Delaney McQuown: Finding Liberation Through Self-Portraiture
In this inspiring episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast, Angela Nicholson is joined by the talented Delaney McQuown, a photographer, digital technician and artist based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Delaney, who won the prestigious 2024 Claire Aho Award for Women Photographers at the World Food Photography Awards (formerly the Pink Lady Food Photography awards), shares her creative journey and passion for redefining self-image through photography. Her thought-provoking work encourages women to embrace unidealised representations of themselves and exist unapologetically in photographs.
From an early age, Delaney’s artistic inclinations were nurtured by a supportive family environment. Growing up, she explored various creative mediums, eventually falling in love with photography at the age of 14. This passion led her to the University of Cincinnati, where she studied fine arts with a focus on photography. During her time there, Delaney took part in a co-op programme, gaining hands-on experience through internships that ranged from assisting a studio artist to working in a commercial photography studio.
Listen to another episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast
Now an accomplished photographer at OMS Photography, Delaney’s work stands out for its vibrant use of colour and bold, playful aesthetics. Her commercial projects reflect her fine art background, blending conceptual thinking with technical precision. Recently promoted as a lead photographer at OMS, she collaborates with clients to bring their visions to life while also carving out time for personal projects that explore themes of self-acceptance and body image.
A highlight of this episode is Delaney’s discussion of her self-portrait project, which began as a way to confront her own insecurities and develop a neutral, even celebratory, relationship with her image. This practice, she explains, has been profoundly therapeutic and has evolved into a larger initiative to help other women experience the same sense of liberation. Through her latest series, Swimsuit Season, Delaney creates a space for women to play, be themselves and redefine beauty on their own terms. To foster a sense of equality and comfort, Delaney even photographs her subjects while wearing a swimsuit herself - a gesture that symbolises shared vulnerability and creative freedom.
Delaney also shares insights into her award-winning photograph, BLT Contemplation, a beautifully candid self-portrait captured in a moment of introspection. The image, which depicts Delaney enjoying a sandwich in golden evening light, was a spur-of-the-moment creation that resonated with audiences and judges alike. Its success has reignited Delaney’s enthusiasm for submitting work to competitions and exploring new creative avenues.
Throughout the conversation, Delaney offers invaluable advice for aspiring photographers, including the importance of persistence, experimenting with personal projects and finding joy in the process of creation. She encourages listeners to submit their work to competitions, emphasising that rejection should never deter them from sharing their vision with the world.
Don’t miss this engaging episode filled with heartfelt stories, practical tips, and an uplifting perspective on the power of photography to inspire confidence and self-expression. Tune in to discover how Delaney is making waves in the photographic world while championing women’s voices and individuality.
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OMS Photography
Episode Transcript
Delaney McQuown
Getting your work out there is never a bad thing. You should never be afraid of the rejection of it. As long as you feel good about your work, the work you're creating, and it sits well with you. I woldn't put pressure on yourself to be accepted. Just see where it can take you.
Angela Nicholson
Welcome to the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I'm Angela Nicholson, and I'm the founder of SheClicks, which is a community for female photographers. In these podcasts, I talk with women in the photographic industry to hear about their experiences, what drives them and how they got to where they are now. Our guest today is Delaney McQuown, a photographer, digital technician and artist based in Cincinnati. Delaney won the 2024 Clare Aho award for women photographers in the Pink LadyFood Photographer of the Year Awards now the World Food Photography Awards. She urges women to find liberation through unidealised self images and exist unapologetically in photos. Hi Delaney. Thank you so much for joining me today on the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast.
Delaney McQuown
Hi Angela, thank you so much for having me.
Angela Nicholson
It's really nice to be able to catch up with you, because I was hoping we were going to meet at the Pink Lady Food Photography Awards, now, of course, the World Food Photography Awards, but unfortunately, I got COVID and was unable to see you receiving your fantastic trophy.
Delaney McQuown
Yeah, I know that's such a bummer we didn't get to meet, but that was such an exciting experience for me, especially because I'm from the United States, so getting to go to London to be a part of that was an awesome experience.
