Okay so here it is. From a headshot photographer to every one of you. Here is why you feel so uncomfortable in front of a camera.

There is a number of facets to being photographed that makes feel the way we feel when being photographed.  One of which is when you look in the mirror, you localise your vision to eyebrows, mouth or whatever else you’re working on in the mornings. The thing is your looking at yourself backwards. So from the get go, you’re seeing yourself wrong. When we look at a photograph of ourselves, we see what others see….. with a twist.

What’s the twist? Well, we live in a fault based society and are natural problem solvers. When something doesn’t add up, we search for answers. So when you see a photograph of yourself, it is the wrong way round. Instantly your brain searches for an answer . So your eyes search your face for things that look wrong

Thats when we see things we don’t like. Things that stand out when you see your face the other way round.These things are our FedEx arrow.  The FedEx Arrow is in the logo. Between the E and X. One of those things we don’t see until we are shown.  In many ways this logo is representative of how we see ourselves and how others see us. Nobody looks at the arrow directly, most don’t even know it’s there.  The same as when we look at each other. We see familiar faces. Not the minute flaws we see in ourselves.

So when you see a photograph of yourself, yes you are seeing what others see, but you are focused on your own arrow, the one thing hidden that nobody else sees.

This is one of the main reasons people don’t like to be photographed and something we use when shooting headshots. Understanding this, and expression changes how people see themselves, feel about themselves and starts to help them enjoy and own their own experience.

Check out my headshot..

My headshot above, straight from the camera. So what do you see. Truth is you saw a face. Two eye a nose and a mouth. Looking fairy happy with myself being photographed by the worlds top headshot photographer.

Now look again. Did you see my left eyelid is heavier than the right? How about the hair follicle causing a bump between my eyebrows? Ears are big enough you had to have noticed them? How about the missing chunk from my right ear? My nose is bent and has a bump on the side you saw that?
Truth be told, the only thing I see in photographs is that the left side of my mouth, is slightly lower than the right. You didn’t see that either.

How you walk in the skin you wear is your decision. Why not embrace it? What other choice do you have?