how to take a selfie

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I still maintain the tradition of taking a selfie every single day of my trip. Otherwise I wouldn’t have this ridiculous beard and hair, you know.

Anyway, I was going to take one with the mausoleum and the little tower in the background today:

So I went there, and I found it a bit challenging to get a good shot in this particular location with this particular light.

In the end, this turned out to be the only usable spot:

So here’s how I take my selfies – I use a bounce flash technique. This means I find a bright, vertical surface opposing the scene I want to have in my background, and then I use a flash that I turn towards that surface so it can bounce off and light my face.

Sounds complicated? Maybe today’s daily video can help.

Anyway, here’s what an ordinary selfie in the spot right in front of the mausoleum and the tower would look like:

Not so good.

Here’s one facing the wall (the one my finger is pointing at in the picture above), while not using a flash:

Better. The wall throws some light back, which is good, but it isn’t enough to properly light the face, which is bad.

Okay, so here’s one facing the wall and using a flash, but facing a sunlit part of the wall:

This one is basically okay, but the brightness of the wall forces me to squint.

So finally, here’s a photo of me facing the shaded part of the wall, using a flash:

Nice overall exposure. The composition isn’t that good, but both mausoleum and tower are kinda there.

Daily video:

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