Angela Nicholson
Oh, great, yeah. And your image was absolutely fantastic. I really loved it. So you won the Clare Aho award for women photographers. Brilliant.
Delaney McQuown
I did.
Thank you so much.
Angela Nicholson
So can we start by hearing how you first got interested in photography?
Delaney McQuown
Yeah, so I've always been super artistic. You know, I'd love to draw and paint. My mom always claims we get our creativity from her. She doesn't necessarily have the artistic abilities, but she is very creative. So I grew up in a household that really supports the arts, and when we were young, we took art lessons from a local artist in our town, and just kind of, we're always being creative, and we're trying all the different mediums that exist, painting or switching and doing photography. That's where I found photography, and I found my love for it. And you know, that was just been such an exciting thing for me to be able to figure out how to go from one and how one like drawing implements, photography as well, and vice versa. That's kind of how I got started. So that was probably around when I was 14, but I knew for sure I wanted to do that as a career, and I wanted to do something related to the arts when I went to school. So I went to school for fine arts as well.
Angela Nicholson
Well like college?
Delaney McQuown
Yes, for College, the University of Cincinnati, here in Ohio, and I went for fine arts, but I focused in photography.
Angela Nicholson
Oh, fantastic. So how did you actually get your first job in photography?
Delaney McQuown
The reason I chose the school that I did for college was I chose because it had something called a Co-Op program, and essentially it's an internship program where you alternate semesters of school with semesters of work. And so ultimately, that's why I chose that school, because I knew I wanted to get world experience before being tossed out. So I ended up doing four internships total before graduation, and that was awesome, because, again, I knew I wanted to do something in the arts field, but I didn't know for sure I would end up in photography, so it allowed me to try different types of things. Like I assisted a studio artist who does textiles. I illustrated a book for children. And then my last Co-Op, I was able to work at a commercial photography studio, and I worked there up until I graduated, and they hired me full time, and that's where I found that I really was passionate about photo and using that in my studio practice, as well as working with that as well.
Angela Nicholson
You shoot a lot of product photography, don't you? How do you keep that fresh? Because you know your pictures are really vibrant and exciting. How do you maintain that?
Delaney McQuown
Oh, thank you. I love, absolutely, love working with color again. I went to school for fine art, so a lot of my classes were conceptual based thinking the complete opposite of what commercial photography is, which is advertising and selling something to you. So I really have the strong conceptual background, so I still work at that to this day, of trying to figure out how to find that balance between like my conceptual work and my commercial work. And so it's an ongoing journey, but I just use esthetics to kind of speak to me as well. And I know one thing, and I like to stay true to my natural hand, whatever it wants to do, and that's color, bold, vibrant and fun. So that's why my commercial work seems to be living in that state right now.
Angela Nicholson
That really comes across. So what is your ideal brief for a shoot when you have a day at work?
Delaney McQuown
We have work. So I guess maybe I'll touch on this a little bit as well. I am newly a commercial photographer here. So when I was first hired, I was a photo assistant, so which means I got to be a huge part of sets and set culture, and, you know, helping with file naming, file organization, but then also the creative aspect of creating a shoe and making it come to my life with the past month, they've recently started promoting me as a photographer on their website, which is so exciting. It's been a really good new chapter, but I'm still in the early stages of working with clients and things like that, building confidence there. But usually a lot of the things we start with is things start with a deck from the client, and then they kind of have their ideas of the vision they want to execute. And we meet with them and work with them, and then it, from that point on, it gets into the actual shoot day of executing their vision. But it's really cool just to be a part of that whole journey. Like even if you're just on set, you feel the creative energy, and I think that's what I'm most grateful for for I work, and also, I should say the name of my company. It's OMS photography, and I work with an amazing amount of creative individuals who are supportive. And I have my personal practice on the side, which maybe we'll touch base on a little bit. They're so supportive of it's the only reason I was able to get to London to go to that contest. Is they submitted on my behalf? And yeah, so I'm just really grateful to be working with creatives and be surrounded I couldn't have asked for a better place to support me in my work.
