This week's challenge is 'Creative Selfie'


If there's one photographic trend photographers (at least this photographer) despise it's the selfie. Google defines "selfie" as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." Selfies are generally poor quality images taken of one's self, often with something else in the background or most ubiquitously, taken in the bathroom mirror.
Selfies get a bad wrap as being the narcissistic musings of youth in a world where over sharing is king. In reality the selfie is just the modern day equivalent to the self portrait.
This challenge is in many ways the revisiting of a theme, seeing as "Self Portrait" was the theme of Weekly Challenge #116 back in 2009.
There are two main differences between this challenge and challenge #116. The first is the emphasis on creativity, and the second one being, in the spirit of the selfie, the image should be taken with the camera handheld, just like the smartphone selfie is usually done. Obviously camera phones are off limits for this challenge, so taking a handheld self portrait with your Pentax camera might not be as easy, but hey, this is the weekly challenge, is it not?
The selfies we see most often on social media and traditional media are pretty basic and bland pictures that usually say nothing more than "look at me!". Seen less often is the selfie being used as a creative means of expression. Those are my kind of selfie. Those are the kind of selfie I'll be looking for.
*Note, taking the photo handheld is not an absolute requirement, but extra points to those that actually do it*


This challenge will run until Wednesday May 21th at 8PM Pacific Time (UTC/GMT -7 hours). Let's see those selfies!

Every week, a new theme is picked and judged by the winner of the previous week.

Everyone is eligible to send in their best interpretation of the given theme, as long as the photo is taken with a Pentax/Samsung camera. Themes can be subject-oriented or technique-oriented.

Rules
1. Post ONE photo (max 1024x1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme (especially if it's not obvious).
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and choose one of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus an additional day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Any Pentax (or Samsung DSLR) camera can be used.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.
9. In case the winner of a challenge is unable to become the judge for the next challenge, they will PM the #2 winner for that person to be the judge.

Here's mine...

[Bruce Clark]

Self in WWII Search Light reflector, Darwin Military Museum.

[geomez]

Self in WWII Search Light reflector, Darwin Military Museum.

Really interesting results Bruce. I like that you kept the orientation as is. All the black inside the image circle, were those marks on the light reflector's optics?

[rbefly]

Hello Geomez,
interesting theme for this week, 'Selfies' are a much-maligned (with some justification) part of everyday life. In fact I've recently begun photographing scenes of people taking them! It's pretty funny, actually.
But photos of myself? Had to look pretty hard for those.
Here's the most recent, taken a couple of months ago. Wandering side streets downtown with the K-5 and plastic fantastic, I found a dimly-lit hallway leading to a REAL old-time Barber Shop and a watch repair shop. But so dark I had to crank the ISO to 3200 @ f/4.0 to get a decent shutter speed.
The mirror (and my reflection) were unavoidable, so I 'filed' the shot. Until now.
Ron

Attached Images

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[NaClH2O]

I'll play. The only selfie I have which I take almost every year, is of me reflected in a christmas tree ornament. Do it every year, sometimes they come out OK, sometimes not. Last year was a not, but 2012 wasn't too terrible bad.


NaCl(I've also got shadow selfies but I don't think they count)H2O

[Bruce Clark]

Really interesting results Bruce. I like that you kept the orientation as is. All the black inside the image circle, were those marks on the light reflector's optics?

Looking at it close up it looks like parts of the silver finish are missing, resulting in the black patches. Probably due to the age of the thing (70 odd years) and the fact it is sitting out in the open.

Thanks for your interest

[daacon]

This one for those people who may think I am washed up :-)

click on image twice for larger view (if you dare )

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Last edited by daacon; 05-15-2014 at 08:21 AM.

[mattb123]

I like to hang out with a lot of stars, doncha know.

[Tako Kichi]

I took this shot last week in our garden and I didn't realize I'd captured this selfie until I started pixel-peeping the focus on the snake's scales in LR5. Here's a heavily cropped shot so that you can see me (I am barely visible in the full photo).

[RollsUp]

[Cory Tarilton]

Put this up in a different thread here but it definitely fits this theme

[charliezap]

I hope that I have the bases covered with the criteria for this challenge.It is hand held. I used a Pentax camera.Hopefully it is considered creative. The only item that needs improvement is the subject matter but it is what it is and the camera doesn't lie. It was taken in a mirror and the image was mirrored.--charliezap

[Jacquot]

Cross post, but there's a selfie there...

[atupdate]

Heavy crop from a group photo I took using the self timer.



Tim

[Rense]

One shot, long exposure, flash 3x, from this series: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rensehaveman/sets/72157635332697978/