Damn! Somehow I always get the worst-ever face-expression on photos!

Seriously, some of us have an amazing face and we even manage to get a few stares at the mall or at the bar, but when people ask us for a photo, we smile at their lenses and get the worst-ever face-expression clicked. In short, we look like dumb fucks in some photos.

A disclaimer: For the arrogant self-righteous man I am! I somehow feel I am above it and that I can advise people on how not to suck at smiling and getting photographed. Nah! Just kidding! For those of you who know me, know that even on my best days, I look just about average in all the photographs.

So yeah, I too suck at being photographed, but then, I know where the suck-a-bility comes from. So, here are a few tips:

• Throw two kinds of smiles and practice them: One is a parade-smile that we can throw for an hour. It's the smile that naturally comes when someone reminds you of a heartwarming success story from childhood. This looks very  sober and a bit formal. I tend to go with this most of the times.
  
  The second one is the happydent-smile. Show them your freakishly yellowish-white teeth. It looks really awesome to see this full-fledged smile. It's the smile you get when you hear a Sienfeld's joke.
  
  Practice the two smiles just so that you know how beautiful/ugly you really look! Also, remember that a natural smile gets your eyes and lips curled in a nice way, and an unnatural smile doesn't!
  
• Head tilts: Unless you are in the army, you don't have to keep your head perpendicular to the lenses. Just see the beautiful poses in the movies. Enough said. Tilt your head as you see fit.
  
• Stop forcing yourself on others: Some guys just put themselves on you for no reason. Seriously, stop that shit. It doesn't look natural. I used to feel that memories will be well cherished if all *them peoples* in the photo are very close to each other.  I was so fucking wrong!
  
  I cherish photos that look really natural even if everyone in the photo is not cozy with one another. And when I see people forcing themselves on others, it just looks stupid.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I like photos that have hands over shoulder/on the waist. All I am saying is, if it doesn't seem natural, it doesn't look good. Watch out! 

All that said, I have realized after seeing my videos or photos that somehow that guy in the video/photo isn't the real me. I feel it's because when we are being photographed, we unconsciously become showmen and we turn into something else. This faking is natural. So yeah, when posing, don't tell me to be natural because trying to be natural is unnatural. So, just live with the fact that all our snaps and videos (that you have posed for) are not completely natural.

If you want to capture your natural-self then you must tell the photographs to not ask you to say "cheese" or pose for a photo, and that they must click photos without your knowledge. These photos are by far the best photos. Actually, you will get great photos if you don't know that you are being photographed. So yeah! The best tip I can give you is to hire a nice photographer who knows how to capture your natural-self.

PS: To come to think of it, I think, this article is a piece of a big puzzle and that I (and some professional photographers) need to put in a few more hours of research on this.