Angela Nicholson
That sounds fantastic. So did they submit your entry for their Claire Aho Award for Women Photographers? Or was that driven by you?
Delaney McQuown
So it was driven by me, but my our marketing person, Molly, had found the competition, and she said, sent out an email to the people at our company, and it was like, if anybody wants to submit to this, like, I'm gonna send you the link so you can do so. So then I did submit, but it was really I was a little nervous, because I did end up submitting a piece of work from, you know, my personal side practice, which was a self portraiture, which was self portraiture, whereas a lot of my peers are submitting their very commercial things. And so I was a little nervous, but I did do it, and I'm really glad that it was brought to my attention, and that's how I found out about it in the first place.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah. I mean, it's a fantastic picture. If anyone hasn't seen it yet, I urge them to have a look. You have a look on the World Food Photography Awards website. You can see it in the in the gallery there. And actually, when I first saw I didn't realize it was a self-portrait. It was any later that I realised it was because it feels like a very private moment that some you know, that the person being photographed isn't aware of. And there's, there's fantastic elements too, because you're eating a BLT, aren't you? And sort of just sitting in the morning sunshine after a shower or something. It's very atmospheric picture.
Delaney McQuown
Yeah, definitely.
Angela Nicholson
Do you tell us a little bit about your project?
Delaney McQuown
When I was in school again, you know, I started taking photos around 14, and a lot of the times I was my own subject, just because of the accessibility, and that's kind of how I learned the camera. But you know, as I grew up, the image I was taking of myself, my body started to change and fluctuate, and the images I took of myself as a child, I no longer really looked like that as I'm practicing with the camera. And you know, I had this moment where this confrontation of my own image was really hard to bear. I was like, I don't like the way I look in these images. And I feel like women specifically have this problem where we hate photos of ourselves. You ask anyone across all generations, a lot of times, women specifically do not like certain photos of themselves, and we want to be represented in a good light, but I wanted to use the camera as a form of finding self acceptance. So I decided, you know, if I'm not happy with these images right now, the only way that I can cope with them, it's maybe, if I take hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of images, I'll become neutral to my own image. You know, the more times I see myself, I have to become neutral at some point. And it totally worked. And through school, that's what my personal practice was. It was kind of using photos as therapy to, like, investigate myself and kind of proclaim myself here, this is what I am. You know, it is what it is. And in recent years, now that I'm getting older, at the commercial studio, we work, and we do a lot of portraits of people. And again, it just reiterates this fact that we'll have women come into the studio that are like, Well, can I come back to get my portrait tomorrow? I don't like it. And then we'll have guys who'll be like, Oh, that's great. I don't care. You can pick for me. And it's just, it's it's interesting that that's always echoing in my head. So now I've started to expand my process, and I want to kind of share this liberating feeling that I discovered with my connection through the camera. I wanted to share that liberating experience with other women by creating a space for them to play and have fun and be comfortable by being maybe uncomfortable with it. Image of that themselves.
Angela Nicholson
Do you feel like you're starting to make or to have an impact now with that?
Delaney McQuown
I think so. I am very again, I'm very early on this new series, because, again, it was predominantly myself, but I put out like a photo call on Instagram, and I got floods of responses from women around my area who wanted to be a part of the project, which was so exciting. So I've done two photoshoots for that so far, and both have been completely rewarding experiences. But it's also been kind of a challenge as well, because the last thing I ever want to do is have people feel bad about themselves, and take that away from the photo shoot. So it's like this fine line of trying to communicate that these images are supposed to be idolized, images of yourself. You know, I feel like a lot of people think that this photograph needs to look beautiful like we shoot for models. We shoot for different things that are supposed to be beautiful on the image. But I'm just trying to create a space that has this like child-like play, where you can just let loose of all those and kind of just exist, and maybe because it's humorous, not put so much pressure on yourself to look a specific way. So there's a lot of fun and hokiness in some of those images as well, which, again, you also see in my commercial work. I love the colors, the fun, the play, so it's kind of channeling both of those directions. So, yeah, I've got a long way to go, and I could see this being a project I work on for years and years to come, because I'm really passionate about it, but it's been great so far.
