So this here is an anti-fashion blog. If you read the About page, we promote ourselves as that with some other home, DIY and food related content. But if you were to read all our posts so far, it’s not so much about fashion as it is everything else.
There’s a few reason for this, number one being that neither Andrea or I have boyfriends and therefore cannot coerce someone into taking photos of us on a regular basis. Sure, Andrea and I could go ahead and take each other’s photos but when we see each other we generally don’t feel like we’re in photographic outfits. Or it’s after a long day of work/school. Or our hair isn’t done. We have about hundred and seventy-five different excuses for this.
Another reason is that we cannot take it seriously when we’re trying to photograph each other. For example, the photos below:
I was try not to laugh as I stared in the distance and Andrea did this pose that I later said would make a perfect album cover if she was wearing all white and in a boy band.
I think both of us just can’t take a serious photo. I know myself (and Annie has mentioned this too), that it’s not just about being self conscious about our bodies, but that others may see us and think we’re ridiculous. Just like I did when I saw a fashion blogger out taking photos in the middle of a busy downtown street.
It’s weird, because neither of us embarrass that easily so this is a bit new to us. Now we’re both working on becoming more ok with photographing ourselves for the blog and then hopefully fashion posts will actually come.
While we’re on the topic, another thing that is awkward is selfies.
This week we forced ourselves on two separate occasions to take selfies and both times were careful that no one walking by was looking at us.
I think my own issue with selfies is that they just seem incredibly selfish and self involved. No one needs to see an instagram stream full of your face. And you don’t need a selfie to prove you were somewhere.
Take for example, my photos below.
I took these photos a few weeks ago while walking around Granville Island (a non-island in Vancouver that has a kick-ass market and is a tourist hotspot). The photos are of the same view, the Burrard Street bridge and False Creek (a non-creek). Only my giant head is obstructing one of the views.
I feel like if I were to show the photo on the right to people, they would believe I was there without having to have seen me in the photo. With the one on the left people are stuck looking at my forehead rather than the beautiful Pacific Ocean.
It should also be pointed out that while taking the selfie I was trying to do it secretly, so there were no extended arms or not much of a smile. As I said, this is a tourist hotspot and I wasn’t about to let everyone know what I was doing. Nor did I want people to think I was a tourist.
And I think that this makes me not want to take more selfies, I worry about looking like an idiot with arms outstretched and smiling all alone. So I take secretive selfies from angles that Kim Kardashian would never go near.
I wish I could be more ok with it. And I’ll work on it in the name of blogging (I’M DOING THIS FOR YOU, READERS!) Hell, I wish I could be ok with a selfie stick to help take these photos, because the angles would be better and they’d look less like a selfie. But I’m not ever going to be ok with a selfie stick (true story: a friend of mine admitted to buying one recently and I couldn’t look at her/talk to her for five minutes).
Do you have any tips for taking awesome/non-embarrassing selfies? Any tips for (anti) fashion bloggers and how to stage a photoshoot?
The Rill Girls 