Cross posted from my intern blog over at LeahandMark.com

To make up for my lack of shooting during my vacation last week, I decided that I would be my own punishment.

I’m not the easiest subject – I hate being on that side of the camera, have very few good angles and a lot of bad ones, salt and pepper hair, uneven skin tone, my nostrils that don’t match (size or shape) and I have scars from a smooching incident with a Pekingese when I was 5. All this, with the addition of trying to light myself and focus when not behind the camera made for a perfectly painful challenge.

I was probably at it for 45 minutes before I tweeted:

Trying to do something and sucking wildly at it.

I kept at it. Moved the flash closer, leaned in, turtled my neck, stared at the lens, *click click click*.

Eventually, I arrived at these, which I’m pretty happy with. It’s not every day a picture of me is taken that doesn’t make me shudder, and this alone is one of the reasons I love photography and want to learn from Leah and Mark. That feeling? I want other people to have it, and I want to be the one who gives it to them.

We all deserve to feel beautiful.