I take a lot of selfies. I do. I admit it. Is it something I’m necessarily proud of? Maybe not. Is it something I’m ashamed of? Definitely not. As a person who is the primary photographer in my life [and that of my family], if I didn’t take selfies there would be almost no photos of me ever.

Thus I began taking photos of my nephew and me just after he was born in 2007. We spent a couple hours together every Tuesday. I took a zillion photos of him and since babies grow and change so quickly at that age, at first I was content just to document that. But then I realized I was only capturing part of the story. Tuesdays were about the TWO of us. Not just him alone.  There were no other adults present, so it was selfie or nothing if I wanted to be able to scrapbook the story of these afternoons.

Since then selfies have exploded as social media has come into the forefront of our lives. We tweet. We post to Facebook. We Instagram. We share our lives with friends (and strangers), and a big part of that is sharing photos.

Let’s face it, seeing a photo to show you what your friend is up to is infinitely more interesting than hearing their description of it…especially when your friend is likely typing said status update on a cell phone and it’s filled with all sorts of interesting typos.

I go back and forth on how I feel about selfies though clearly I’m more in the “it’s cool” camp than not given my social media track record. Maybe this just a purely selfish venture but here are some great reasons you should take selfies:

• Sometimes there’s no one else around. Just you and something cool that you want to share or just remember. If the “thing” itself is photo worthy then maybe a selfie isn’t required. But sometimes you just want/need to capture the fact that YOU were there.
• Little kids can’t always be trusted with cell phones or cameras.  I love taking pictures of my nieces and nephews but sometimes they also like ME to be in some of the pics too. And quite honestly sometimes I like being in the shot with them. If there’s no other adult around and you’re trying to capture the fun of the moment, a tripod/timer situation just isn’t going to cut it (kids’ attention spans just aren’t that long), which leaves you only one other option- a selfie.
• Sometimes you have something so exciting you just want to share it now- that new outfit you put together but you’re running late for work. Selfie!
• Having YOU in your photo albums is important. There are far fewer photos of my mom as compared to my dad, my brother and me in our family albums. Why? Because Mom was often behind the camera. I wish I had more photos of her. If she took selfies with my brother and me as kids I can promise you I’d treasure those!
• Because you can choose how you look! If your significant other, friend or kid takes your photo it can and often will be done from a very unflattering angle. But if you control it, you can fiddle until you get it where you want it! Totally within your control!

Next Time on the Selfie Series

In the next installation, by popular demand, I’ll give you some of my favorite tips to take a better selfie. It’s nearly as easy to take a good selfie as it is a bad one– if you know what you’re doing!