Lost in the Story

As a lover of photography there was one area that I never expected to have difficulty with as a blogger… taking photos.

I spent most of my childhood behind a camera of some sort, ranging from disposable cameras when I was really little to my trusty Nickon with all the bells and whistles. I’m a collector of memories and capturing a moment forever is my main method of documenting my life. So when I started blogging I was more than comfortable with looking through a lens and capturing quality photos. But the more I got into the blogging community and the more I interacted with other bloggers and their content I began to notice a pattern forming. Not only were people churning out high quality photos, but their photos included them! Lifestyle bloggers particular often show the blogger themselves in their photos and look stunning in the process. As a camera-shy introvert with serious confidence issues, this poses a real problem to me as I’m not exactly willing to be in front of a camera without serious bribing and promise of coffee and cake afterwards.

This present me with a conundrum, is it possible to be a blogger and camera-shy?

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Of course anyone can blog, it’s so easy to set up your own one now a days.  However, to become a ‘successful’ blogger (whatever that means) your audience has to be able to connect with you to a certain level. Most people don’t want to read from an unknown figure in the vast internet, we’re social creatures and want to engage. I personally prefer to read blogs where I can see who wrote it, if that’s through an about me photo or a picture of them posting for the feature image. It adds some strength to their point as I feel I can connect more with the person. For this reason, I added a photo of myself for my about me section.

I feel like I’m less of a stranger on the internet and you guys will be more willing to interact with me as a friend than a anonoms writer. However, you’ll probably notice that I don’t show my face in the photo. My head is turned to the side and my bangs are purposely placed to cover my eyes. This by no means was an attempt to look edgy, I simply didn’t want to look dead into the camera because I magically turn into an awkward potato when I do.

I’ve been on here for almost 2 years and there’s just under 10 photos of me on here.

Do I think this affects my engagement?

Yup, one of my most viewed post is the one where there’s a picture of myself as the feature image. Instagram is even worse with 4 of my 5 most liked posts being pictures of me. People do seem to like seeing people in photos and I don’t blame them, it’s nice seeing the person behind the blog. But o you have to post photos of yourself to be a blogger?

I think it depends on what niche you’re in if I’m honest. If you’re a fashion blogger than it would be in your best interests to show the cloaths you’re talking about on a model. That modle can be you or a friend you’ve roaped in to help. Sure you can do gorgeous flat lays of the items but people will want to see how the fabrics lie on an actual body. So being camera-shy might be a bit of an inconvenience. On the flip side you can be a book blogger (I think these guys are some of the most friendliest bloggers going) and never show your face.

For me as a mix of all sorts kinda blogger, I wish I had the confidence to show my face more. I’d like to be able to take pride in my work enough to feel comfortable showing myself as the writer behind it. I understand that as a recovery blogger it wouldn’t have been appropriate to include pictures of myself whilst I suffered from anorexia. But now as a weight restored, recovered, happy hyperactive blogger I sometimes wish I wasn’t camera-shy.

Sure I think it’s a little vain to show yourself in every photo, but being a blogger can be a little vain. Just look at myself, I talk about myself a whole lot. But having the confidence to expose a pert of yourself to thousands of people who you’ve never met takes balls and that’s something to admire.

Being a camera-shy blogger can be fun sometimes and it doesn’t stop me from growing as a content creator all too much. I like the detachment from myself, that my posts won’t be judged by how I look but instead how well it’s wrote. Other times I do get annoyed with myself due to my lack of confidence with my work and that’s ok. Blogging is at its core about the words to speak and the stories you tell and being camera shy shouldn’t have an impact on anyone who wants to do that.

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So how about you, would you consider yourself to be a camera-shy blogger or do you enjoy the creativity you have in front of a camera? Let me know what your thoughts are, and if any of you have any tips on how to become more confident in front of a camera then please let me know!