A Photo a Day 2020 #207

I found a shoebox full of photos (some 25 years old!) Remember when you had the surprise of getting your photos developed only to discover some didn't come out? I found a lot of these as well as (objectively speaking) hugely unflattering shots of me over the years! Being able to take selfies again and again is something we never had in the past and I wonder how much more liberating it was to take a photo and then laugh at how bad you looked in it a few weeks later. 

Although there are the odd 'nice', posed pictures with friends, most of my teenage photos are candid and silly. I get a true sense of who I was as a young girl (and I was very silly!) Nowadays we seem to see the same one or two universal pouty poses and Instagram-worthy tweaking; in the 90s we just shot a photo and that was that. Of course, we were still self-critical and lacked self esteem as most young people do, but having one less opportunity to strive for perfection was a blessing. 

A Photo a Day #318 Flashback Sunday

'Trend-Setter'

Me, circa 1997. My parents let me self-express through my appearance and I never even caught them laughing at me (to my face anyway) which was good of them. Here I am wearing an Adidas crop top and sporting a green stick-on jewel as a bindi! Never one to shy away from creativity, this was a look I thought I'd don one day aged around 13. Note also the Geri Halliwell-inspired sun-in blonde sections in my hair framing a red-toned DIY job. The eyebrows are also quite the focal point of this look; like most 90s teens, I quickly set to work in obliterating them. But for all of my fashion faux-pas- look at my young skin! If any teenagers ever read this- try to love yourself a bit more. You may have your flaws, but you will look back at aspects of yourself in years to come and wish you had been more grateful for what you had. I try to think this way now and urge people to do the same. We are all getting older, and what we have in the present is worth enjoying because we may not have it in the future. 

You can see in the original below there were some signs of dust and scratches which I removed. I also sharpened and tinted the photo to give it a more appealing (yet still dated) look.

What fashions did you sport as a teenager?

A Photo a Day #296 Flashback Sunday

Sports Day

Another blast from the past- this was taken by one of my parents at a Primary School Sports Day. I was never the most gifted with sports, but I did try! I look so lean and long-legged in this photo- I've never really looked like that since!

The original below on the left isn't much different, but I did some brightening and removing of dust specks. I'm not thrilled with my editing skills here, but I am a learner! This photo is probably from around 1994 I would guess.