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Since I’ve been cross dressing I take a few photos of myself. I have hundred of them now and I find it extremely useful and an excellent way to visualize my progress toward being the most beautiful I can be. It helps me see how others see me and it gives me a more objective way of seeing how my outfits look and the sometimes terrible job I do with makeup. 😃
The question I have for you is how many of you girls use photographs to “see” yourself more objectively? I usually take a few portraits and some full body shots. It’s helped me identify some nice outfits and improve my makeup skills.
Lea
@leainvancouver Thank you, Lea, for starting this topic. I take lots of photos when I'm dressed up, or have my Daddy take photos of me. One of the reasons why I enjoy cross-dressing is to model for photos. I'm the same way, Lea. I have hundreds of photos of myself, and it's a good way to see how you look and how you have advanced. I have some of my favorite photos in my private photo gallery. I love to model. ♥️
Rev
Hi Rev, Ian a guy I was allergic to cameras but Lea loves having her picture taken. She’s very different from the guy in her. I was a bit discouraged when I started taking photos because I don’t look how I felt inside, perhaps I was a bit insecure too. When I lo9k back I can all the strides I’ve made and feel much more like how I feel.
Lea
@leainvancouver Understood. Thanks for sharing. My feminine alter ego (Revel) is different too, but in a very happy, positive way. When I transform, I'm instantly happy looking. I love to capture how I feel, showing my happiness on camera. Keep up the good work taking photos, sister. Practice makes progress. 🙂
Rev
Yes, Yes, Yes! To see where I started and where I am now and all I have learned I feel good
I feel the same way. As that other person I always want to be behind the camera but Lauren loves getting in front of the camera. Good way to see what works and what doesn't. Also shows how I've progressed over the years (for the better I hope!)
@leainvancouver I started to take photos pre digital so was careful to take pictures wisely as they had to be taken to be developed at the store. That was a bit nervy when picking them up but then came digital and home computers, hurrah!
I took loads and loads and used them to see how I looked and was a great help to seeing what was right or wrong. It was almost obsessive but eventually I began taking less being prompted by friends that told me I looked fine and that taking lots of photos while out was a bit OTT, I do not take as many now. Strangely since the advent of phone cameras everyone else seems to be going crazy..
@ab123 with phone cameras you can put filters and fun animations on them to upload them to Facebook and tic tok. Sometimes I wonder why I ever cared what people thought of me. 🙂
@leainvancouver Like most I to have many photos of myself dressed femme. I remember in the early days I would take pics and then look at them later that day to only delete them a short time later. Now I have 100’s of photos. I use them to check out what I’ve worn lately, to see what looks good together and which heels I wear most.
@cdashley taking pictures of your outfits is a really good idea. Do you get ideas for making other combinations when you look at them?
@leainvancouver I just have to remember to hide them immediately. When you open your camera roll to show someone a picture and one of those spicey/sexy/CD you/not the real you shows up you won’t ever forget to hide them again. I promise you. This person never asked any questions so I’m praying my fingers worked fast enough and they didn’t see or catch it . Thank goodness I use small thumbnails
@marshella you can alway say it was your sister or if it’s too spicy, well then leave it to their imagination! 😃
I've taken a few pictures, but it's not easy without a magic phone! I've done a few mirror shots, but for some reason they never quite look right - either I have to "hide"my face (good thing, most would say) behind the camera, or I have to hold the camera down low and the upwards angle makes me look like a haughty, self-important lady; not two situations I really like... Holly XXX
@hottestwitch I’ve seen your photos…you are neither haughty nor do you look ‘self-important’. You are a very photogenic, beautiful lady!
Hugs
Christine
@leainvancouver
I'm the same way Lea. I love taking pictures to see how I look in my different outfits. If I go out in public I also take alot of pictures. They bring back nice memories.
Daphanie
@leainvancouver I clicked rarely but that's now .
Before I came out I took loads . I think it's because I couldn't dress fully regularly which is completely the opposite to now . The pictures reminded and calmed me with reference to happy times whereas now I'm livimg what the photos represented and they've been superceded x
@kayt I've found this as well Kay.
Having only a few stolen hours when I could dress fully with makeup and everything, I found it important to preserve those moments and I would take loads. These days, having no restrictions as to when and how I can dress, and thus spending most of my time in fem-mode, I find it less important.
I do take a few from time to time, although not having a decent camera/ phone anymore (bad phone 'upgrade' choice!) is part of it as well.
Sometimes however, as I'm removing my makeup before bed, I regret not having taken any pics if I think I looked particularly good that day.
