Profile photos – what a pain in the butt, hey? Every time you sign up for some new social media service or want to comment on someone’s blog you’re asked to provide a 100 x 100 jpg of yourself so that other people can see what you look like and pass superficial judgment on you.
Like most people I don’t have a professionally shot portrait of myself lying around on my hard drive to crop and use. The only author photo I ever had taken was back when No Shitting in the Toilet came out. It was on film and I never got the negatives.
I have a handful of faithful photos I turn to when the need arises. A shot of me standing in front of the basilica in Esquipulas in Guatemala. Another of me in Moscow in front of a random, suitably Soviet poster. And if I want to appear really enigmatic, I use a photo where I’m obscured by a huge telephoto lens. That one was taken in Primrose Hill when I spent the day with some paparazzi.
Apart from the paparazzi one, none of them are particularly recent. The pic from Moscow was taken in 2007. And the photo from Guatemala – and the one I use most – was taken way back in 1999, nearly 12 years ago.
The other day I changed my Twitter name to @realpetermoore. Long story short, there’s another Peter Moore who’s got a book coming out who nabbed @petermoore, so I thought I’d trump him by taking the ‘Hollywood’ approach of sticking ‘real’ in front of my name.
It got me thinking. How ‘real’ is using a profile photo that is close to 12 years old? It’s a bit like putting an ancient, flattering picture of yourself on a dating website. Tantamount to false advertising.
So in the spirit of ‘realness’ I present my new profile photo. Taken this morning at 10.37 using the webcam and Photo Booth program on my Mac.
It’s a bit overexposed but I kind of like that.
It helps hide the wrinkles!
This is where you'll find everything you need to know about me and my books.
Why have you got a woolly hat on?? Do you not have central heating in your house?
Not up in the loft – or as we call it down here in the south, the ‘garret’.
No way, Jose… Peter Moore. There is nothing worse than the author who needs glasses to read the ingredients on packages in a grocery store but still using photos of himself from three decades ago to sell himself.
Unless you lead a hermit lifestyle you will get caught out sooner or later.
I remember seeing a television interview with Tom Robbins, one of my all-time favourite authors and being shocked by how old he looked. Not that I expected him to be a spring chicken. He was writing in the ’60s and took a lot of drugs. He’d just looked so sprightly in his author’s photo in his latest book.
It was quite distracting actually. I ended up digging out the book during the ad break. On closer inspection he was just as wrinkly in the author’s photo. It was just clocked by a baseball cap, sunglasses and a funky t-shirt.
Lol its amazing what a baseball cap and funky t-shirt can do to some people!
I find the whole profile picture thing annoying, but kris managed to post a load up on my facebook, oh well damage done.
So peter have you lost weight dude? or you on some mad auzzie diet? ya looking well bud! The webcam is a wonderful device isn’t it
hop you and yours are good and well…
Mitch
Good clean living mate! Finally got around to shifting the extra kilos picked up on my jaunt around the UK. I’m not as young as I used to be and all that cider, real ale and curries all took its toll!