Photographic Mouth Mirrors

SIFF Dispatch: Meeting Elmo

If you haven’t seen Being Elmo yet, you’re just going to have to take my word on this for now: The experience of seeing this movie is nothing like what you think it will be like, because it really is an extraordinarily crafted piece of documentary filmmaking about a boy who had a dream and how he stuck with his passion until he achieved it. Director Constance Marks uses some very nicely paced storytelling to guide us through the story of young Kevin Clash, who started making puppets at the age of 10 and ultimately came to work for Jim Henson on Labyrinth and Sesame Street , eventually giving voice to Elmo, the little red monster who loves everyone.

One of the things you really come to appreciate watching this movie is the artistry of these muppeteers as they manipulate pieces of foam and cloth, breathing life into the inanimate. Watch Clash as he deftly manipulates Elmo as if the little red puppet is an extension of his own body, using subtle angles of head and body, minute movements of the mouth and eyes, to convey Elmo’s innocent-child personality.

The other thing you come to appreciate — while watching the film, certainly, but even more so if you get to see Clash in person at a Q&A, is how much of the love and warmth that radiates from Elmo and makes him beloved of so many children comes from some place deep inside Clash himself. You know how some people have an almost palpable aura of positive, loving, happy energy? Clash radiates (I swear, very nearly glows with) love and acceptance and happy-happy feelings. He’s a prophet preaching universal love and acceptance through the friendly, accessible form of a furry, smiling, red monster.

Witness Clash as he stands, rather humbly, waiting for the audience to stop applauding and sit down. He politely, affably answers the questions from the adults — no doubt he’s aware of how many of the younger adults in the crowd especially are here because they themselves were once Elmo-loving kids — but all the time his eyes are roving, roving, seeking out the smallest in the crowd.

He’s completely wired into the energy of the wiggly, squirmy little people who’ve already sat through 90-plus minutes of movie largely geared toward the adults who brought them there, and after a couple questions he abruptly stops and says that it’s time for a little meet-and-greet. “But only the littlest ones right now,” he says, “Elmo will talk to everyone outside after, though.

What is more accurate the photo or mirror? | You Mouth - www ...

A photographer can choose the perspective as well by picking the focal length, but that choice is not so intuitively visible afterwards anymore. That may be the cause of your big nose in one photo – unfavorable perspective through a too close distance when the photo was taken.

Hence i think that both are equally accurate, just in different ways. A mirror image is, well, mirrored. But that doesn’t matter as anyone else is just as accustomed to seeing you un-mirrored as you are to seeing you mirrored. It doesn’t really matter if that beauty patch or scar is on the left or right side of your face, after all.

A photo is not mirrored (unless it was done so in post-processing) but you cannot "feel" distortions through perspective in a photo as intuitively as you handle them in a mirror.

BTW, whenever i judge if a photo of me is good or not, i mirrorize it. That way i get to see the mirror image of myself that i am accustomed to. I show everyone else the un-mirrorized version though, as that is what they are accustomed to.

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This question is often asked, and the answer is relatively simple, but does need some explanation. Please read this entire answer and it will make more sense to you.

In YOUR case, the mirror is the more true representation of how you look, …. but …. that is only because of the very poor quality and lack of skill used in the photographs of yourself that you, or others, are taking.

The great majority of young people, particularly it seems on this forum, try to take photos of themselves by holding the camera, or cell phone, out at arms length with the flash blaring off. This is the absolute WORSE way a photo can be taken. By necessity, the lens has to be at the wide angle portion of it’s focal range, and when close to a subject, this will cause distortion. Any wide angle lens will do this, be it cheap or expensive. So that is one strike against you already, your face is going to be distorted. Second is the on camera flash. I’m sure you must have a flashlight somewhere in the house. Turn the lights off in the bathroom, stand in front of the mirror, and shine the flashlight directly onto your face. You will see it is by no means complimentary to you. It is a very harsh, small, direct light source. This is the same as the on camera flash, except that the flash is even WORSE! You will ALWAYS look bad in a photo when a flash is blasting off near your face.

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