This is a part of a series titled Self-Acceptance where I explain the process of self-portraits I have taken which started during lockdown. It explores themes of self-confidence, working with what you have, and accepting myself (duh).
During lockdown, I really got into Naruto. It inspired me to photoshop a Sharingan into my eye back in June. The main idea was my entire face covered by my eye, with an active Sharingan. To add more action without blurring movement, I turned up the clarity to give it a the shot more emphasis. I was able to get the exact shot I planned in my head:
During the shoot, I started to break off into different poses. Still obscuring my face by not looking at the camera directly. My facial expressions were still blank stares which worked well with the imposed Sharingan. I learned that day two things that day: the lighting in my room was optimal enough for soft lit pictures on my 50mm and that my hair was starting to grow into some KPOP style. It was the first time I was teased about being a BTS member. It's not something that I was offended by, but it made me want to try to listen to them. If I was going to have KPOP hair, then I didn't want to "appropriate" it. I mean, KPOP is what made this hairstyle popular.
That comment did help give me more confidence lol.
A negative takeaway I got from this was that the amount of clarity and texture made my skin look worse than it is. I would start paying attention to this more moving forward.
