Every client I meet for a photo session makes the same assumption about my life as a photographer: that I have “amazing photos” of my family!
Um, yeah, no.
I can’t really take amazing photos of myself (seriously have you tried to actually get a great photo of your entire family using the stupid timer?!), can I?
So, self-family portraits are out and, technically, we’ve not had a professional photo done of our family since, well, never.
Yep.
The last time we got in front of a lens together in a planned way (meaning, not scowling at my mom, sans makeup, on Christmas morning) was when we went to the Picture People when #2 was about 5 months old.
#3, clearly, is not in that photo.
Or any family photo since.
Which, were I a person still capable of feeling shame, would be as shameful as it is ridiculous.
But, that’s not even the most ridiculous part of it.
People actually think that, because I’m a photographer, I also have really great photos of my Dudes together.
Crazy talk.
The main thing I have going for me when taking photos of other people’s kids is fear factor.
My being a loud talking stranger with a humungosaur camera pointed at them coupled with whatever mostly-empty-but-still-semi-effective threats the parents have laid down before my arrival works in my favor to set up a situation wherein the children, crippled by fear, seek to earn my approval and avoid my wrath by following my directions.
Depending on the heat index and how close the session is to either lunch or nap time, it usually burns off within 30 minutes.
My kid’s desire to please me burned off years ago.
And, without (and sometimes even with) proper bribing, there is little cooperation to be enjoyed when I pull out my camera to make holiday magic.
Fortunately I don’t really give a care.
To me, a brilliant image is one that captures the human in the moment. Filled with emotion, and reacting to whatever is happening just as the shutter snaps.
I love capturing my family as they are now. Even if it isn’t perfectly posed or even dressed in clothing…
Perfectness can be found even if clothing and smiles and the ability to friggin’ sit still without fighting, crying, or being annoying for more than a second can not.
When the love between the subjects is evident…
When the image instantly reminds you exactly what was said or felt…
So to me, my pictures of my boys are perfect.
Perfectly chaotic, perfectly loud, perfectly obnoxious, perfectly beautiful. Just like they are.
I sometimes fall into the I-just-want-one-photo-where-no-one-is-screaming-or-being-pile-driven-into-the-ground-while-also-looking-into-the-camera-or-so-help-me moments.
Then I yell.
A lot.
And usually end up with this…
Eh. Not my best work, but it’ll do for holiday card fodder.
I want them to depict what life is truly like at The Casa.
I want people see how I’m livin’ so they’re inclined to send gifts of cash or edible sweet things to get a true picture of life with The Dudes.
So, while we may end up with one half-way-decent-at-least-no-one-is-cockeyed-even-if-one-is-scowling-and-the-dog-is-being-asphyxiated shot; it takes all that other nutty to get to it…
So, don’t feel bad if your holiday cards aren’t the bomb.
It happens to the best of us.
Do you take your own holiday photos?!
This month’s Wordful Wednesday theme is encouraging you to do exactly that!
Post your Holiday Happiness (can be your family photos or any other holiday related item that helps you get your happy on) and then come share it with us on December 16th.
Why so early this month?!
Because this month’s sponsor, Magic Cabin*, wants to make sure that one of our lucky readers will be able to receive some holiday happiness from them in time for Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanza or Thursday, whatever floats your holiday boat)!
They have everything from award winning arts and crafts supplies to pretend play and dress-up accessories imaginative boys and girls are sure to love. So many of this year’s hottest and coolest holiday gifts can be found at Magic Cabin.
One lucky person who 1) posts about their holiday happiness, 2) links back to us for Wordful Wednesday (can be me and/or Angie), AND 3) includes their post in the Holiday Happiness linky on 12/14 will be selected to win a $50 gift card from the Magic Cabin, makers of holiday magic!
Now, if that doesn’t put you in the happy holiday spirit, I don’t know what will!
Have something to be Wordful about this week? Link up and then head over to Seven Clown Circus and check out Angie’s Wordfulness too!
*pBd Admits it’s Free: Magic Cabin provided me with an awesomely magical gift to as part of this promotion. I like it because it’s awesome, not because they told me to say so.
**Official contest rules: one link will be selected on 12/16/11 at 7pm Eastern time. Winner must live in the US and have followed ALL of the aforementioned rules to be eligible to win. Winner will be contacted by email and must respond within 48 hours in order to receive the gift.
And I was totally hoping it got easier to take a family photo as the kids grew! Trying to get my three girls to cooperate is essentially impossible, but! if I take a ton of pictures really quickly, sometimes I am able to cheat and blend a few photos together, ha!
Your kids are so cute. They get cuter every time I visit. Seriously : )
I don’t think it is your fault about the ninja comment in the post above. We can’t expose them to every single thing. It is virtually impossible. You are a great Mom!
You’re so right. I love that we have the ability to get all kinds of “real” shots of our children these days with the technology available to us. All your photos of the Dudes make me smile from ear to ear. :D
I’m no pro, but my boys do love posing for me. Totally love it. I just never get myself in the pic. Finally this year we had some awesome ‘candid’ shots taken, my photog said she’s sending me a disk of over 100! GAH! How to choose!!! the few she showed me on preview were totally rad. She captured the dudes so perfectly.
