My appearance has a way of changing over time and I often find myself with a buddy icon picture that doesn’t match. I’ve heard from multiple people lately that I need to change the picture since it doesn’t look like me now. I agree and I just uploaded a new picture last night.
Old:
New: 
I’ve been struggling with this whole process. The buddy icons are really important to me – that single picture is how the online world sees my appearance. If I think about it too long, it gets to be too big in my mind – too big to fit my requirements.
A few weeks ago, I decided I would try to take a good picture, so I drug my wife to the back yard with a camera and took pictures. What a weird and goofy feeling that is. There is something inherently narcissistic about taking pictures of yourself for such a purpose, in my mind at least. The results didn’t fit with what I wanted.
Luckily there are people like Kris Krug in the world, whose photos have a way of capturing the world in wonderful ways. At GnomeDex, Kris took a photo of me that I think makes for a good buddy icon and I’m thankful for not having to do it myself. It reflects a more serious and thoughtful version of me, as opposed to the more consistent happy, gregarious, goofy side of me, but I'm OK with it for now.
Thanks Kris!