Angela Nicholson
Fantastic. So with the two photoshoots that you've done so far, have you had to persuade your model to do anything particularly or to convince them that you know the picture you really love is the right one to go on Instagram?
Delaney McQuown
Yes. So the first thing I preface with the shoots that I've done so far is they say, if at any point you are uncomfortable with the images or don't like them, I will not use them. I won't use them without your approval. We can look through the images together decide what is working, what's not working. So I always put that out there by knowing that this can just be an experience for you if you really don't feel good about the images. And I think that's important, because it lets women to kind of let their guard down a little bit. Another factor I've done to kind of try and break barriers is this specific series of photos I'm calling swimsuit season, and it's all women wearing their swimsuits. Because, again, that's another place where we put pressure on ourselves to be a specific way and have the right body. And I want it to be this declaration of, you know, again, this is what it is, and and so a way I take a garden down there and to try and make my subjects feel comfortable is I also wear my swimsuit as I photograph you. That way, we're both on equal playing grounds. The photographer doesn't have more power than you were both just playing, and a lot of the times, values props kind of have something to do with your hands or have something fun to exude. But it gets crazy, and I think music is also really important to play in and having fun with the music as well.
Angela Nicholson
So do you pick the music, or does your subject pick the music?
Delaney McQuown
So when I put out this call, I when I got all the people responding, I decided I need to come up with a way to organise all the people. So I did a Google Form survey, and in that I asked people specific questions about themselves, how old they were when they first became aware of their body and insecure of their body, things like that. We got into deep topics, but also some really light topics, like, what are your three favorite colours your favorite song? And in the survey, people answered those questions, so I was able to control the music based on what I knew they liked. And also, I think it helped me make the photo shoots feel as personal, personable as possible, because it's just as much supposed to be for the subject as it is for myself. And I'm just trying to, again, share this like liberation I found with others. So I want the photoshoot to feel really tailored and specific to that person.
Angela Nicholson
Has winning the award had a significant impact on your career yet, or perhaps maybe the way you feel about your photography?
Delaney McQuown
I think winning the award again, it was an incredible opportunity, because I had never left the United States, even so it was my first time out of the country, and then getting to go and see all this incredible work around you in an exhibit that impacted my work tremendously, because it's just so inspiring. And again, there were categories for everything imaginable, including just phone photographs, and I saw some really inspiring photography in that category that just made me think of how, like in my own project, I use the camera. But if someone's not doesn't have a camera except accessible to them, they could even use their phone as the way and means to find this, you know, acceptance with itself. So yes, everything has always makes me think, and it definitely had an impact on. Me in that way, in my creative side.
Angela Nicholson
Would you say you feel more confident as a result of winning?
Delaney McQuown
I think definitely it did help with that, because, like I said, I was even a little bit nervous to submit a self portrait to this competition with incredible art that's quite intimidating. And you know, as artists, I feel like we always compare and look around us before we actually look at ourselves. So yes, I had no clue that I was running, and it was extremely validating and exciting, and only got sparks going for me to keep continuing to work and keep submitting to things, which in school I submitted to a lot of gallery work, and kind of that tapered off once I got hired in a real adult job, but it's kind of brought that spark back as well.
Angela Nicholson
Oh, great. So what tips would you give to anyone about entering competitions? I mean, how do you select your images? For example, what do you shoot specifically for a competition?
Delaney McQuown
I think if I had the right time on my hands, it's possible that I would do that, but I think right now, it's just been like more plausible for me to try and find galleries or call outs, basically making my work fit for those so but as far as organizing my artwork, I use the various platforms, but You know, Photoshop, and there's a platform I use called Miro quite a bit, and it's online, basically a digital canvas, and you can just organize your work in that way. And I think seeing how work relates to each other is really helpful. And even making small like four by six prints, to see how your work rate works in relationship to another is also very helpful for me.
