Smile Pretty For The Camera! (Or Don’t, It Can Fix That)

I’ll be the first to admit that the photos you see of me or the bands I’ve photoed for Buzznet, you’re not seeing the straight-from-the-camera result. You’re seeing something I’ve edited, sometimes a quick crop, clean and go, sometimes a little more than that.

So it’s not really the fact that the new LUMIX FX77 has modes to whiten teeth, fix your skin, remove dark eye circles, make your face SMALLER or add make-up to your face. Granted, that seems like a bit MUCH to me, but I’m spoiled over here with my Photoshop.

Mostly, it’s the reason the camera like this was made. The reason, stated by one of the project managers, “According to data we’ve acquired, around 50 percent of our digital camera clients are not satisfied with the way their faces look in a photograph.”

Okay, you know, I can kind of understand. But at the same time, my solution to this problem is a little different…and would also cut into Pansonic’s profits from this camera. But here it goes:

Learn to love your face.

Seriously. I’m trying to do it and I’m urging you to do it as well. When people say they don’t like their faces, I’m willing to bet it’s because they don’t look the way we’re told we’re SUPPOSED to look: flawless, made-up, thin (but not TOO thin), and we should make it all look effortless. And honestly, that’s not possible.

The Beauty Myth is really ridiculous and I’d rather see us saving our money and learning to love ourselves than dumping it into cameras that will “fix” what’s wrong with us in photos.

What’s wrong with us is being told we’re wrong. Screw that.

In fact, in that spirit, here’s me, unedited.