Selfie? Not For Me

What is a Selfie? The Urban Dictionary defines Selfie as a picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort of social networking website. You can usually see the person’s arm holding out the camera in which case you can clearly tell that this person does not have any friends to take pictures of them so they resort to Myspace to find internet friends and post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves. A selfie is usually accompanied by a kissy face or the individual looking in a direction that is not towards the camera.

I just don’t get it, sorry. I wouldn’t want to break my neck, over stretch my arm muscles just to take a photo of myself and post it on Facebook. If I want a headshot, I would simply ask any person who is with me to take my camera or phone and take a picture.. This selfie-thingy is really not for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love pictures. I love taking photographs and being in them but to have a solo shot? Nada! I dare not be the center of attention. I’m not comfortable with that. I would rather have a group shot than a photograph whose focus is me.

When I was younger, you would never see me smile in any of our family pictures or class pictures in school. You could recognize me as the one with the poker face. Honestly, I don’t know how to smile in front of the camera.

In dental school, whenever my friends and I would take pictures of ourselves, they would always tease me because I’m the only one whose teeth does not show. Dental student? Not smiling? What’s up with that?

When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we had to search for a photographer. One of my mom’s friends recommended Jun Valbuena of Jun Valbuena Photography. We met him in his Manila studio back then and I noticed that he was not only very accommodating but was always smiling. As part of your package, Mr. Valbuena had to take a photo of us for our signature frame. This was super uncomfortable for me. I was so tense. I mean, this man is a professional photographer and I should give him the smile he needed. He kept on asking me to “smile” for the camera but I simply can’t. My nervousness was evident in the photos that he had to do an intervention 🙂 I had to confess that I don’t know how to smile, I’m uneasy. Smiling was not my thing. Seriously?! He just shrugged off what I said and coached me how to put on a perfects smile. After lots of practice shots, I got it!

During the wedding, every time photographers would take our pictures, I had to remember what Mr. Valbuena told me. When my friends saw our wedding photos, they were so surprised. For the first time, I was smiling in all of our photos. Come to think of it, I do look better when I smile. It’s nice to see myself looking happy on our wedding day.

Since then, you would rarely see me with that bearing that ol’ poker face on family photos. I would proudly show off my pearly whites in front of the camera. It’s normal for me now to take pictures with my husband, kids and friends but taking a selfie shot is still taboo for me and I don’t need a coach for that 🙂