One of my followers on IG commented on how they could tell that my pictures were me instantly, because I had a signature pose! I thought about this a lot, because they are absolutely right! Other than acting headshots back in the day, I have never worked with a photographer, so whatever picture gets taken, is filtered through my own eyes! It’s me at my “best”.

There is a certain amount of planning that goes into my shots, and this is to try and draw focus from the parts of me that I am self-conscious about and instead get the viewer to focus on that parts of me that I feel better about. And of course from an advertising point of view, I want to show off the product in the best light as well – that is of course what I am trying to achieve.

You will no doubt notice some themes across my photography… For example, I elongate to full extension. At 6’2” I tend not to photograph on the shorter side, but the elongation stretches areas that may have a tendency to gather and instead shows them off to their sleekest aesthetic. I often extend an arm or create tension on a diagonal. I will almost certainly have a pointed foot too which helps show off the thigh muscles to their best. This isn’t all calculated, but when I go through the plethora of photos ready to feature, I get drawn to a similar pose and then the “signature pose” just develops from there.

I rarely photograph sitting down. I am too self-conscious about my stomach and when it gets compressed in the seated position, all I can see is that flaw. There are a few notable exceptions, but in order to post them, I would need to be having a great, body-positive day!

I struck me that maybe I am contributing to warped perceptions of body standards?! It has never been my intention to dupe my followers but maybe with my signature pose I am hiding a lot of my flaws – and that’s not real life is it?

I am going to try my best to not always default to what makes me feel most comfortable, and with that in mind I have taken some pics that push the envelope of what makes me comfortable. Maybe we should all try to take a little less control over the version of ourselves that we present over social media – and be a little less stringent over our edit!

Just a thought.

TIB