52Frames Self Portrait Weekly Photo Challenge

I’ve been a member of the 52Frames weekly photo challenge going on four years. And at the start of each year the subject for the week is “self portrait.”  Since I am now beginning my seventh decade it seemed logical to show the progress for each decade. So I searched for youngster, middle age, and mature images over the years and photographed each. I started out with twelve. I don’t know why I spent so much time on this “project,” but it was very nostalgic. And it took a long time to figure out how it would be displayed. I very rarely just take a photo, edit it and upload it to the site. I have to turn everything in to a project. One afternoon was also spent trying to get a self portrait for this decade that would blend in with the ones before it. In the end a photo from the National gallery of art was edited and used as the background. A white frame and mat from our house was used as the consistent frame for all of the photos. Background colors and shadows were added. At the last minute I changed my mind and reconfigured the “beady brown eye gallery” to showcase the most recent photo since the subject was a self portrait of today. A pair of prince nez readers were added in. Then only six images were used for each of the first six decades. It was hard to compress your life in to seven images. Of course I’m not completely happy with the end result. But I’ve never spent this much time on any weekly subject before. I wonder what the next decade will bring?