Family Photos

Taking family pictures is a nightmare. But somehow it is one of those routine obligations for any family: having a photo on the wall of the happy family (and forgetting about the frustrations, tears, whining & nagging that actually dominated the day of the photo shoot).

We were in desperate need of updated photos for the frames in our living room (Erin is no longer 18 months old!), so I somehow convinced my Mom be our photographer. She's been learning photography for a few years, but her interest is more related to their travels than family photo shoots, so this was a first time experience for her.

So we set out one hot June morning in the lovely Texas heat. We had previously scouted out a location; I coordinated wardrobes for the four of us; I only bought 1 new article of clothing for the occasion; I ironed; I curled hair; I put together a bag of gimmicks to make the kids laugh; my Dad was on had as the family jester; I brought non-messy snacks (and a good assortment of it); I brought drinks. As the photographer, my Mom had a complicated list of things to consider:

*sunlight/shadows
*composition of individuals
*need a nice looking background
*both girls are in skirts - try not to get any underwear showing
*hair needs to be out of their eyes
*how to get them both looking at the camera at the same time (impossible, I believe!)
*and with really high expectations, how to get them both to SMILE at the camera...at the SAME time (beyond impossible!)....but not a fake "cheesy" smile

The morning of the shoot this ordeal became even more complicated when every possible thing that could go wrong, went wrong:

*I suffered from extreme light sensitivity that morning and could not open my eyes. Seriously, my eyes were closed for the majority of the pictures. I could not get them to open no matter how hard I tried.
*It was 100 degrees outside, so we were hot, sweaty, and tired. But we spent the whole time trying to convince the girls that they were not hot, sweaty, and tired.
*Within the first 15 minutes Elaina was stung by a wasp. Twice. On her forehead and on her arm. After some TLC, she was feeling ok so we proceeded to take pictures. However she was so distraught over what had happened to her that she didn't want to smile and would occasionally burst into tears just thinking about it. I don't blame her for being so sad about it, but having spent 3+ hours preparing for this, it was going to take a lot more than 2 wasp stings to get this Mom to quit the photoshoot early! So.... we instead tried to concentrate our efforts on getting Elaina to forget that it ever happened. We weren't too successful since she was either frowning or wallowing in her sorrows in most of the pictures. Poor girl. I really did feel badly :(

So....despite the wasp sting, the hot & humid weather, my eyes that would not stay open, and all the normal challenges that family pictures with young kids entail....I am happy to say that 529 photos later, we ended up with several good ones! My Mom was a saint and is very talented. Considering all the above complications, and the fact that she is an amateur photographer and has never done family portraits, the fact that we even got one good picture is incredible. We actually ended up with several good ones in each pose, and after a bit of Photoshop touch-up (to lighten up one picture, and fix wild hair in another), they will look great on the wall! The morning was a huge nightmare, and a huge success!