That's me back early one morning in February 2001 on the Quai d'Orleans. I was working at creating a cover image for a photo magazine using the Nikon Coolpix 990. This "selfie" was taken with my Nikon F100 and 14mm lens on a tripod using the self timer, and judging how well lit I am, I'm guessing I had a Speedlight snooted on me providing fill flash.
Why was I restricting the flash output to just me? Because this area is not only unlit this early in the morning, but it's also decidedly dim due to the embankment behind me. There'd be no motivation to seeing light in this area naturally. At the same time, I didn't want me to just disappear as a shadowy blob. Given another chance at this shot, I'd probably pull the flash output down another third or half stop. And then some photo editor would probably ask the creative department to pull me back up a third or half stop ;~).
This is a tricky situation (how much fill light to give a subject in shadow). I'd argue that since I'm an integral part of this image, you can't let me disappear or get muddy. On the other hand, at this level of flash I'm about the brightest thing in the scene, which is a little on the unnatural side.
