How to Take Photos of Yourself Without a Photographer

Quiz: what do the next three photos have in common?

Answer: I took them all by myself without a photographer behind the lens!. Yes, without having to bring a friend or flag down a single stranger, I managed to photograph my entire mini vacation on my own. I talked about it here.

Sometimes life requires us to make solo moves when friends are busy, but this doesn’t mean that those memories don’t deserved to be captured.

You don’t need any fancy equipment. I took these photos on my phone!

(Sidenote: If you can’t tell this blog is really just another place for me to bombard you all with photos. Thanks)

Let me tell you how I did it.

Step 1: Buy an iPhone tripod. I bought this one on Amazon for about $20. The tripod came with a travel bag, and a small rechargeable BlueTooth powered remote.

Step 2: Set up tripod. This tripod came without directions, but setup was super intuitive.

Step 3: Find the frame you want to shoot. I did this by moving the the tripod around to capture the backdrop and angle I wanted. I’d envision myself in the shot to figure out the optimal positioning. It’s really all trial and error.

Step 4: Connect the remote to your phone. This was surprisingly the easiest part. There’s no special app or anything. Purely BlueTooth enabled. Simply locate the name of the remote in the BlueTooth queue on your phone.

Step 5: Open up your camera app and secure your phone in the phone holder.

Step 6: Get in the frame and start snapping away. You’ll do this by concealing the remote in your hands and clicking the button.

So easy, not much else to it!

Tips:

*Take a few practice shots in the frame to make sure you’re happy with your positioning. Adjust accordingly.

*The first few photos will be awkward as you figure out how to naturally conceal the remote in your hands

*Posed photos can look…well posed, so don’t be afraid to make fluid movements and take a burst of images to find the perfect shot.

*Operating the clicker requires a lot of power and drains the phone battery pretty quickly so make sure your phone is fully charged!

*Make sure the tripod is steady on level ground to avoid mishaps.

Have fun!