too bulky wearing cute whimsy stuff. I almost always have at least a minor break down after taking photos of myself, because I feel so extremely vulnerable. But I know that's the actually a reason to keep on. I want to feel confident and comfortable with myself and taking photos of myself hopefully brings me there. I wanted to get used to looking at myself, just like you. My self-portraits are far from being as cool as yours, but I want to get there some day. Thank you for sharing this, Lea <3
