Perspective, it's yours. So choose a bright one.

Everybody sees things from a different light.  Everyone has a past that influences their present.  We may forget certain things in our past, or try to at least.  But no matter what, our experiences guide our thoughts today.

Perspective is how you look at something, it's like the glass half full or half empty saying.

However, I want to focus on how we portray ourselves.  A picture is worth a thousand words as the old saying goes.  When people are photographed they can be shown in different lights.  They can be Photoshopped.  Personally I don't Photoshop things heavily, the only time I think you should Photoshop something is if you're simply enhancing an image, not to an unrealistic state, just things like brightness and contrast.  The other time things should be Photoshopped is if they are meant to be totally unrealistic like this photo:

 

http://thisbelife.tumblr.com/

This is a video that shows how simple lighting can change the mood of a photograph:

Colour from Rafael Hernandez on Vimeo.

Portraits show someone, without words, without sound.  They show who someone is in one take.  Portraits show one's identity.

These are some portraits that inspire me.  These are some that I'd like to experiment with in the future:

http://abduzeedo.com/beautiful-photographs-michela-ghio

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25800726@N08/

http://poisonedwine.tumblr.com/

Personally, I like contrast, I like things that leave you hanging.  The half faces and the cut off frames.  I especially love eyes.  If a photo has been focused well on the eyes and they pop I'm practically in love.  I mean, not love.  But pretty darn close to inspirational love.

The way one is presented in a photograph is something words cannot describe, something an image can only show.

I love photography, and although I'm not a pro or anything I do like to experiment with different ideas.  Not having lighting or set ups or special things like that limits it, but then it also makes it that much more interesting, like using a stop light as a lighting source.  I mean.. why not ? I have a fake working stop light in my room, may as well put it to use right ?!