Self Portrait vs. Selfie

     The definition of a selfie is a picture taken by someone of them self usually by a smartphone, so they can post it on social media. The definition of a self portrait is a picture that an artist took or made of themselves.  I think they are similar and have very similar definitions, but I think that self portraits are more artistic and show more about the person. They have more of a meaning to them, unlike selfies which are taken to capture a moment.

      Selfies are definitely easier to take than self portraits. They are more common since anybody can take a good selfie . I think I prefer selfies because I use them more than portraits. I can use them to capture a moment of something i'm doing, while a self portrait requires preparation.

      I think to the common person a selfie might be more appealing , but to anybody who is artistic and/or wants to show who they are in an artistic way will think a self portrait is more appealing. I think that a self portrait is more valuable because it takes skill and interest to make an artistic photo that shows who you are.

      Lens, a blog by the New York Times shows amazing pictures and small stories, but from the eye of a photographer. Lens shows us pictures from some current events that are happening across the world and shows us pictures by recapping events from the past. Their main thing is to report and show photography stories, with pictures. The website also shows us albums of pictures like the years best travel pictures. They also link stuff that go throughout the New York Times website. The website's intention is to report photography through pictures, show some of the current news, show off pictures from smaller stories, and to look at some of the photos from the past. The average viewer can go to this website if they want to see amazing pictures from smaller stories/photography stories, or get some of the world news through pictures. I think I wouldn't recommend this website to people who weren't as avid in the photography world and just wanted news, because it shows a lot of smaller stories and pictures. I would give this website around a four because they do show off great pictures from stories, but it doesn't seem like they post everyday or even week. The last post on there was from Jan 3.

I chose this photo from their blog because it shows that they go out of the country to get pictures and show the life of others. Their website said they had 39,000 photographers working to find some of their best travel pictures of the year, and I think this is one of the best because it shows a boy in Senegal and what he does in his fun time. This picture shows him with a broken surf board and sandals. This picture also has rules of composition like creating depth, no mergers, leading lines with the line of rocks, and having half of their subject centered and half of him near the left side of the paper. There is also a slightly lower POV and no eye contact being made.