Body Confidence Photography with Bearded veteran photography

14/08/2023

Earlier today I announced on my photography page that I nearly had to down the business this month due to a lack of paid work (head on over to Bearded Veteran Photography for the full story). Fortunately after reading that a wonderful person paid me for photo's I took for them a while back which has meant I can keep the business going for another year and one of the pages followers has suggested that in order to ensure there's atleast some money coming into the business I make a subscription page that covers all 3 pages so that people can pay a monthly subscription in return for early or extra content, lives streams, Q&A sessions, discussions, group scale modelling sessions and I might set up a forum so that members can chat together if I get enough members etc.

Over the years I have photographed a number of local events both big and small and written articles about local business's etc and I've never charged anyone for that part of my work because I wanted to support my local community and hoped that the rest of my business would compensate and allow the business to keep running however this hasn't worked so in order to keep doing what I do I've created a patreon page (still figuring out how it all works) and I've only set it to £2 a month so if people are interested then feel free to click on the link below, join and I'll make sure to get cracking on some exclusive content just for my members.

And yes I am nervous as hell about this new chapter in the BVP saga.

Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!

27/07/2023

So after a couple of years running this page using my own photo’s to create posts without any hassle from the FB & insta gremlins, one of my posts has been flagged as potentially violating the nudity & s*xual activity policy.

This seems to be happening a lot lately & almost daily now I see followers posting how annoyed they are that the gremlins seem to be unfairly targeting them because of their size.
In a previous post I explained how the algorithm doesn’t actually make decisions based on the subjects size etc but on general information it has been taught to look out for, such as what a breast & hand looks like when the hand squeezes it in a s*xual way. It then uses that along with instructions telling it that if it can’t be certain then it should flag the image so that a human can decide. Which is why women with larger breasts are more likely to have content flagged even if they’re just holding their breasts to cover them where as more petite women seem to be able to get away with posting images more suitable for onlyfans. The reason being that when a breast is squeezed it causes things like a change in shape & skin tone due to shading around the hands & arms squeezing them which also happens when a woman with larger breasts uses her hands & arms to cover & support them. Where as those changes in shape & skin tones occur far less if at all in more petite women regardless of whether they are being overtly s*xual or not.

The same is true when it comes to things such as ni***es the algorithm doesn’t look for a naked ni**le, it looks for general shapes, changes in skin tones etc. Which is why petite women get away with a lot more because the outline of their breasts are less obvious & they tend to have smaller areolas so it’s a lot more difficult for the algorithm & a lot easier for the woman to disguise them & thus show more.

So having said that what did I post that made the gremlins think I might be posting nudity or s*xual activity? That’s right a picture of the box art for a scale model tank crew kit. Which just shows that the algorithms aren’t targeting they’re just not sure if they are detecting some of the details they’ve been taught to look out for.

14/07/2023

People can experience either a short term or long term loss of body confidence at any age & for any reason regardless of s*x, size or psychological disposition.

However generally speaking there are certain times in a persons life when this is more likely to occur.

One of those reasons that all adults are familiar with but try to quickly forget is puberty. Puberty generally starts around age 11 for girls & 12 for boys but it’s not unusual for it to start as young as 8 years old, generally finishing between the ages of 16- 18 but it can start later or go on for longer. However regardless of when puberty ends the human brain isn’t fully developed until the person is in their mid to late 20’s. This means that people between the ages of 8 and 30 are far more likely to experience body confidence issues due to things like the changes they’re going through, the lack of fully developed coping skills gained from life experience, peer pressure, media influence etc.

Another obvious flash point for low body confidence is during & after pregnancy because the body goes through a lot of incredibly rapid physical, chemical & psychological changes in a short space of time as well as the added financial & social pressures inevitably brought on by the pending arrival of a child.

Another might be a change in career especially if that career change involves a change in physical activity levels and fitness.
A sudden dramatic change in health can cause all sorts of body confidence issues because they can lose trust in their own bodies ability to function in a predictable way.

Old age often gets over looked in the body confidence movement but again it can have a huge impact because the body becomes so much slower & more fragile then it used to be, our physical appearance has changed dramatically compared to how it looked through the majority of our lives. People don’t treat or look at you the same & intimacy can be harder to come by.

All of these things can have a dramatic impact on body confidence & potentially mental & physical health, which is why it’s so important to talk openly about body confidence and not make assumptions about body confidence based on age, s*x, circumstances etc.

11/07/2023

Wahoo the page has now passed the 300 follower mark which is awesome.

Welcome to those who are new to the page, there are over 255 body confidence related posts on this page so please feel free to check them out, comment and discuss any of the topics and if you have a body confidence topic you would like me to cover then feel free to let me know and I'll do some research and write a post on it 🙂

19/06/2023

OMG I've just noticed.... the page is at 298 followers

How awesome thank you all for following I really appreciate it. Who knows we might hit 300 by Christmas 🙂 that'd be cool 🙂.

I know that probably sounds sarcastic but I promise it isn't, I'm genuinly surpised that I have so many followers on here.

15/06/2023

We’ve all heard the old saying ‘the eyes are the window to the soul’ but what does it really mean & how does it relate to body confidence? Well if you type it into youtube then your met with an endless list of religious videos with the occasional biology type video thrown in but neither of those relate to what most people mean when they use the expression.

