These self-portraits are surprisingly fun to do - the first one I did was the reader, the second was a reader of caves. On one hand they are quite easy, since the model has quite a bit of patience and understands where to stand and what to do. But being ones own model has its drawbacks, since, well, I have to do everything.
The most interesting part though is the journey from idea to final image. I saw a photo almost exactly like this in my head, though as with most art, once I started working on it, it started to change (however slightly). The end result isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it's interesting in its own right - I'm very happy with it.
For the shot I setup my camera on a tripod, and I had an external flash back and to the side, sitting on a shelf (I would have put it on a second tripod, but I didn't have it with me). I had to use the timer on the camera to trigger the shot, and the exposure (all of the settings on the camera and the flash) started out with guess work, but after three or four shots I figured it out (interesting how with time one gets a feeling for the camera and can predict what will come out). The focus was set by the scale on the lens, though this was easier since the lens was very wide and the aperture closed, both of which lead to a very wide depth of field (that is, pretty much everything is sharp). Then all I had to do was fire off tons of shots, positioning myself in as best a position as I could each time.
Excellent!
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