Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Jo Bryant, ,

A while ago I told you about my resolves for this year.

So far I have completed number 2. I made it trhough the month of January with a small stone each day…including a photo.

Yea !!!!!!!!!!!!

I am working on numbers 1,3,4,5,6 and 9. Number 10 is just fun to do !!!

Numbers 7 & 8 are in the planning stages…

But this post is about Numbers 3 & 4, which are also turning out to be fun. Both are 365 day photo challenges. And I am learning a lot. I have started new pages where I add the photos as I take them. You can check them out if you want.

Number 3:

Number 4 [365 day self-portrait photo challenge].

Self-portrait
Self-portrait

This is very challenging for a couple of reasons. Firstly you have to mix it up a lot when you can only take a photo of the one thing over and over again. Secondly it is making me take a look at myself. And find the good. I hate photos of me, so it seemed an odd challenge to take on I know. Yet I find myself changing how I look at the physical side of me. Growing old shouldn’t be about hiding away the physical changes our bodies go through. And yet all too often it is.

Doing this challenge has really stretched me at times. And I am only at the beginning of it.

I am finding things to make me smile though, and I haven’t done that in a long time when looking a recent images of me.

Here are the pages for this challenge:

This is the latest photo I shared for the challenge.

typography face

I have wanted to try a typography portrait for a while. It is not exactly what I wanted but it is a start at mastering GIMP and hopefully by the end of the challenge it will get better.

I used a poem of my own for the words.

Published by Jo Bryant

I was born in the land of Banjo Paterson, gum trees, and weather extremes. I am a freelance photographer. I love to make images that make people happy. To capture forever a precious moment. I am also a freelance writer/editor. I live in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, but still like to claim my Australian heritage. I graduated with a Bachelor of Communications in 2008. I am writing my first novel. I love to write poetry, short stories, and also write for the web. And there is nothing that is on a par with a sunny summer's day spent at Waihi Beach.

45 Comments

  4. Jo, I like your photos, but do you know what I like even better? Your post title. Every once in a while I come across something that strikes me as one of those words-to-live-by mottoes, and you just gave me a new one. Thanks!

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  5. This is wonderful Jo! Good for you to partake in the challenge too! I wish I could commit. I agree so much about your thoughts on aging. It is too bad so much emphasis is placed on looking young. My mom is almost 70 and is really falling into the trap now and it is hard.

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  6. congratulations! I totally get the self portrait discomfort, and for all the same reasons but have no problem totally appreciating the beauty in your self portrait, it’s wonderful. Why do we do that?

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  10. That self portrait is gorgeous. So bright and happy 🙂 Your hair is beautiful Jo! 🙂 At the end of the year you will have a lot of wonderful photos of yourself, I’m sure! Love the typography portrait by the way-great idea! Good luck with the challenge 🙂

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  14. Awesome Jo 🙂 i love the title .. Such a great quote … Your photography is always a pleasure to see 🙂 and was so lovely yo read your small stones thru Jan :). To me resolutions are things we work on … Even if it takes the whole year .. Or more lol. Bright blessings 🙂

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    1. Thank you Jenn…I love your thoughts on resolutions…hehehehe
      I loved that quote when I read it too.
      Thank you so much for the kind words about the stones…I enjoyed yours so much…it was a great month all round.

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  15. Congratulations on posting every day in the Small Stones category. I only made it to 22 😦 and I think it is great that you are challenging yourself….you look lovely to me…so do not be afraid of those self portraits!

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  17. What an interesting challenge. I don’t think I could take it on. Having to really look at me, hmmm gives me something to think about. Francine just posted a video of my art show and some of the photos of me are fine but I make the strangest expressions with my mouth open, guess I was talking, but I wonder why I can’t be pleased with how I look in the photographs all the time.
    It is wonderful you are meeting your challenges and you look terrific

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    1. Thanks Ruth. I think we are just overly critical when it comes to ourselves. We don’t see the nice parts, only the bits that are not so good…I find myself really beinf picky about those bits and forgetting to focus on the whole. Hopefully that may change over the year with this challenge.

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  19. You have a full plate and I wish you much success. I completed the stones and enjoyed them thoroughly. I continue to write them on my own… All good. 😉

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  20. Love the image. Now I want to know what the poem says, because it’s too tiny for me to read it. I’m the same way – hate photos of myself. Always have, probably always will. Until they find a way to take the picture of the soul shining out from within, anyway. 🙂

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    1. small thoughts

      gathered in the rainbowed droplets

      that rain upon your flesh,

      listen as they soak deep within you

      — as I listened —

      then traverse the paths

      your own eyes find

      I am actually for the first time in years not hating my photos…so weird to feel like that.

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