wardrobe_remix: why a HEAD-TO-TOE shot is important

6.16.2006
(a wardrobe_remix shot of mine from 6.16.2006)

***

i wanted to address something here that i feel VERY STRONGLY about:
wardrobe_remix is fundamentally about the simple, HEAD-TO-TOE photograph, documenting you in your amazing, everyday clothing.
with a head-to-toe photograph, the viewer can get a sense of one's outfit, from the tip of someone's head, to the tips of their toes. the shoes, i believe, are just as significant to a total look as one's dress/shirt/skirt/pants/whatever. when you can't see the whole ensemble, something is quite literally missing. like, for instance, your legs and your feet. it's a huge question mark.
the easiest way to get a head-to-toe photograph is to enlist the help of a loved one, friend, or even a nice stranger(!) to take your photo, at your direction. the second way is to set up your camera, use the self-timer feature, and experiment until you get a good head-to-toe photograph. when i use the self-timer to take my photograph, i have to experiment a little until i get the right shot that shows the whole look. this sometimes takes a little time, and this experimentation takes effort, but the effort and time is worth it.
head-to-toe actually has a rather broad definition, if you think about it, and i strongly believe that it leaves plenty of room for creativity. head-to-toe could be you standing straight and looking into the camera in the most basic sense, or could be you laying down, sitting, sideways, diagonally, hanging from the rafters, standing on your hands upside down, whatever!...as long as we can see the head to the feet clearly, the sky is quite literally the limit! working within boundaries can be fun....ask most artists!
fact: professional photographers often take many, many photographs of a subject in the effort to get the perfect one. we are not all professional photographers, of course! but this is the age of digital cameras, and we have the gift of being able to take many, many shots in order to get the right one, without wasting film! digital cameras and the fact that they have this feature inherent within them is really a great blessing for us all, professional or not.
and another way to think about it: you probably put effort into your outfit, right? putting a little effort into photographing that outfit, from the arrangement of the clothes to the documentation of it, takes your whole statement to the next level.