Pics or GTFO

Being taken seriously online.

Okay so here's something that 'normal' (not cross-dressers or trans.) folks wont really be familiar with. However withing the niche corner of the interwebs there is a strange phenomenon occurring on a daily basis.
I never really see it happening to 'normal' (I keep using the commas around 'normal' don't I. I'll stop it, lets just pretend, there is such a thing as normal.) people unless they were pushed while taking the photograph.

Ladies, gentlemen and all in between, just £2 a month could help cross-dressers, the world over, to learn how to aim a camera. The world is being denied their beautiful faces because of a lack of proper training about the highly technical operation of today's modern digital cameras.
They spend so much time trying to work the thing, they forget to aim it.
After all the time this person spent stealing their wives clothes, we don't get to see what must be a makeup masterpiece. Well it must be, because everything else about the picture just screams 'perfection'.

The uninitiated may laugh at this.
And they would be right to.
Why would anyone do this?
Well I've asked this question before in numerous forums, message boards and chat rooms, not only does it create a lot of hostility. A real lot. But all I get in response is a resounding
"To protect my identity".
The uninitiated may think this is fine.
And they would be somewhat wrong to.

Let me put it to you like this.
You (a crossdressing male) post an image of yourself in your feminine finest on the internet. On a site designed for members of the trans community to congregate and discuss matters, post pictures, shoot the breeze and whatnot.
Then someone you know (a normal) finds a picture that they recognise to be you, in your feminine finest.
Who are they going to tell? Really?
How and why did they find this picture? What were they looking at?
That's a lot of explaining for them to sort out.

I've also asked this question in response to the "To protect my identity" crowd.
And all I get is,
"Well that should be up to me whether or not I choose to put pictures of my face online".
And while I agree with that, I also hate it.
It seems like a reasonable thing to say, but online, communication is already difficult as much of the time is spent communicating in text. So tone, body language, facial expression are all lost.
Wouldn't it be nicer if there was a human face to assign to the words on screen, to ease the dry clinical nature of pure text.?

[Photo previously here, removed at the request of the owner - 

Photograph was of crossdressed male with face scribbled out]

Is it just me or is that just outright disturbing?
A picture with the face scribbled out. Don't they use this a lot in horror films?
I digress.

I commit a decent proportion of my income and free time to making myself look... Not good, but reasonable. And while I may never pass, in my head at least, I manage to pull off femininity fairly well. I make no issue of covering my face or just straight cropping my head off, I just post what turns out at the end of my work, and that's what you get.
If there is an edited picture of me, you generally will know about it because it has a stupid title like
#allthefilters, which spell checkers just love.

And then there are people who just cut out all of the work entirely and just lie, steal the pictures from elsewhere. To me, this is just misrepresentation bordering on fraud.

It's difficult online to get yourself across in the manner wish, mainly for the reasons I listed earlier.
In my opinion it's made harder by people who do not share my level of presentation standards who wish to try and be my bestie with a gallery full of fake, manipulated, poor quality or lack of pictures of themselves.
Words mean little on the internet, anyone can write anything they wish.
Pictures go a long way with me. If you're smart enough and not deluded, I would advise you to be of the same mind. Video calls are even better, because it's pretty hard to photoshop a live video feed to make someone look skinny. But that's another matter.

I guess what I'm getting at, for normal folks and crossdressers, is how can you really expect anyone to take you seriously online if you post no pictures of yourself?
And I mean recent, high resolution, well lit pictures.
Ones that you haven't conveniently edited to remove some hideous flaw. If there is a hideous flaw, work on it before you hit the shutter button, not after. Learn to use makeup, buy a good wig.
Even just having a shave FFS - If this is you, sort it out. It's like crossdressing 101 up in here.
Lesson 1 - SHAVE!
Just be honest with people, it's surprising what you will achieve.
That's today's rant complete.
I wish you all the very best.

Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and don'f forget to hit that button and follow the blog!!

Love ya lots
Samantha xxx