Since I started this blog, I’ve spent some time looking through the tens of thousands of pictures we have on a special, hard-to-find-and-use external hard drive and I noticed how many bad pictures are taken of me (notice how I don’t take responsibility?  It’s not me … it’s the camera!).  I’m looking older and older in pictures – and not just because I’m getting older and older! It’s because I don’t know how to camouflage my increasing number of flaws.  So, it got me to thinking … what should I be doing differently?

I dug through my pile of “things to read later” and found a very helpful article that ran in Marie Clare a few months back. Among other things, here’s what the author had to say about posing for pictures, tips I plan to implement every time my husband points his digital camera at me:

“To my surprise, everyone I consult about how to look slimmer recommends standing with one hand on your hip and turning your lower body at a three-quarter angle to the camera, a la Paris Hilton. The problem is that you wind up feeling like Paris. Nonetheless, the trick actually works.

“Also shockingly effective is jutting out your hips, as suggested by Matthew Rolston, a fashion and celebrity lensman who manages to make Angelina Jolie and Jack Nicholson look equally alluring. “Don’t arch your back,” he says. “It just makes your stomach look bigger. Round it instead, and tuck in your tummy at the same time.” That said, you also have to pull your shoulders back and down to elongate your neck … and avoid looking like a hunchback.

Also, this great tip which must be the reason I like the picture I posted at the top of this page:

“Make sure you’re always being shot from overhead …The next time you see a photographer sitting below you, looking up at your nostrils, kick him out of the way.

You can check out the rest of the tips at Marie Clare and there’s another good one at InStyle here. This is my favorite tip from that one:

“Push your face forward ever so slightly … it feels absolutely ridiculous when you’re doing it, but it makes your face look thinner and hides any sign of a double chin.”

And then practice in the mirror … one of my friends does (no naming names but I’ve seen you do it, sister!) and she can have a great picture taken of her at will!

Happy preening!