30 Til 30

Ashley Shope Photography
Oct 12, 2016
2 min read

A couple of weeks ago you got a glimpse of my "30 til 30" project, named after the idea of turning 30 on the 30th and celebrating with 30 days of self-portraits.

I've got to tell you, I am SO glad to be done with this! Man, I learned so much and I felt a new fire burn deep, but some days just lacked inspiration or time or confidence. Yes, confidence. This project was vulnerable for me. How many of you can say you LIKE your photo taken? and how many of you would show those photos to the public? I'm guessing the majority feels like I do and is totally self conscious and has at least one thing they hate about themselves. I tried to take those feelings and use them. Different days had different inspiration, like one day my sensory processing disorder was in high gear so I ran with it.

Overall, I am glad I got in front of the camera. It isn't easy, it's actually really difficult to look at yourself when you don't have a beautiful, perfect filter over yourself. Some days I wish I could walk around with those filters permanently on me! It is easy to only see your flaws and insecurities. Some days it was hard not to get super fancy (which I never did), I wore only the clothes I wear like every day and some days I. did. not. even. have. make-up. on.

And then, in the middle of this project, I stopped and thought about it...

I think it is safe to say that while I look at myself and see flaws and imperfections, other's look at me and see something else. Quite possibly, others might even see something beautiful.

Because I know that when I look at YOU, I see someone who is radiant, delightful, and yes even divine. This is not where I meant to take this project...It was not meant to be some kind of message to you or to me that we are exquisite. But let's face it, in a world with a million negative body image messages, we need one that is positive.

Whether it be your weight...