Let Me Take The Picture.

Does anyone else cringe when someone says they want to take a picture of you? No? Just me?

Look, my reaction to the phrase, "Let's take a picture!" is justified. Here are the reasons why:

1. I'm tall - 5'9-ish - and am usually taller than everyone around me, including the people taking the pictures. That means that every single shot is taken with the camera pointing up so it looks like I have a minimum of 3 chins.

2. I've been subjected to my mother taking pictures and that usually involves poorly timed snaps that catch me in the middle of answering her when she aks, "What button do I push?".

3. Poor staging. On more than one occasion, I've been stuck in the middle of a group of people and ended up looking like a human lighthouse.

4. Crappy lighting. I don't know if it's because I'm closer to the ceiling than most people, but if I'm indoors, I end up looking gray and washed out. It makes me sad.

5. Photography is one of my hobbies. I analyze the hell out of pictures and have to stop myself from editing everything in Photoshop or Lightroom.

6. My self-esteem isn't always the greatest. I have days where I feel confident about how I look, but also have days where I feel like crap. Those days often tend to coincide with the arrival of less-than-perfect snapshots that give me an extra chin, dark shadows, and lazy eye.

Here are some helpful to not have Gina look like a maniac in pictures:

1. Try not to tilt the camera up at me and we can avoid me looking like I'm going to eat you with my 3 chins.

2. Don't let my mother get her hands on a camera.

3. I need to be on the end, people.

4. Consider lighting. Sometimes it's bad. If it's bad, we need to move.

5. Remind me that I'm not Annie Leibovitz.

6. Just let me take the damn picture.