Self-portraits

I end up taking a great deal of self-portraits. I don't do it from conceit, but rather I am available when I feel the urge to take a photo. If I had friends that were potential models nearby or on hand regularly I think I would end up using other people more, but there are a great deal of benefits to using myself.

I know what I look like, and if I can pull off the look I want. I don't need to give myself any direction to obtain the look I want, it is more take a shot, look at LCD, adjust pose/look, repeat. Additionally, as many of my portraits are an exercise to improve my understanding of lighting techniques they may end up taking a significant amount of time before I achieve the look I am aiming for. People I have used in the path get obviously frustrated (and who doesn't get frustrated when mom or dad at family gatherings says "Wait, wait that didn't work everyone back together!!").

On the other hand, I would love to use other people as a model as there are many photos ideas I have recorded that just wouldn't work with myself, being an issue with build or more specifically gender!

I took this photo the other night and more or less happy how it turned out.


Do you prefer self-portraits or using models? And if so, where do your models come from?