Leap Day Shadow

I've been getting a lot of creative ideas while working on my website update & redesign (which I'll soon start to roll-out). One of the things I've been pondering is adding an "about me" or "bio" page. A bio page would need some kind of photo of me on it, so I'll include my TRON image. I love that image of me because TRON is my favorite film and that was my little nerdy way of being a part of it. Perhaps instead I should go with a really goofy photo or maybe something crazy. I can't just put up a regular photo - that would be so NOT me. To be honest, I don't even like getting my picture taken. That may sound odd since my image is all over my website and then some, but it's true. That's why I started the tongue-face thing back in my teens. I hate when people snap photos of me, so I give them a little more than they want. ;-)

Maybe I should try to do a more serious photo of me. But I can't do that - I hate posing for "regular" photographs. I feel so damn goofy just being all "normal" like that. How boring. How lame. How NOT me. Perhaps I can do a serious photo that isn't just a regular photograph, but something with its own mood and feel to it. Something with a skeleton in the image - I love skeletons.

I decided to have my photograph taken against a plain background, lit from one side, and see what kind of shadow might be cast. I would add the distorted profile of a skeleton faintly to the shadow, as if the light had x-ray properties and cast a shadow of my skeletal structure on the wall. In the end, I just went for a high-contrast, grainy B&W photograph with an accented hyper-shadow. Click the thumbnail to see the result.

I thought it was a good self-photograph. It's not silly or goofy looking (at least not to me) and it doesn't have that straight-forward boring photo look. There's a dark feel to it and I like that. It's even a touch artsy. I doubt I'm the first one to do a high-contrast, grainy, B&W shadow-shot like that, but I don't care. I dig it. What I dig even more, is that it was taken on leap-day, February 29, 2008. People like to make a big deal out of leap-day for some reason. I don't care to, but I do like the fact that this particular photo of me was taken on leap-day - a day that only occurs once every 4 years. It got me wondering if that is how often I will allow my more serious side to show through in self-imagery. I'll just have to wonder, because right now I have no idea. That's just how I felt today. Tomorrow will elicit many thoughts and emotions I can't even begin to predict today.