Angela Nicholson
So but when you're looking to specifically send just one picture, what's your process for finding the right image?
Delaney McQuown
I don't know if I have a specific process. I think you know when I shoot and I see an image, sometimes you just know that's the one. And so sometimes, like from each shoot, I have favorites, and if the call out, it seems like it fits, sometimes I just know it fits and and submit that way. I just have to trust my intuition. And, you know, go by that a little bit.
Angela Nicholson
Go with your gut. So, BLT contemplation, had you already shot that? Or did you shoot it specifically for the competition?
Delaney McQuown
I had already shot that, and I think I do work better that way. I don't. I've never shot for submission. I probably, I would, maybe consider that, but I think the work feels more candid and authentic when you're just shooting for yourself. And I think that's important shooting, and I think that's important in my process again, because shooting for yourself is that therapeutic moment, so I try and see how it can fit with the different submissions. But yeah, I had shot that in college a few years ago. Actually, probably three three years ago.
Angela Nicholson
Okay, so what would you say to anyone who says there's no point in entering a photographic competition because their work isn't good enough?
Delaney McQuown
I would say you should, by far, just submit. It doesn't hurt to submit. Just trying getting your work out there is never a bad thing. You should never be afraid of the rejection of it. As long as you feel good about your work, the work you're creating, and it sits well with you, I wouldn't put pressure on yourself to be accepted. Just see where it can take you.
Angela Nicholson
Okay, good advice. I know you, your project has now evolved, and you're photographing other people influenced by your self portraiture. But are you still continuing with the Self Portrait Project?
Delaney McQuown
Yes, of course. Again, I think it's important for that to be a lifelong journey, especially as I grow and change and evolve, by continuing to remind myself, this is what I look like. This is my image. That's great, like, let's have fun with it. I think that's super important to me. I think again, right now, I'm just trying to see how it can resonate with others. But yes, I will always continue to shoot myself the camera for sure.
Angela Nicholson
Okay. And how do you balance shooting personal projects when you're working all day in a commercial studio as well.
Delaney McQuown
I get asked this a lot, actually, but right now it has really been crucial to my personal work. Again, I have an amazing support system here. I can show my personal work and get feedback, just like I did in school with crits and critiques. I have that right at my hands and in school, we again forced the kind of conceptual thinking, but it wasn't very technical. And now I'm working in a place that the complete opposite were extremely technical, and that technical learning of knowledge is finding its way into my personal work, just making my work better, and I'm able to use the studio space on weekends, which is fabulous, and I'm so appreciative of that. So yeah, it's been amazing. And even if I'm shooting something that's e commerce and quite boring, something on white, I'm still implementing techniques that I can use in my own practice.
Angela Nicholson
It sounds like you've really landed on your feet, or you've landed a great job for your the point you're at in your career right now. You're learning a lot, you've got lots of support, and you've got people who can give you feedback.
Delaney McQuown
Totally I'm like, again, so appreciative, and I feel like, So lucky for my job, it's everything I could have wanted at this point in time, and it's been going great. So, yeah, it's been really good.
Angela Nicholson
Good. So I think that's a really good time to go to Six from SheClicks. I've got 10 questions from SheClickers, and I'd like you to answer six questions please by picking numbers from one to 10. So could you let me have your first number please?
Delaney McQuown
I will do a two.
Angela Nicholson
Number two, what is the funniest thing you've done to create a photo that question's from Liz.
Delaney McQuown
Oh my gosh. I'll have to think for a second, because I've done some pretty crazy things. I'd say one of the funniest things I did again, this is going back to college. It was in the middle of a snow storm, and I went outside in high heeled boots and with my tripod, and I pretended I was skiing on parking lines, lines and on parking cinder blocks. I pretended those are my ski boots, and I had so many college students walking around me, very curious what was going on that one, that was probably one of the funniest.
Angela Nicholson
Cool is that picture on your Instagram account?
Delaney McQuown
It is, it's somewhere on there. It's, you have the dig down, but I look like I'm skiing and I've got my hands like this.
