i have always been overly critical of my pics. especially anything where i’m not dressed fully. the last pic somebody took of me from the back in a bathing suit (back in 2001) had me looking like a fullback football player. i made sure i was in possesion of the negative and told my daughter i never want to see it again (needless to say, i stay out of bathing suits if i can help it). even thin i looked like a cow, big knobby knees and boney joints. now i’m just a fat cow. lol!

in the 80’s i did look pretty good and had a lot of fun dressing up to go out and dance all the time. cyndi lauper and madonna had nothng on me. but i still never felt sexy unclothed. sexy clothes always made me feel better in the past. now i just wear what fits me. lol! 

Our family albums have lots of pictures of everyone else, but as I tend to stay behind the camera, pictures of me are few.  When people have taken pictures of me, I rarely photograph well (which is probably what sent me running for the other side of the camera in the first place).  

I used to hide my face when another camera came in the room, but the older I get the less I care.  I don’t care if pictures are taken of me now.  I don’t really even care if the pictures turn out good or bad.  By this time I know that I’m not overly photogenic and I just relax - the funny thing is, I’ve found that once I’ve relaxed, the pictures have improved.  

I look good in my avatar

We don’t get our picture taken for ourselves. Photos are for memories, most of which are for others. For example, my father passed away almost 4 years ago. My daughter was just short of her 16th birthday so she will remember him well. My nephew was just shy of his 8th birthday, won’t remember him quite so well. My niece is turning 2 this month, they never got to meet. The pictures we have are precious to us for this very reason. We won’t always be here, the pictures we leave behind mean a lot to our loved ones. If you are camera shy GET OVER IT!

By the way, I hate having my picture taken but I am a good sport about it because I know how much those pictures mean to the people I love. Pictures of them mean that much to me, too.

I’m told that I’m photogenic, however I usually shrink away from the camera.  In the past, I used to think that it was weird to see myself in a photo or video.  I sympathize with actors who never see their complete performance in a movie.  But lately I’ve been using the camera to reclaim my confidence since losing all of my scalp hair to alopecia totalis last year.  I’ve taken photos of myself bald and posted them on a support group website.  

There’s a Dove soap commercial that emphasizes the need for girls to have a healthy self-esteem.  At the poignant end of the commercial a little girl says, "I promise to see myself as a beautiful person."  Thanks in part to the camera, I can too.

I am actually terrified of the camera. The only picture of me that I have ever liked is from the third grade. I am missing both front teeth. My darling mother "forgot" that it was picture day. My frizzy, fly-away hair, in two ludicrous pig-tails, is floating wildly everywhere, and I have a hideous, baby-poop colored, faux-velvet, clip-on bow in my hair that has gone completely crooked. I am wearing an awful, cheap cotton plaid dress (I despise plaid to this day). My eyes are so huge they dominate my entire otherwise small-featured, tiny face. I am sporting a ludicrous, defiant grin, one of the few pictures of me that show any kind of a smile.

Jean B, it is all very well to say "Get over it!", but when you spend all of your childhood and teen years being told by your classically beautiful, blonde haired, green eyed mother that you look like some homely provincial, peasant-type lump that just got off the boat, that you’re fat, that you walk like "a farmer" and that you’ll never measure up, it has it’s effect. When two husbands take the time to remind you that you’ll never be "movie star beautiful", but you’ll do, don’t ever carry pictures of you, criticize you’re appearance, constantly remind you of your physical inadequacies,  and say "why can’t you look like her?" it takes a toll as well.

As of now, I allow my picture to be taken, because my son likes it, but I never look at them. I see a monster when I do. I can look in mirrors and accept and love what I see, but not photos. Photogenic? I’m surprised the camera doesn’t break.

My driver’s license photo makes me look like a fugitive from a bad women-behind-bars movie. My photo ID for work has me looking like a somewhat demented cough-mixture addict. A recent digital photo taken by a friend depicts me as someone in desperate need of a comb and a long nap. Why is it that in every photo, my eyeglasses manage to be crazily askew? Can it be possible that my ears actually grow as they hear the click of the shutter? In a group shot, why is it that I always seem to have one eye closed? And in several shots, I have the startled look of someone who has just stepped in something terribly unpleasant.

But, tra-la, so be it. Instead of being photogenic, I will settle for having an "interesting personality".