What they tend to mean is that by looking into someone’s eyes you can get a fair idea of what they’re thinking at the time and whether they’re telling the truth or not. This is because none verbal cues account for around 55% of human communication and things like eyebrow movement, eye lid movement, eye movement, pupil dilation and contraction etc all play a really important role in this by allowing us to express emotions often in fractions of a second as we interact with others as well as allowing us to communicate when we are well outside of hearing range. What’s more is that these tiny changes are largely controlled by our autonomic nervous system usually in response to hormone changes caused by external stimuli such as the five senses or internal stimuli such as stress, excitement, emotions, pain etc.

This means that whilst we can adapt our body language to portray confidence to anyone that isn’t really paying attention, we can’t easily hide our lack of confidence to someone genuinely taking an interest in us.

This means it’s really important for us to work on our body confidence & self esteem because time and time again studies have shown that those who appear to have low self esteem or lack confidence are far more likely to be abused or assaulted because a perpetrator will instinctively recognise them as someone who is less likely to resist or stand up for themselves. Which means that whilst confidence is no guarantee of safety, working on it does increase the chances of a perpetrator deciding you wont be the easy target they’re looking for.

14/06/2023

For a lot of people the term fatigued simply means physically exhausted & in need of a good rest but for some fatigue can be much more. It can not only be a debilitating condition in and of itself but also a symptom of any number of conditions many of which can have a serious impact the persons quality of life & can be just the tip of an increasingly larger downwards spiral of physical & psychological health issues.

There are at least 16 symptoms of fatigue all of which are normal symptoms of sleep deprivation and countless other mental & physical conditions, which is why it’s important to speak to your GP so they can look at all your symptoms, how long you’ve had them, your medical history and circumstances to find the best way to help you.

Having said that it’s important to think of Fatigue as a symptom rather than a condition because whilst it can often be a sign that you simply need to make a few life changes but in some cases it can be a sign of an underlying condition. So let’s take a brief look at some of the causes...

Medical- regularly getting less than 8 hours of sleep a night (for adults), Sleeping for more than 11 hours a night, disturbed sleep due to noise or uncomfortable sleeping environment, lack of exercise, sedentary behaviour, conditions such as chronic fatique syndrome, fibromyalgia etc

Diet- low kilojoule, low carbohydrate diets & high energy foods that are nutritionally poor don’t provide enough fuel for the body & quick fix food & drinks such as chocolate & energy drinks give only a temporary boost before making fatigue worse.

Individual factors- stress, illness, injuries, money worries, working too much etc

Work related causes- shift work, long hours, irregular hours, excessive noise, uncomfortably high or low temperatures, boredom, working alone with little interaction with others, repetitive tasks requiring concentration, work related stress, burn out, unemployment.

Psychological- Depression, prolonged anxiety & stress, grief and many other mental illness’s.

So remember don’t ignore fatigue, it’s nothing to be ashamed of & can often be easily sorted but on the off chance it’s can’t then it’s better to have the right help and support in place to give you the best quality of life possible.

13/06/2023

05/06/2023

As anyone with children knows, pregnancy is an incredible time in a relationship & it brings about so many rapid changes some of which are short term & others are more long term or even permanent.

Now obviously being a man I can’t begin to understand what it’s like for the woman on a personal level so in that respect I’ll have to remain objective however it’s exactly because I’m a man that I can share with you a view point that men rarely talk about especially to their partners & that’s how pregnancy and it’s many changes can affect the man.
So we all know roughly what to expect in terms of physical & hormonal changes during pregnancy & it’s totally understandable that it makes the woman self-conscious but did you know it also triggers changes in the man as well?

This is due to several factors not least because the hormonal changes in a pregnant woman also change the pheromones her body releases & that’s detected by her partner on a subconscious level. This can trigger massive swings in mood and libido throughout the pregnancy, it can change the way the man feels & thinks about his partner often making him see her in less of a s*xual way & more of a goddess that should be admired & protected kind of way. It even causes an estimated 80 to 90% of men to experience a sympathetic pregnancy where he will go through many of the same symptoms as his partner which in some cases includes a swollen belly and even “labour pains”.

All this on top of what she is experiencing can obviously make the woman feel more insecure especially as men tend to take on the strong stoic protector role during pregnancy & forget the importance of two way communication resulting in them not explaining to their partner about the changes they are going through as well leaving her to feel like her man doesn’t find her attractive or love her as much as before she got pregnant.

So ladies remember... if he changes during your pregnancy don’t jump to conclusions or blame your appearance because often those changes mean he loves you more than ever and guys remember... speak to your partner because this is your journey too and she needs to know you've got her back on every level.

24/05/2023

As anyone who has followed this page for a while knows, these last few months have been unusually slow for me in terms of posts and put simply that's because I don't know what people want to read anymore.

I've researched and written 250 posts since I started this page, I've covered topics that most people wouldn't have the confidence to speak about openly especially men and I've managed to do so without causing offence to anyone (as far as I know) and have had some really positive feedback and interesting dicussions around the topics with people from all backgrounds.

However I now need your help because I need to know what you want me to cover, what body confidence issues you want to see discussed and raise awareness of. If you have a body confidence question you want me to research and write about then ask it, even if you want me to keep you anonymous I can do that. I can guarentee that if there's something that bothers you or interests you about confidence there will be hundreds if not thousands of people in the world that feel the same but either haven't seen anything written about it or don't have the confidence to talk about it but guess what...... I do!

So please help me to not only help you but other people aswell by asking questions, recommending topics and even engaging with posts so that I know what sort of topics people want to know more about.

Anyway I hope to hear from people soon and I look forward to researching and delving into more of the body confidence topics that matter to you.

Peace
BVP