Perpetual Plan B

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Facebook Photos


I have a good friend who has a new facebook photo almost every week. How does she do it? She looks beautiful in ALL of them. Of course she IS beautiful, both inside and out, but that's not the point. The point is, HOW does she do that? (Kristi, if you are reading this, I'd really like an answer.)

I'm lucky to have the one decent profile pic that I do have. I think the reason I don't like most pictures of me is because of my hair. Morgan says I am obsessed with hair. (Just because she was telling me about her hurt toe and I absent mindedly cut in with a "Do you think I should change my bangs?", doesn't exactly mean I'm obsessed. Maybe just a little sidetracked. Once I get the hair under control I'll quit thinking about it. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened since 2005. And, unfortunately again, we don't have many photos to document my good hair days.)

Somewhere I saw an interview with the people who started facebook. One thing they said that they thought was interesting is that people always put on the most flattering shot ever taken of them for their profile picture, whether it was recent or a "few" years old. Um..... GUILTY. My photo is from when my son was two and he will start 1st grade this month. And, to be honest, I don't think I ever really did look like that in real life. I keep trying though..... I told Morgan they need save that photo to use for my obituary. (I did think it was pretty amusing hear that in the interview though. I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one who has a picture that is a few years old, and with good reason.)

Really though, wouldn't you rather have people meet you in real life and have them say, "You look so much better in person than you do in your photo."? I'm always afraid people are going away, after seeing me, thinking, "Boy, she looks a lot better in the photo. Not so good in person. She must have been PhotoShopped." So, maybe the strategy should be to post a bad (or at least not real good) photo of yourself so people are pleasantly surprised when they see you at the grocery store on a Saturday with no makeup on and you still look better than your profile picture.

Maybe it's time to stretch myself a little bit and move out of the comfort zone of my familiar facebook photo after all. As soon as I can find my darn camera or get my family to a portrait studio (or a neighbor with a camera phone) I may have to get brave and post an updated photo. I will. Really, I will.


Just as soon as I can grow out this poodle perm. (It's a long story. Some day I may be able to tell it without crying.)



P. S. Now might be a good time to reveal my secret identity. It's another photo from a few years ago, but it might explain a lot:




That's right, folks. Before my son was born, I used to be a Smurf.