This is a pretty simple but truly special image for me. One a year (the day befor my birthday), I update my social networks profile picture and most of the time I want to take a self portrait for that. It's the very first time I face so many mixed feelings.
I've been quarantined now for two months, and nobody knows when this will be over. Tomorrow I will still be in lockdown, and then no way to share some great moment physically with my dear ones.
This morning when I wake up, I could watch that beautiful sunrise through my balcony. I wanted to have the photoshoot outdoor, laugh a little bit and show happiness in the new profile picture. But it'd be impossible to control ambient light, overpower the sun light, as I love to take a self portrait all by myself (otherwise, I think it's just a portrait).
Then I realized that I had that artificial flower in the kitchen. Yeah, it's flower in a crystal pot with coffee beans. Well, I placed my camera on a tripod, found a piece of furniture turned into a stool, had a sit and started to pose.
I felt something was left. Then I remember I also had at home some flour, which I used to draw a rustic facemask that give me a vague ressemblance to Hanibal Lecter (I shoud have laughed and let my teeth do the rest).
A f/2.8 aperture for 1/250s and ISO 800 help me 'gather' a could amount of light to have the photoshoot well done. I set the self time and every ten seconds I had to stand up, go check my facial expression was fine, until I decided to stay with the present image.
A quick Photoshop edition (Color Lookup), a little bit of Curves applied, and you have the final result.
Not the perfect shot, but a very special one to me.
