I have never been a natural in front of the camera – preferring to remain on the other side of the lens. In school group photos I always snuck to the back, and in family photos the one pulling the face, yes you’ve guessed it, that was me. When I worked in video production as a producer and scriptwriter, I occasionally appeared in shot, but only the back of my head as I filled in as an extra.
Obviously with the rise of social media a photo is a necessity – but from my point of view an evil one. So when someone mentioned every photo of me on the Internet was the same, a picture of me positioned ‘casually’ in front of a bush, I decided it was time to ‘go professional’ with local photographer Matt Austin from Lyme Regis.
Matt is just brilliant at portrait photography, so I made the booking and wondered what he’d manage to make of my slightly careworn face. I was terribly nervous and afterwards my jaw ached from smiling, but when the photos arrived in my Dropbox, I was speechless – and impressed.
I posted a photo on Facebook, just to test the reaction. Around 90 likes later it seemed that everyone loved the new look me – and there weren’t too many rude comments about Photoshop and kind lighting.
I’d also recommended Matt to a theatre group, and the shoot he did for their show, The Voyage of the Viqueens, resulted in some stunning images. They may not be a professional group, but they certainly look it in the photos. And I’d thoroughly recommend going to see the show at The Beehive in Honiton in November.
Now all I have to do is live up to my new photos, which luckily include shots of me in wellies with one of my dogs, which is pretty close to the norm.