Angela Nicholson
I'll check it out. That sounds really funny. Okay, can I have your second number then please?
Delaney McQuown
I'll do four.
Angela Nicholson
How do you make sure that your photography continues to evolve? That question is from Paula, and that could be from your commercial work or your personal projects.
Delaney McQuown
I think shooting, just shooting, shooting, shooting. Quantity over quality, you don't have to always be making the great image, but just making is important. So I try and implement that again. It's hard when you do work the same life that you want to be doing outside of work, to kind of find that balance. But I still try and implement it in some ways creativity in some ways
Angela Nicholson
That's a really important point. Actually, shooting a lot is very, very important because it's, it's really easy to learn, to well, to think you're learning new techniques by, say, watching YouTube or something like that. But actually, it doesn't really go in properly until you actually shoot the stuff, and you develop that muscle memory and that understanding and, you know, just develop some sort of connection with your camera, where your lights need to be, how colours work together, that kind of thing.
Delaney McQuown
Totally and I found that a lot again, because I went from being a photo assistant to Now, recently, I'm shooting more, so I'm having to implement the things I was watching for years. So that's also been implementing that same practicing it, yeah.
Angela Nicholson
So I guess you were used to doing a lot of setting up, but not necessarily composing the picture. So that's a whole new sort of level of significance, isn't it?
Delaney McQuown
Exactly, totally.
Angela Nicholson
Okay. So can I have your third number please?
Delaney McQuown
Sure. Let's do six.
Angela Nicholson
Oh, this is nice. I love your work with such differing subjects and styles. Where does your inspiration come from? And that's Penny, and I guess she's probably talking having looked at your Instagram account, and you know, seen all the variety of commercial work that you do,
Delaney McQuown
I have lots of inspirations. But artist wise, in school, I was really big into a painter, Jenny Seville, who did all self portraiture work, and I found that inspiring my photo work. And from a photographer perspective, I really love Parker day, and she photographs other people with, again, this very kitschy, vibrant, bold lighting. So I gained a lot of my inspiration from just looking around at other artists and other people and other peers.
Angela Nicholson
Do you ever find yourself walking down the street and you see a billboard? Ever you think, oh, I want to do something like that. That's, you know, in your commercial work? I mean, I know, obviously you get a brief from your studio and your clients, but do you try and sort of, you see something and think, Oh, we must try that with this one.
Delaney McQuown
Oh, totally. We're always doing test shoots around here. So again, it's a room of a bunch of creatives, so we're always finding things that we want to try, or I don't know how they did this, but let's try and figure it out, and we have an amazing retouching team as well that we're able to collaborate with, so they can sometimes help figure out how something might have been shot.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, actually, that is fun, isn't it? Where you try to recreate something, because often you don't recreate it, but you end up creating something else that you really like instead.
Delaney McQuown
Totally. Happens more often than not.
Angela Nicholson
So could I have your fourth number please?
Delaney McQuown
Can you remember if i gave eight or not? I don't think I did.
Angela Nicholson
No, you didn't. Okay. So do you enter competitions and awards every year? And if you do, is it always the same one? How do you choose them? Well, you said that you used to, and you're thinking about entering more now. So, so what's your plan?
Delaney McQuown
Yes, in school again, I was entering a lot because it was a requirement for my curriculum. And since being out of school, I kind of took a little break entering things, until last year, when I entered the Pink Lady. That was what's it called. Now it's called something different. Now I think, yeah, it's the world food photography awards. When I entered the world food photography awards last year, it really got my spark going again, so I definitely plan on submitting to that again this coming year, and also trying to find some other submissions I can do just through Google, Googling call for artists and any local galleries, because it reminds me how much I really do love seeing my work printed and on the wall cool.
Angela Nicholson
I know you said that you find it best to go through your archives and find something that fits. But now that you've had this bit of success with the World Food Photography Awards, and you're planning on entering again, is that kind of in the back of your mind, and you're sort of thinking, well, if I do this, and maybe I could evolve that, and you know, sort of coming up with something in the moment?
