The Art of the Self Portrait

There is only one thing that I am better at doing with my left hand than my right hand--that is taking a self portrait photograph. I have tried taking self portraits with my right hand, but it just doesn't work as well. The self portrait is a very specialized kind of photography which allows one to photograph themselves with up to two other people without needing to ask for assistance from outside parties. It is especially handy when one is traveling by oneself, as it is usually embarrassing to ask someone to take a picture of just you by yourself. Sometimes it is also awkward to ask someone to take a picture of you with other people--so the self portrait solves the problem. It is also a necessary skill to have when no one else is around to take your picture. I mastered the art of left-handed self portraiture in Mississippi. There are three types of self portraits--

1. The Single:
This is especially useful during those times when you are sightseeing by yourself and find yourself, say, on top of the 80-foot-tall observation tower at the Grand Gulf Military Park in Port Gibson, Mississippi--without anyone else in sight. How are you going to document the fact that you were there? You take a self portrait. It's okay that you can see your arm reflected in your sunglasses.

It is also a useful skill for when you are driving around by yourself in vehicles belonging to the United States government.






2. The Double:
My best buddy Angie and I found this type of self portraiture very useful when we visited the Louisiana Country Music Hall of Fame and Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier State Historical Park in Louisiana--because there was literally no one else around to take a picture of us. (Visitation isn't too heavy at that particular park.)

Angie and I also used "the double" self portrait when we were on top of Little Round Top at Gettysburg in January. Because it was -10 degrees outside, we were the only ones brave enough to be out and about. And you must have a picture of yourself at Little Round Top!

Mom and I have employed "the double" self portrait technique countless times on our different escapades throughout the country. When we visited the American Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa when we were driving home in May, we were the only ones out there. But you HAVE to have a picture of yourself at the American Gothic house! So luckily we have perfected the art of taking pictures of ourselves.

Mom and I have even perfected the art of including signs and other distinguishing background features in our photos!







And of course there is this famous double self portrait which was the first picture ever taken of Greg and me. There was no one out at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site that day besides us, and when I suggested to Greg that we take a picture together, he wondered how we would do it. I said, "We will take it ourselves"--and he laughed! Little did he know that I am a professional self portrait artist. He quickly learned that the best photos are the ones you take yourself.

3. The Triple:
This is the most difficult form of self portraiture and features the maximum number of people that can be self-photographed while still being able to see all faces clearly. My first real attempt at "the triple" was when Mom and I went to Melrose with my good friend Kate before I left Natchez last summer. There was no one around to take our picture, so we took it ourselves, and it was a surprisingly great photo!

This is also an efficient way to take a photograph of you with your two CUTE nieces when you're having a sleepover and are awake long before anyone else in the house!






Lindy, Mom, and I recently employed this technique to record our visit to the Sarah Granger Kimball Home in Nauvoo. It worked great--except that there is too much of my head in the picture!

So, this weekend when Mom, Dad, and I had our fun trip to St. George to visit Grandpa and Grandma F. T., we tried out "the triple" self portrait technique.

Our first shot was at the Brigham Young Winter Home in St. George, but we accidentally kind of crowded Dad out of the photo.




But we did a little better when we went to the Jacob Hamblin home in Santa Clara. Mom and I decided that we need to take Dad on more trips with us so that he can be in more of our self portraits!



Mom, Dad, and I had a wonderful trip to St. George--it was especially fun to see Grandpa and Grandma since I hadn't seen them since I got home from school. We were going to go to the temple yesterday, but I forgot my temple recommend :-( It was in my other bag from when we were in Nauvoo. I was very sad about this, but we made the most of it and had a fun day going to different historical sites in the St. George area. We also spent the afternoon reading through the page proofs for my book. I decided that my book is much more fun to read than it was to write! Once I get the proofs sent back, they will do one more edit of the book, then they will start the printing process. The book is scheduled to be available in stores on November 3.

Today Mom, Dad, and I had a fun drive home from southern Utah. We made some stops in Cedar City, Beaver, and Fillmore to take pictures of historic Mormon architecture for the paper I am going to be revising as part of the requirement to receive my master's degree. We also stopped at the original State Territorial House in Fillmore which was very cool. It is a state park, and they have the building open for tours. If the capital of the state of Utah had remained in Fillmore rather than Salt Lake, the configuration of Utah would indeed be very different than it is today! We had a wonderful trip and were able to visit Grandpa Taylor and Grandma Cathy on our way home today. Good times!

Archive Adventures

Hooray for work days that entail going up to Salt Lake and hanging out at the state archives and having fun with your mom! Yesterday was the best work day ever. Mom and I went up to SLC to the Utah State Archives to check out some Camp Floyd pictures. Unfortunately the pictures weren't quite what I was hoping to find, but it was still a very worthwhile trip--and you never know what an archive has until you check. The Utah State Archives is housed at the old Rio Grande station that was built in 1908. It is the coolest building ever, and I have decided that I want to work there someday. If I had my druthers, I would work for the Utah State History Administration, which has its offices at the top of the Rio Grande building. I'd need to work my way up the figurative ladder of historical professions before that would be a possibility, but that would truly be an awesome place to work. Train stations are such cool buildings, and I think it's great when they are preserved and used for neat things like museums, archives, etc. Another really cool train station is the Union Terminal in Cincinnati where the Cincinnati State Historical Society is headquartered. Union Station in Chicago is cool too--but it's a little questionable in some areas. The train station in Mattoon, IL is a really neat building, but it needs some serious, serious, serious help. Anyway, the Rio Grande station is totally cool. Mom and I ate lunch at the Rio Grande Cafe which is a fun place that serves tasty Mexican food.

