You may or may not know that I’m a part of an online community called Capture Your 365 (well, if you didn’t know before, you do now). It’s all about improving photography skills, with a focus on Project 365 – the practice of taking a photo a day, every day. It’s a pretty big commitment to do so, and I’m nearing the end of my third Project 365. Perhaps the toughest aspect of such a project is coming up with photo ideas. To aid in this task, Katrina Kennedy (founder of CY365) and her Creative Team provide community members with a monthly prompt list. My first year, I rarely followed the prompts. My second year, I followed every prompt, though sometimes out of order. This year, I’m following them sometimes – when they fit my day. But, I am making sure to capture one prompt in particular each month – the self portrait prompt. It’s been eye opening, for sure. I’ve become more comfortable and confident in front of the camera, which is so important when I’m trying to make you feel comfortable and confident from behind the camera.

Today’s CY365 self-portrait prompt is titled Challenges. My initial plan was that today’s selfie would be a sneak peek of our family holiday card portrait. Those plans went awry when I lost out to the biggest challenge of all – my daughter and her mega tantrum over having nothing to wear for the shoot (despite my numerous suggestions). By the time she’d calmed down, it was pitch dark outside. It’s kind of frustrating (to say the least) when the photographer’s own daughter entirely refuses to cooperate. Well, I was not about to let my glamorous eye makeup efforts go to waste. I do believe I have myself a new profile pic.