That’s right. Time to start a new trend. Self-portrait Monday or SPM for short. We’ll see how long this actually lasts (me being notorious for not sticking with

What was I saying? Right, so Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are hands-down the best candy ever.

But enough about that. Let’s talk about portraits. So here’s the deal: I had just finished checking out a great book that Max showed me. It’s basically a huge hardcover filled with black-and-white portraits by Clay Enos of just about every character in Watchmen (the movie, smartass). They evoked such emotion using such a simple approach, it practically forced me down into the garage to shoot.

While I may have taken liberties with the lighting setup I was attempting to ape, I stuck with the shallow depth-of-field look from the books photos. Also, I didn’t have any cool costumes or period wardrobe, so I stole a hoodie out of the closet. Eh, better than nothing.

I was getting a little frustrated with my setup: my 105mm 2.8 is manual focus (looooots of trial-and-error), my Triggertrap dongle is slightly broken, and Lightroom still doesn’t support tethered capture with the D600 (really? WTF Adobe???). Needless to say, I didn’t get quite what I was looking for, but I really wanted to see what the 105 was capable of shooting portraits, plus it’s always fun getting back to shooting after being out of the game for even a short while. So there you go. Not quite Watchmen, but could definitely be the before shot at SportClips.

Scraggly self-portrait - SPM
Enlarge the scraggliness

Oh, and if you’re interested in Clay’s book, clickity-click here (though if you’re close to a Hastings, check there first–Max got his for ten bucks!)