30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 1 | Self-Portrait

I have taken many, many self-portraits over the years.  It is always the standard routine:

• Hold camera arms length away
• Flash cheesy grin
• Click.  Chimp.  And repeat.

(If you don't know what "chimp" means, it is the act of constantly checking out what you just took on the little screen before clicking again.  Oo oo ahh ahh.)

For the first challenge of my 30 Day Challenge, I wanted to start with something new.

What's that mean?
It means none of the above will be allowed to happen.  I wanted to use my 50mm lens.  Which means arms length away would be a nice detailed shot... of my nose.  Something no one out there would want to see.  Trust me on that.

So, out came the tripod.

Then came the focusing issue.
How can I focus for an at least semi-good shot?

This is where my pillow came in play.  I set it up approximately where I would be sitting, focused and set my camera, hit the trigger... then ran to sit in place for the 5-shots it would take.  (I set for a higher number of shots to allow the time it would take for me to settle into posing.)

Overall, I am happy with my final product.
Yes, the focus looks to be on my shirt rather than my eyes.  Obviously my head ended up being a bit higher up than my pillow had been.  The pillow was such a good model I didn't even take into account that it was shorter than I am.

Still, I feel it was a good start to my month long challenge.  And I already learned some new things!  Win win!