Delaney McQuown
Absolutely, when I've been doing my swimsuit season photographs, I've been implementing some food in those photographs as well, because in the back of my mind, I know I want to maybe use a couple of them, because it is a food based photography competition. So and again, that goes back to the little survey I had people fill out which one of the questions I asked was, What is your favorite food?
Angela Nicholson
Ah, good thinking.
Delaney McQuown
Yes.
Angela Nicholson
Okay, well, I look forward to seeing those entries. Can I have your fifth number, please?
Delaney McQuown
How about one?
Angela Nicholson
All right, do you do much post processing of your image, thinking perhaps of your self portrait images or your product shots. Now several people asked that, and you already mentioned you have a retouch team, but perhaps, do you do more if you're retouching yourself for your your personal work?
Delaney McQuown
Yes, so my, actually, one of my favorite parts of the process is retouching my own photos specifically for my personal project, because, again, it takes me back to, like, this sensation of painting, because you're getting to use your image and change colors, and it kind of just extends that process. So I love that, as far as commercial work goes, though we do have like, a team of retouchers, which I would argue, but I'm a little biased. They're like the best retouchers ever, that they do a lot of our commercial work here for the studio, and they're incredible, and do things I could never even know how to do. So that's kind of how that divides a little bit. But I'm always learning things from them, which is great, great resource.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, I think it's fantastic watching people who are really good retouchers, because they're so quick, and the changes that it can implement can be so dramatic too.
Delaney McQuown
Totally. They're they're wild, and they just do things so fast, and so in it, there's so many different ways to do something, so I'm always learning.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, okay, your final number, please?
Delaney McQuown
Umm, a three.
Angela Nicholson
Oh, this is an interesting one. What is your process and setup for shooting self portraits? And several people asked that.
Delaney McQuown
My process for shooting self portraits, it can be so random, like, I never know I'm in the mood to take a photo until I am, but I do have very random, but it's, again, something I actively try and do on the regular basis, but I usually keep it rather candid for myself. It's in the moment, for the most part, when I need it. But I have a tripod, I have a camera, a Canon camera, and then I have the Canon Connect app on my phone so I'm able to be tethered through my phone and shoot that way. So you might look at my page and see some photos where my phone's in it, and it's most likely because I was shooting with my remote trick there through my phone.
Angela Nicholson
Got you. So your BLT contemplation image was that a spur of the moment? Had you just got out the shower and made yourself a BLT and thought, Oh, the light's fantastic. I'll get a photo. Or was that a bit more planned?
Delaney McQuown
No, that was not planned. I had just gotten out of the shower. Before I got in the shower, I was taking a lot of photos for a crit coming up, and so I already had my camera out on the tripod, but I went and took a shower. And then when I came out of the shower, my roommate at the time had made me dinner. So she hated me this plate with a BLT on it, so I didn't even plan to have that for dinner. And then I was like, you know, this light is beautiful. It was actually at sunset, so I my tripod was already up, and I just took the shot from there. And so, yeah, that one was really spur of the moment. It's not always like that, but that one was, Wow,
Angela Nicholson
I'm amazed, but that's perfect. It's lovely that all came together like that.
Delaney McQuown
Totally. And I would also say that was like a moment again of contemplation, because, like, I just got out of the bathroom. I was looking in the mirror. I was kind of feeling self conscious about myself and and so a little bit more like a image where I. Is reflecting and thinking, and I think that shows.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, definitely does. It looks like you're enjoying the BLT as well.
Delaney McQuown
It was delicious. Can't go wrong.
Angela Nicholson
Well. Delaney, thank you so much for joining me on the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. It's been really lovely chatting with you.
Delaney McQuown
Thank you so much for having me. I was so excited, and, you know, very passionate about women in photography, so this was a great fit for me.
Angela Nicholson
Great. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to this episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Special. Thanks to everybody who sent in a question. You'll find links to Delaney's website and social media channels in the show notes. I'll be back with another episode soon. So please subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast platform and tell all your friends and followers about it. You'll also find she clicks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, if you search for SheClicks net. So until next time, enjoy your photography.
