Marilyn Botta Photography

Self Portraits

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I have been taking very close up self-portraits using a macro lens. These are the latest ones I took. I think they reflect my mood at the time I did the photo. In one I am contemplative, and I think the other one with the broken glass perfectly depicts my general feelings about life lately.I named it Just Everything. They are not the most flattering photos, but this was me in July 2022.

Hair at Last

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After losing my hair during 3.5 months of chemotherapy for breast cancer, I was pleased to finally see my hair coming back. It started on the sides and back of my head and I looked like a man with a fringe of hair around my head but it finally covered the back and top of my head. It will take a long time to grow it back to the long layered look that I had before chemo but it is on the way. At this point I will settle for a pixie look as long as the front can be combed into bangs. I know I must be patient but here are a few self portraits I took. The one with the flowers in the front with bare shoulders was taken naked with the flowers covering what I need to keep private. The black and white shots had no pink in my hair, but I added the pink in Lightroom.

Shawl

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I went to Goodwill, which is my go-to store for finding props for photography. Sometimes I do not find anything unless I am very specific about what I am looking for. But, the other day, I just decided to browse and get inspired in case I found a treasure–and a treasure I did find. All of a sudden I saw this lovely shawl that kind of had a Mexican-like motif. It sort of looked biblical as well. It is really beautiful and I snatched it up for a mere $2.50. So, I had an idea that I would take some self-portraits yet again (since I live alone and it sucks when you want to get images of people) and that was what I had in mind. I wanted the shawl to drape around my head and body. It’s big so I could do it. I thought of draping it around my bald head but decided to put on my wig.

Self Portraits Feb 2021

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I decided to do some self portraits in February 2021. These were taken in my little studio upstairs. Hopefully I will be taking some portraits of other people. I’m a very cooperative subject. The first one is very reflective of what I was going through at the time.

Self Portraits

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I decided to take some self-portraits in my home studio using strobe lights. I set the camera on a tripod, fixed the lighting, and used the shutter release. It was not easy getting myself at the right height, but finally, success.

Portraits

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These Portraits were taken in my upstairs photo studio using new lighting equipment.

I took these portraits after taking an indoor lighting class. To take the self-portraits, I set up my tripod with my Nikon camera mounted on top, set the backgrounds, used a special release device, set the camera, focused and sat down. It was a process, but I believe the self-portraits came out very nice.

My friend volunteered to have her portrait taken as well. I think the results are quite good. Of course, I will gain skill and will be perfecting my techniques with time.

Marilyn Botta is a writer, and amateur photographer. She recently became interested in digital photography and is constantly perfecting her craft. Please visit her Blog: https://awomanspeaksout.com for some interesting commentary about life.