Filter Free

This is going to be short and sweet. More of a challenge I have decided to take on myself and wanted to share to be held accountable.

We live in a world that is consumed by pictures. We have cameras with us at all times; we even have special sticks just so we can take pictures of ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I think it is incredible that we have the ability to document everything; it is a beautiful way to preserve memories....especially when you suffer from short term memory(Which I am convinced I have!)

I absolutely love taking photos, I love to find unique angles and perspectives on things; I also love editing photos. I used to work in tech at my church and still have a lot of the editing programs on my laptop. I have all the cool apps on my phone to edit photos to make it looks more "artsy".  I also like taking photos with friends, family, etc. I don't mind being in photos. I think it is fun to look back and see how far you have come and remember the fun times through these pictures.

This is where my challenge comes in, though. I am the biggest sucker for putting cool filters on my photos which I realized started to cause problems for me. You see, I want to live an authentic and real life. I want to be tangible to people, not so fake that I become unapproachable. Something I started noticing were that these filters were in a sense changing who I was on social media. It's such an innocent small filter, but for me, it changed who I was. It made me look tanner, it made my hair lighter, or it might my eyes brighter. All these things are not bad, but I want to be someone that is confident in who I am just as me; the way God created me and nothing else.

Although this is a simple concept of editing photos and really isn't a big deal. (Please don't get me wrong...I promise I have no problem if you edit your photos!) But for me, I want to live a filter free life.

I want to be real with people and I want people to be real with me. 

I want people to see my mistakes and I want them to see my success. I don't want to live a life constantly covering up, trying to look better, and competing with a world that requires perfection from imperfect people.

So my challenge? I'm going filter free on my photos that involve pictures of me. I will of course still enjoy editing random cool shots of things and places. However, when it comes to a photo of me, I want to be me and nothing but me.