Are you, right now, ready for the world and more than picture perfect? With the ever present photo ops, we’d better be ready. It could happen. Right now.

How would that work for you?

• Maybe it is the Selfie you might take (“gee, I look great today, I should capture this moment!“)
• Perhaps it is the product photography you can snap in an instant, upload to your website, or e-mail and confirm details on an item for a customer.
• Are you a celebrity?
• Did you just speak at a conference?
• Spending time with family for the holidays, a party, just because they all live with you?
• Run a red light at a “red light camera equipped” intersection?
• Entering a store using security cameras (or a bank or a restaurant…they all have them!)

All of us today should expect to be photographed, right?

Well, certainly those in the public eye expect it – but even when they do, it isn’t always picture perfect. Eyes closed, mouth open (mid sentence), facial expressions you make when talking that are fine in video but not in still life, arms talking with you (whether you are Italian or just emphatic and expressive…like me.)

Not always so very flattering.

With the ubiquitous (that is for you little miss, yeah you, my youngest lil’ sis) phone cameras in everyone’s hands, the world is changing and everyone should be thinking about marketing themselves – the way you want to be seen and remembered – but, oh, no – not THAT way.

So – here is what you need to check: hair done, clothes (appropriate for your age, the event, the venue), tummy sucked in, shoulders back, just the right amount of makeup… ok, now you are ready.

Better to be “picture perfect” – well, maybe not “perfect” but the hair looks good.

But, not this “oh no, how did that happen?” (In this particular case, this is a cropped image of just me, not ready for the timer setting used to capture the entire family at Thanksgiving! oops!)

This is real life folks, it isn’t picture perfect and we are just going to have to deal with it – and give a pass to the others who aren’t either.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl