In 2019 I spent a majority of my time taking self-portraits with my family and fine tuning my craft. I LOVED being able to capture myself and my family with professional photos and our every day lives. This is actually one of the first times, in a long time, that I took self portraits and it just so happened to be while in another state for a destination wedding.

Location: Boulder Colorado

Dress: Balticborn (heres a similar dress)

How I take self-portraits

I love my Canon R5 and the Canon Camera Connect App!

I connect my phone via Wifi or Bluetooth and can use my phone to nail focus, set timers, and change settings like ISO, shutter speed, and more.

The Canon Camera Connect is a free app for download on Android and iOS devices. To get started, head to the Play Store or the App Store and hit Install. It can work with many types of cameras including the PowerShot series and mirrorless series.

I start by taking a few test shots and seeing if I like my settings. I do a few different poses and then try to move my camera to a new position for some variance, we don’t need a million photos in the same pose.

After I get the shots I like, I then make sure I get some without me in them so I can overlay them or use them as a double exposure style in photoshop. This helps make sure I have a variety of images instead of the same framing and the same posing. (like the cover photo for this blog post!).

Here are some of those photos used for double exposures:

Just remember:

It’s okay if the camera focuses on the background or foreground instead of the subject, it still ends up supper cool!

Take your time, there will always be an opportunity to take more.

Lastly, improvising is key! Forgot your tripod? no worries, use the hood of your car or utilize your camera strap and secure it to a tree! Possibilities are endless.

Behind the scenes cell phone photos of the location and setup I used:

Note how I used the lens hood as a mini tripod and then grass to further elevate/ provide depth to the images.

Here are some quick end results:

These are not perfect by any means or the most perfect series of self-portraits but give an example of what you can do without a tripod and a large amount of determination!