Personality Check-In: A Photography Challenge

I surprise myself with a detailed memory of a National Geographic article I stumbled on almost 17 years ago. The article was about pygmy natives whose culture hinged on an annual hunt for giant pythons.  Now although the article was no doubt incredible, it wasn’t the story itself which brings this article into clear memory, it was the use of the spot reserved for the portrait of the photographer.  (I should mention that this spot was standard for all articles, with most staffers choosing shots of their selves standing next to the focus of their editorial topic.) In this article however, the photographers ‘on location’ pic was a photo to remember; it stood out, so much so that it has stayed in my mind for 17 years.

In this shot the photographer was lying on his back with a large dead python draped over his body and both of his hands holding the head to make it appear that he was being attacked.  I never forgot that image and have since searched everywhere (without luck) to find it.

I have seen many amazing photographs over the years but this photographer taught me one great lesson. If you want to survive in the jungle of great photographers, you must stand out! Thankfully he also taught me that a great self portrait can help you to do just that!

Now although I haven’t found that great python pic, I have gathered some of the best and brightest portraits from around the web and although not all of these shots are photographer’s self portraits, I thought they might help the creative juices to start flowing.

5.04 by pozzese

The Setup

What we would like to do is have some fun, and have the community participate by submitting a personal portrait that portrays something about your personality. Goofy, boring, funny, dry… If that’s who you are, it’s what we want to see.

We want each of you to take a moment of self reflection about how you want to be viewed.  It’s an important thing as a photographer, and an individual, to figure out and can be a whole lot of fun.  Besides, we are highly interested in what you have been working on.

How Does It Work?

• Please submit one personal portrait to our Fuel Your Photography Flickr pool If you don’t have Flickr, post a link in our comments below or on our Facebook page
  

• We ask that you please keep it clean.

• We ask that you make it humorous.

Touch my tra-la-la mullet by BarelyFitz

Then What Happens?

If we find your picture funny or clever, or just downright amazing, we will post your photo and do a showcase of these photos in a follow-up article. We will post those that we find fit the bill spirit of this challenge.

Ryan Muirhead

So What Do We Win?

Now don’t look at this as a challenge in the way that whoever wins gets a baseball with all the fuel editors’ signatures on it (of course that wouldn’t be that hard to do). This is a challenger for you, a personal challenge, and one that can help open you up as an artist.

The thing about self portraits of photographers, the ones that are funny, clear and different, do you know what’s great about them? It’s that we remember them and they stick with us.  They can tell us many things about the photographer, for example, they’re great at photo manipulation, easy to work with, their creative.

As the editors here at Fuel Your Photography, we are all about fun, and bringing your art to the next level. We are extending this challenge as a way for you to break free and have a little fun in the process.

So get out there and show us what you’ve got.

A Few More Examples

Below are some great examples of what we are looking for.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aknacer/3168336932/in/set-72157607074584603/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eldano/2938559121/in/set-72157605295236775/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aknacer/2855180078/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mymsie/2346095387/in/set-72157603523234190/