For the sake of defining "Selfie", I'll state that selfies are photographs that don't involve an additional person behind the camera operating the controls. There are two types of selfies I'm familiar with. Often, when Virginia and I are out on our excursions, we'll use the iPhone to capture a quick photo of us in front of a memorable location that we want to share with the kids. These photos are often characterized by several qualities. I’ll use the photo below as an example:

We took this photo at the Grand Canyon last month. iPhone selfies are usually very closeup because my arm is only so long, and I extend it as far as I am able. In almost all my selfies like this, my shoulder is in the bottom right corner. If you look at Virginia, her eyes are directed at the camera. Mine on the other hand, are offset because I’m looking at the control button to snap the photo. These are very presentational photographs. They are formal, they don't necessarily tell a story, and they are usually static. This image captures a moment in time and simply says, "hey, we're at the Grand Canyon".

My daughter Sarah and her husband Matt blog about their life living in a van and traveling the country climbing, hiking, skiing, and anything else that involves outdoor living. You can find them on Instagram at @thebuslife and simplymountainpeople.com. I've enjoyed their posts over the years and I particularly like their selfie compositions. While we were enjoying downtime at a family reunion this weekend, I asked Sarah to run me through the steps of setting up one of her selfies. This type of selfie involves a little more work. First, it requires the use of a tripod to hold the camera, and a self-timer to trip the shutter release. The self-timer is a common control on most cameras these days. Whereas the image from the Grand Canyon was a simple one-off snap, staged scenes necessitate multiple exposures to get everything right. We set the scene up, evaluated the compositional balance, moved objects around, and placed ourselves in the scene. Because the camera is not at arm's length, Sarah and I are more deeply imbedded in the scene. After each snap, we'd run back to the camera, evaluate how "natural" we look, reset and do it again. We repeated each scene 6-8 times before we felt we had a good image, and then moved onto the next.

I chose a career that placed me behind the scenes and not on stage. I've never liked being "the actor". Even a simple exercise with my daughter made me self-conscious before a camera. It was good to have several goes at it to allow me the opportunity to relax. I found these mini scenes to be fun, and a lot more narrative than simply holding up an iPhone. Extra points for using a dog and a 5-year old. Maybe in the months ahead, I'll get Virginia to play along with me.