I’m not sure why this popped in my head yesterday, but since it did I will write about it.

I hate getting my picture taken. It doesn’t matter if it is a formal portrait setting or a more informal thing. I hate the way I look in most pictures and I especially hate the way I look when I smile so I don’t smile in posed pictures. I’ve been this way my entire life. Two examples, senior picture and more recent one:

I would have shared the one from my high school reunion, but I didn’t want to deal with asking people in the photo if I could put them in my blog.

Every time a picture of me gets posted on social media I always get the same responses:

“Smile, Alan!”

“You look so thrilled”

“Why don’t you smile?”

It is rather annoying. I’m never going to smile in a posed photo. I might be smiling in candid photos and then you can have the chance to post annoying comments about how surprising it is that I’m smiling.

I don’t like posed photos. I don’t like my smile. Your comments won’t change that.