The glamorous truth...

Last weekend hubby and I headed to the QE Country Park for a photoshoot...now that might sound very grand and all kinds of Hollywood but in reality it was me having spent ages faffing with my hair (something I don't usually do) and eons putting on makeup (although I do wear makeup most of the time I don't often wear lots and rarely loud colour lipstick)...together with a pretty dress and a bag full of cloaks and headdresses, hubby armed with a digital camera.

Like a lot of women I DO NOT like having my photograph taken, I usually hate most of the photos and I get incredibly bored very quickly... thankfully I have an extremely patient husband (well he hasn't killed me yet). However with the book writing, talks and magazine articles that I do it makes photos of me an unpleasant necessity.

We ended up in a field at the top of the park between a yew tree grove and a beech tree grove (where we hold the Kitchen Witch rituals) and proceeded to make complete fools of ourselves with me posing by trees and hubby dancing about like some kind of David Bailey (for anyone not of my age...he was a famous photographer).

The weather was glorious, blue sky and bright sunshine - which apparently is not good for photos because it causes over exposure and shadows...but hey ho.

We provided much amusement for many dog walkers and families out for a picnic some of whom actually stopped and sat on a nearby bench to watch...and quite a few of the dogs came over to investigate too.

I must have looked fairly odd dressed in a cloak with flowers in my hair and carrying a huge staff and a cauldron...

The really glamorous event was me walking from one side of the field to the other and putting my foot in a hole...I fell spectacularly ass over elbow landing face down in the grass...

The reason I am sharing this experience with you is firstly to thank everyone on facebook for your very kind comments about some of the photos I shared, you guys are amazing but also because a few people have said "you are so lucky that you are photogenic"...now here is the truth...

Hubby took 429 photos that day...yes seriously...429
Over half of them were deleted on the first look through because they were over exposed, blurred or covered in shadows...
Another huge load of them were deleted when I looked through them because I didn't like them, the conversation went something like this:

Husband: What about this one?
Me: No...I look like a weasel
Husband: What about this one?
Me: No...I look really grumpy
Husband: What about this one?
Me: No...my face looks huge
Husband: What about this one?
Me: No...I have a double chin
Husband: What about this one?
Me: No...I look like a teepee (it was a whole moving cloak thing)

You get the idea...

So actually out of 429 photos we ended up with about 20 that I could live with and that's only because hubby insisted we keep them, out of those I only really like 2...

The other thing to mention is...when I said 'my face looks huge' hubby suggested that he could edit/photo shop the image to make it thinner.  My immediate answer was NO.  Although I might dislike most of the photos I want them to be the real me, so none of them have ever been 'mucked about with' nor will they ever be...

What you see is what you get...except with maybe a bit more lipstick than usual.

And I still hate having my photo taken...