After our archive adventures, we took a little excursion to one of our favorite places: Gardner Historic Village. Archibald Gardner, around whose mill said historic village is built, originally had a mill at Camp Floyd back in the day! I'm learning that pretty much everyone in the world has a connection to Camp Floyd--but nobody has ever heard of it before :-) They still had their cute 4th of July decorations out at Gardner Village, and Mom and I had a fun time going around to the different shops.

Then we headed over to Jonathan's Jewelers to pick up my wedding band! I am so excited about the wedding band--because it is both beautiful and very significant to my family. It was the diamond band that Grandpa Farnsworth gave to Grandma Farnsworth when they were married. Grandma later had it attached to her engagement ring, and when it was later removed, the base of the wedding ring kind of came apart. So Mom and I took it to Jonathan's, and they repaired it, polished it up, and it looks as good as new. It looks really beautiful with my engagement ring, and it will be fun to wear the set after Greg and I get married! The only problem yesterday was that they said the ring would be done by 2:00, but when we arrived there at 3:00, they hadn't even started on it yet. So, we had to wait around for a while, but they were very apologetic and nice to us. While waiting, Mom and I went to Taco Bell and tried one of their new mango-strawberry Fruitista Freezes--it was the best slushie drink ever! So we had a lot of fun adventures in Salt Lake--it was great just to get to spend the whole day together!

I think I have acid reflux problems. I've had two acid reflux attacks in the past--but the last one was clear back in September 2007. I thought that maybe my problems had gone away, but unfortunately the acid struck again last night. I was getting ready for bed when I started to feel the unpleasant burning in my chest, then I felt like I needed to throw up, and I basically had the dry heaves until 2:30 in the morning. Zero fun. After eating almost a package of soda crackers, I was finally able to go to sleep--but yuck! I am not a fan of acid reflux. I'm not positive that is what my problem is, but I'm quite sure. Hopefully it will go away today. Mom, Dad, and I are getting ready to head to St. George today to visit Grandpa and Grandma F. T., which should be very, very fun. I haven't been able to see them since I got home from school, so I'm excited to spend the weekend there!

Mythbuster

One problem that historians have is that a significant portion of the world's population finds history boring . . . unless there is some crazy tidbit of information that piques the interest of said population. So, in the world of public history, the phrase "truth is stranger than fiction" is a historian's best friend. If you can dig up some crazy fact that seems totally unbelievable, you have scored a definite historical point with the public (i.e. Albert Einstein never wore any socks, or Charles Dickens always slept facing north). People eat up stuff like that!

Another problem among historians, however, is that it can be quite tempting to stretch the truth or fudge facts in order to make them seem more interesting. A lot of legend and lore that people assume to be factual is not. In many instances the truth is more boring than fiction, so sometimes people like to mix fact and fiction when telling a historical story. Such was the case at Camp Floyd, and today, in doing my job of researching the historic Stagecoach Inn, I busted a popular myth. My boss was happy about my research prowess, but he was also sad that I ruined one of Camp Floyd's claims to fame: that Mark Twain stayed at the inn in 1860. It turns out that Mark Twain just blew by Stagecoach Inn. In fact, he doesn't even mention Stagecoach Inn in his writings about his trip to the west! Mark was pretty sad. I asked him why they always thought that Mark Twain stayed there. He said that someone back in the day probably just assumed that he had, so it became "fact." I guess we'll have to change our interpretive panels in the inn.

Speaking of the inn, in my researching today, I found this picture of the inn from about 1905. Before today, the earliest picture we had was from 1925! Hooray! All of this Stagecoach Inn research is going to go on a wayside exhibit sign out in front of the inn. Tomorrow Mom and I get to go up to Salt Lake to the Utah State Archives to check out some other Stagecoach Inn photos that I'm hoping are even older than this one! I seriously love this job.

Wells Fargo started the first stagecoach service across the country. They delivered mail, people, and money to various places from Kansas to California. Today after doing a bunch of reading and research about stagecoaches, Mark gave me the assignment to take all of the money we earned last month to Wells Fargo! It felt like a very appropriate activity to conclude my stagecoach-themed day. I only wish that I had been able to deliver the money in a stagecoach--or at least an armored car, but we don't make enough money to necessitate such security measures. :-)

Two of my favorite shows are "Mythbusters" and "History Detectives," so maybe I'll start a new show called "Historybusters" where I will bust historical myths--although I don't know how I would disprove the legend that Albert Einstein never wore any socks!