Thanks Michelle!!! i so much appreciate what you said...after all...u r the one who inspired me with your image. don't worry about my gallery, silly girl!!!! i'm just happy u looked...and i'm glad u like! i am the same with self-portraiture...it is a wonderful means of self-expression!!!! and u r absolutely right...it is VERY difficult to get in front of the cam and expose myself like that...and then to actually upload....makes my stomach knot. but so far no one has made distasteful remarks...u know the kind i mean. it is hard to do this when u r a woman. well, i take that back. i shouldn't generalize. it's hard for me to do as a woman. if i were a man i would not be scared to upload self portraits. anyway, it's even hard for me to face many of those images...regardless if i upload them here or not. getting older...and facing that...seeing that unmasked. health issues...and facing that...seeing that unmasked. these are not easy for me to see. the trick is to be able to look at myself and love who i am. anyway, thanks so much for your feedback and the nice things you said. i know my photography skills have much to be desired technically. looking in my gallery is like looking in a mirror. sometimes we have bad hair days!!! hehe.... but my gallery is a reflection of who i am. and i like what i see. i do this to please myself i guess i really don't need to ask, "Does my photography suck?" As long as I like it, that's all that matters. If it please or touches someone else in some way, then I'm happy! Thanks you Michelle and everyone else! I feel much better about all this! hugz sheila