Summer of the Selfie | Take Photos of Yourself

I took a whole bunch of selfies this summer (and I think you should too) -- here are a few of my favorites.

Our biggest goal this summer was to experience Michigan and the surrounding area as much as possible. So over the past three months we did a lot of adventuring. We went all over Michigan, we went to Chicago twice, and even checked out northern Indiana.

My second biggest goal this summer was so set myself up so that I could successfully document all our awesome adventures; both during the summer and after the summer was over. One of my biggest problems in years past had been a disconnect from my photos. I found that I was taking a ton of photos of things I did, but by the time I got around to documenting the stories, they had lost a bit of their spark. I feel less than inspired to extrapolate personal stories, or remember exactly why I snapped that photo to begin with.

My solution was to take a ton of selfies. I tried to take a selfie or two each time I was taking other memory-keeping photos. By taking a photo of myself in that place, having that adventure, I do a much better job of remembering how I felt, the things I was thinking about, and the little moments that made that adventure special. By documenting myself having the adventure, it was much easier to remember the adventure, and what makes it worth documenting.

I have a post coming up later this month with more thoughts and words and photos about our summer adventures, but today I want to share my favorite summer selfies. I learned a lot about myself this summer -- my first summer here in this new place, in this new Midwestern life.

I made it a point to take a lot of selfies this summer. I used different settings, different angles, different locations. Sometimes I'm wearing glasses, sometimes I'm all dressed up, and in one of the shots I look like absolute garbage because I had been ugly crying for about two hours. These shots are all a part of my story.

Join me in selfie solidarity with my #Thursday3 photography challenge -- snap a picture, caption it with 3 right-now about you facts, post it to your favorite community (mine is instagram) and tag a few friends to play along.