Confessions of a Photographer Mom…

My kids don’t mind snapshots all that much, but when I pull out the matching clothes, they cringe…

I have no idea, whatsoever, why it always seems easier to get the perfect shot of someone else’s family, but it does. 

 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love snapshots.  If you’ve ever visited my home, you understand that.  I call the living room, “my gallery”.  The walls are covered in snapshots of life.  But I like a good, posed portrait, too, and as I was perusing the living room walls, this morning, it occurred to me that the last portrait of all of my children, together, that I loved enough to order a 16 x 20 and hang above the fireplace, was from almost three years ago.  Miah is about six months old.  Grace looks like a “baby”.  All of the boys have changed.  We needed a new picture.

And so the preparations began, and by the time everyone was dressed in those aforementioned matching clothes, to much chatter about how cool that is (from Caleb) and how not so cool that is (from Grace), we were off… 

I feel as if I have all but exhausted the good portrait taking spots in this town.  We tried some different places today, with mixed results.  I’m still not sure I have a portrait I really, really love, but I do think I have something with which to update the mantle appropriately.

Let me share some things.

#1  I am looking through the lens.  If the sun is in the kids’ eyes, I don’t always notice…  until I start shooting…  Then I can’t help but notice:

#2  I have come to terms with the fact that even if the sun is not in the kids’ eyes, Caleb will squint or look away…  in pretty much every shot.  He’s just cool like that:

#3  If, by some miracle, Caleb manages to open his eyes; some disaster will befall one of my other children.  Today, in that split second of opportunity, Grace sneezed:

#4  I am pretty sure at this juncture in our portrait taking relationship, Seth and Ian are afraid of me.  The two of them almost always manage to pull out a smile, even when the rest of their siblings are impossible:

#5  Speaking of Ian, I have been having terrible Mom guilt over the fact that his latest birthday pictures were taken outside… in the middle of a snowstorm.  There is something less than professional looking about his portrait that is currently hanging with all the rest.  I think it is the winter coat and look of sheer frostbite on his frozen smiling face.  I decided to do a few retakes, today.  They will never pass for December 26^th photos, but I’m OK with that:

#6  By the time we near the end of a photo shoot, you can almost count on me forgetting about the sun again:

This is my favorite from today:

When we got home, Grace changed her clothes, immediately, and Miah stripped down in the living room.  Don’t count on matching outfits for them next time around.  The boys will all probably need to be reminded of the value of changing your clothes more than once a week.  I guess I can continue to buy them matching stuff…

'Catch ya on the first day of school… maybe…

L.