Hi Lea, thanks for the post. I take quite a few pics when I'm dressed. 90 percent of them are taken by friends. I belong to 3 Trans girl social groups so what ever the venue is I get my girl friends to take some pics for me. I'm also a contributor on a fairly well known Trans girl blog so I usually write a post after any function I go to and the blog always has pics included. So i have lots to review prior to posting them.
@trish1980 that’s wonderful you’ve found 3 trans social groups. Most of us would be lucky to find one! Keep up the great work.
@leainvanco
yes, I’m a very lucky girl. In joining those groups I found 2 girls who live in my home town so we go shopping together every couple of weeks and then go to our fav pub for happy hour which is a great way to end day.
Trish ❤️
It is an essential process of validation to record my appearance, particularly seeing all the effort that goes into a proper makeover. The main reason I take so many is that statistically one of them will be good enough for posting.
I have taken a few pictures just to see what I look like in some clothes.
Otherwise, nothing to see here, so I don't have many.
Before I started going out, I'd get dolled up and take LOTS of photos. In part to get different poses, but also because I knew I wouldn't like 75% of them lol
Since I started going out, I rarely have time to snap any before I head out and am usually too busy socializing to remember to take any while out. So usually I just snap a few in my post-event, bedraggled look. 😆
you go girl! I’m all dressed up with no where to go and lots of time so I take lots of pictures.
I look forward to when i feel comfortable enough in my heels to not to have to take a picture of me in them!
Lea
I have at least 100 photos of Caty on seveal USB stick. Going back to my early dressing days in my 40's. I'm nearly twice that now...
When hair make up and outfit come together, I look at them all as say to myself. "Hello caty how are you today".
Caty.
Hi Caty,
Photos are be a lovely reminder of everything we did that brought out our beautiful selves.
Lea
When I was a teenager in the 70s I had an inexpensive 35mm SLR. One day when both my parents were out, I took about a dozen photos of myself. I attached my camera to my dad's tripod, set the timer and posed. I had two similar outfits: a shiny peach blouse with a maroon pencil skirt, and a shiny royal blue blouse with a light grey pencil skirt. Shiny blouses and pencil skirts were fashionable in the mid-70s! Thinking about it now, those clothes must have been the first ones I ever bought new. My wig was also new, a good quality one from Fenwick in Newcastle, in a typical 70s style. I remember paying £36 for it. But I digress...
Sadly I don't have those pictures now. My first purge happened within a year of taking them and, to my lasting regret, all my pictures were part of that purge. I'd love to be able to look at them now.
Digital photography is definitely a big advantage these days!
I had a similar camera but didn’t use it to take pictures of myself. I could develop my own black and white but for colour you had to send them to a lab, often an issue if the clerk opens your photos and rifled through them to count them, never mind the expense!
I’m a huge fan of digital pictures too!
Lea
The only reason I sent off that roll of film to be developed was because of an item I'd seen on a TV programme. The item seemed to say that film processing labs employed only blind people, because they wouldn't be judgemental with people's photographs. I know that's an appalling thing to say. I realised a long time later that it was probably a "joke" item which I'd mistaken for fact, naively believing that no one at the lab would see those photos of me in women's clothes.
I got a Polaroid Instamatic camera when they came out, but it didn't have a timer on.
That must have been a joke so people would send their intimate photos in so lab technicians could have does and giggles. Writing that reminded me of when they had those instant processors that some places had in the 80’s where you could watch the roll of pictures thread out of the machine before the were cut. Anyone walking by could see everyone’s photos. There wasn’t much privacy in those days.
Lea
I'm sure you're right. I remember feeling highly embarrassed about it when I realised years later how daft a notion it was. Especially when photos often came back with those stickers on saying they were underexposed or whatever. Computers weren't that clever back then!
I so enjoy taking pictures, and is an integral part of my overall CD experience! This is a stark difference from my male self. I disdains pictures of my male self, but as Kris, I embrace and relish it. I like to see how various outfits look and usually take a few after I get a new outfit, they are just mine to evaluate. I take MANY when settling on an outfit or look, and enjoy posting them and hearing from others - a great way to begin to make connections too. I find looking at photos by others quite inspirational too, as I continually try to improve my presentation.
This kind of photography has had the side effect of rekindling an interest for photography in general, and have been taking lots of outdoor and nature pics as well. This also serves as an excellent "out and about" opportunity, and I have been combining my interests as often as I can - great fun!
Hi Lea, I take very few. Mostly because I think that I look very plain and I feel that my pics usually come out as old and stern looking or have a deer in the headlight look. I probably have taken less than 100 pics of me over the last 12 years. Any picks that I take have no alteration or adjustment other than cropping since I'm especially critical of myself and want an honest appraisal. I am full time and daily look like a soccer grandma so usually a pic reflects this. I do check myself in the mirror before going out and always adjust myself. I'm very minimal in the hair and makeup department and that is another reason why my pics aren't spectacular. I will say that the best pics that I've ever had were taken of me by others usually at an event and I'm always surprised when I think that they look good. Thanks for this interesting question. Marg
Marg, beauty is in the eye of the beholder as well as inside us. I hope over time you can become less critical of how you look and maybe even learn how to relax so you don’t have a surprise look.
