Digital Boyz


	FEATUREBuzz: digital camera self-portraits

Chadz Buzz Male Fashions Illustrated: Self-Portraits


	Bathroom Self Portraits Compact and practical, digital cameras have become a primary feature on many modern cell phones. First introduced commercially around 2002, camera phones allow users to take (and share) photos quickly, easily, and unobtrusively. While this is highly convenient for many, the availability of such powerful technology does raise certain privacy concerns. The near-omnipresence of these devices has had a profound social impact, as taking someone's photo is no longer an easily identifiable act. Camera phones allow people to take photos without drawing attention to themselves, as they may appear to be talking, browsing the Web, or otherwise merely using their phone. With such information so easily gathered, shared, and sometimes made public, an impact on privacy is inevitable. One can travel all over the world and one of the most common used technological devices besides cellphones and laptops are digital cameras. It is a device that connects people of different languages and countries. Citizens from all different types of cultures can comprehend this device without using language. It is a technological device that can connect the world and capture it in a photograph all at the same time. Because of these issues, certain organizations and places have, on occasion, placed bans or restrictions on the use of cell phones. Government organizations, schools, and certain companies where personal or credit card information is viewed on a daily basis, often have outright bans on the use of camera phones. Unfortunately, such bans are very difficult to enforce, as cell phones are often small and easily hidden or disguised. One common use of the camera is that of self photography and it allows the taking of photos that would be difficult to do in the past without someone else having access to the photos during the processing. But standing in front of a bathroom mirror with a digital camera allows you to take your own picture. Our MALEfashionBUZZ PHOTO GALLERIES: DIGITALFUN shows some of these photographers at work.

		Trivia Boy Answer Q9: Many people consider Canon to be the top digital camera brand on the market. This is because Canon produces many of the market's best selling digital cameras, and always receives wonderful reviews from technology gurus. For a great digital camera, you may want to think about purchasing one of the models from the Canon PowerShot series. These digital cameras are also known to come in very fashionable designs.

Why Am I Taking my Own Photo?

The era of cheap, lightweight digital cameras — in cellphones, in computers, in hip pockets, even on key chains — has meant that people who did not consider themselves camera buffs as recently as five years ago are filling ever-larger hard drives with thousands of images from their lives.

And one particular kind of image has especially soared in popularity, particularly among the young: the self-portrait, which has become a kind of folk art for the digital age.

Framing themselves at arm's length, teenagers snap their own likeness and pass the cameras to friends at school or e-mail the images or upload them to the Internet. For a generation raised on the importance of self-esteem, striking a heroic, provocative or brooding pose and sharing it with the world comes naturally.

To a certain extent new technology is driving the new self-portraiture. Cellphone cameras and other digital cameras are sold with wide-angle lenses that allow a picture taken at arm's length to remain in focus. Computers are essentially sophisticated darkrooms that permit extensive manipulation of images.

But technology alone can't explain the trend. Even in previous generations when cameras were cheap, they were generally reserved for special occasions. In the past, a person just wouldn't take a Kodak Brownie picture of themselves. It would have been considered too self-centered and boastful.

Psychologists and others who study teenagers say the digital self-portraiture is an extension of behavior typical of the young, like trying on different identities, which earlier generations might have expressed through clothing and hairstyles. Most of what we've been seeing with teenage self-portraits is taking place in the bedroom or bathroom in front of a mirror. With teenagers and the digital media, it's a central facet of teen life where they are forming their identities, and now it's also a private studio where they can develop who they are.

What better tool could they have than one that allows them to take pictures of themselves and manipulate them like never before?




		ChadzBuzz

FEATUREBuzz: digital camera self-portraits

Bathroom Self Portraits

Why Am I Taking my Own Photo?