I loath having my photo taken. Forget water-boarding, bamboo splinters under my fingernails, heavy metal blasted at 11, or even sleep deprivation (been there, doing that), the worst form of torture is posing for a portrait. I’ve been brought to tears before because I couldn’t escape a camera aimed at me.

Want to piss me off, try to take my photo without telling me. I have no problem yanking the camera out of your hands and beating you with it. Just kidding… no, I’m not.

The small avatars I have in my sidebar, and use on various social media sites, are as rare as Bigfoot. I rejected literally hundreds of selfies before accepting defeat and using the least offensive. Even that word, “selfie,” makes me cringe.

When I saw the WordPress Photo prompt for this week, again I cringed, but took up the challenge. Perusing my photo library, I turned up more photos of myself than I expected. Fortunately, very few featured a clear view of my face.

What I do like about them, is that they depict me doing what I love the best… camera in hand, snapping away.

That is me. That is my identity, my self-portrait. I view the world through my lens, stealing moments and capturing them in the blink of an eye. Hopefully, sharing a little piece of myself in each of my photos.

I wish more people felt that photography was an adventure the same as life itself and felt that their individual feelings were worth expressing. To me, that makes photography more exciting.”

~ Harry Callahan