I was very judgy about my first attempts too but over time I learned how to be more at ease, put outfits together better, and do makeup that didn’t make me look like i was a hooker or insane, I began to feel more confident and attractive. It could be all in my head but that’s all that really matters isn’t it?
Lea
@leainvancouver Thanks Lea, I've been working on it for years and will keep at it.
I think that practice makes perfect. The more you pose the more comfortable you become. The more comfortable you are the better the pictures become. I used to get upset at bad photos but now see them more of learning examples. Digital photography makes that sooo much easier.
I voted that I take a few. Most of my photos these days are taken when I have something new, or a new look to view from an observers point of view. Also, one of my CD groups does weekly challenges which makes us think a bit and come up with a look that fits, so it might be once a week that I take a few pics and weed that down to one for the challenge. 20 years ago, I took many more, but I was in a different place then.
I take photos now and then at home , and on trips. As I am self conscious of my appearance, most are kept in private photos.
Years ago I bought a poloroid camera so I didn't have to take my pictures to be developed, problem was the film was expensive and I think there was only 10 shot per roll, but like most here took pictures to see my progress. Then when digital cameras came out many more pictures were taken, but I find over the last fee years I really haven't taken many at all, the interest just isn't there. I know, I need to go shopping for a new outfit, so I have a reason to take more pictures.
I do take some but not many. My photo taking has shifted from many when I started to no photos for a long time to now a level I feel OK about.
I started a diary many years ago which I feel was one of the best things I've done. Each day out had at minimum a written log of the day, where and what I did and also my outfit. It was in the early diary phase when I slacked or took no photos because I had the day written down. Diaries of more unique/special days I have scanned as a jpg and posted on other websites I belong to. While I do not go back and read very often it's always a delight and brings a smile to my face.
I always thought as I got older I would have more time but life has become so busy my diary is now very abbreviated however I have made a conscience effort to take at minimum a couple selfies for each day which sometimes are posted on sites. About once a month I meet others (2 to 15) for a lunch or activity and I try to share these also.
Speaking of diaries and photos it's time for me to finish up my 4 Saturdays out this month and decide if I'm going out tomorrow...
Sandy
hi Lea................I like taking photos ........and videos of myself walking......sitting ..............preening ............brushing my hair ..............just being a girl. I study them .......you know.....how to gracefully sit like a girl ..............walk and be exciting for the imaginery guys in the closet (giggles!!!) .............karley
Hi Kathleen,
I have an archivist in my head, so part of the reason I take pictures is to document my evolution but also for similar reasons as yours, so I can witness myself en femme.
I should mention that I am VERY careful about how I store my photos as they could be compromising if they ever got out into the wild. I hear the shame and humiliation many of my sisters have had to endure just for getting caught in their panties by a friend or partner. Do you have any tips on how to store your pictures to keep them confidential?
Lea
There are several options for securing your photos depending on where you store them. If you are using a phone, just store them in a password-secure file on your phone. You can even get apps to hide the secure file so it is not even visible as a secure file. If you do, be sure to move them into the secure file right away. If you have cloud storage photos may be automatically unloaded at the end of the day and so exist in cyberspace and show up unexpectedly if you open your cloud folder. I store a backup of everything on my computer behind a password-protected wall.
As for the OP "Do I take photos", yes, a fair amount. I love to look back at older shots and see where I was at that time. Unfortunately, all my old film photos were lost in a fire. I just did not worry about my film being developed. So what if somebody sees me in a bra and panties or a dress? My wife and I loved to take intimate photos back in the day of film, and we're always excited by the anticipation while waiting for the shots to come back from the lab. We both had a certain level of excitement wondering if anybody looked at them, and that added to the fun we had looking at them.
I know keep a file with just a handful of my better photos and add to it on the rare occasion I get a good shot of myself. It is my "best of" file and keep it for my own viewing pleasure. I did show it to my cousin when I came out to her that I was a crossdresser. I warned her it was "R-rated", but she enjoyed seeing them and her compliments really made me feel good about myself, so keeping such photos has it's advantages.
Nice topic Lea. I take lots of photos. But of those, almost all get deleted as I'm only interested in the best couple. I do save them on my laptop for future reference. I love documenting my outings and seeing how I evolve over time.
Hi Michelle, oh I delete the really terrible ones but I’m still left with hundreds! 😂
Lea