You sure make pretty kids lady!
I haven’t tried to take a self family picture. We went to Picture People and got ours done, and it was a trying experience. My hubby is not a ham for the camera like me, and D man followed his lead. He’s normally just as much as a ham as me as is the princess J. For that stress I probably should have just done them myself, lol.
I am having the worst time trying to get a picture of my daughter for our holiday cards. I am ready to just use a picture of her running away from the camera.
Oh my goodness, the nose photo is just PRICELESSSSSSS!! love it :D
You mean yelling isn’t mandatory in photography??
your kids are awesome. Wild and crazy is the way to go ;) – btw and cute too…but I think you know that
Like you I much prefer capturing my family as they are because surprisingly it really does capture them at their very best…even if it the shot is of them at their worst.
Our last formal family photo was when my #4 child was a squirmy toddler which was a LONG time ago given my #5 child is going to be 10 in January. But one of my favorite photo of all of us together was taken by my sister in law getting a quick shot “since we all were standing still together”. It wasn’t posed or planned yet the seven of us look really good standing all together.
So I bought a remote for my camera. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m SO hoping it works. David likes all four us to be on the Christmas card. That usually involves me getting them all set up and then running around to get in place before the 10 seconds are gone.
Since this is true confession time… We haven’t had a family photo made since Bud was born either. I haven’t even had the kids photos made since his first Christmas. It is just such a hassle that I don’t bother. I also feel guilty about that at times.
I do want that one good professional picture of my family. Professional because I won’t even attempt to do it myself. In the moment pictures usually turn out pretty good, but if I try to do the pose and smile thing, my kids looks horrible!
Love that puppy face on the photos!
I too usually go for the photo where no one is being choked.
Perfect photo?! Does that exist?
I don’t think I could ever try and get a picture of all of us together using the timer. that’s just a recipe for disaster…and alcohol abuse (on my part). ;-)
Love your holiday card. I decided to use some of my outtakes on my card this year too.
Saying cheese is for wimps.
Unposed – and heck, even unclothed – is where it’s at.
We haven’t had family pictures taken since Princess Nagger was 3…she just turned 9. I guess we’re overdue. ;) I think your pictures are perfect – the spontaneous ones are definitely the best. :)
We don’t take our own. We don’t take any. How’s THAT for ridiculous? While we do have multiple recent photos of the kids altogether (by accident!), one with all of us with the stupiddumbcomeonseriously timer doesn’t exist since back when the boy was first crawling. As for professional photos? None of us as a family, but ONE of the cousins in the family. About 6 years ago when none of them was over 5.
Maya is getting right HUGE!
I always love the photos of your kids! I wish I knew how to wield a camera like you do!
I swear we only have two family portraits. One with one kid and one with both kids. lol
Believe me, I get it. I have the most photogenic child, when I’m not taking the photos…Ironically, my Wordless Wednesday is our family portraits…:)
At least you did a “real” photoshoot with your family at least ONCE. Me and mine? None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. My DH is even getting on me about it! Ugh. I tell him I like the timer on my camera just fine. It’s called FREE. LOL!
too funny as I JUST wrote a post about how I have to LOSE my mind in order to get a decent picture for our family cards. haha
I LOVE yours! Reminds me of my blog header… if you look closely, frame to frame, you can see Will tearing away from my other kids ;)
That’s real life!
I take my own holiday photos for the cards every year and they’re nowhere near professional, but they reflect my children’s personalities. You take photos that put mine to shame. In other words, I think you do great with pictures, regardless of how the subjects are acting. I used to be psychotic about capturing the “great” shot, but I’ve come to learn the best photos are natural, unposed, and just capturing everyday things. If only I could get my mom to realize that too!
I love the shots you get of your boys. There is a realism that can’t be matched by pretty posed shots. Just consider yourself a Photojournalist, Mama!! The XMas cards are gonna be great!
I just love some of the shots we get of our boys together! And we have yet to get a decent family pic together, and we used a remote!
So much more fun to have the fun and goofy!
We did take our own pics and I think after about 300 we got a couple decent ones!
I think the real ones are way better than any awesome ones you can get. They seem to capture your kids!
That picking nose picture is awesome!!!!!!!!! Hahahha!
Thanks for the reminder. Ugh. I still need to get a family shot. Or at least a good shot of my boys for cards….I like the ones that look “real”. So yours are always da bomb!
I hear you! My kids are the WORST for me. And my husband is no better. ;)
I can SO relate Amanda! I guess it’s great that I take beautiful photos of other people’s kids…. If I lived near you I would totally trade with you so we could BOTH get some good pix!
You always take stunning photos of your boys. You do such a great job of capturing them in the moment. :)
Looking forward to meeting you next week – NEXT WEEK!!!
I love it….it captures the real kids at that moment. I need to learn to lighten up when it comes to pics, I get so stressed!
At our house it is daddy who is the big threat. So I set up the tripod and the shot and he tells everyone to smile or else. Last time the boys were having so much fun saying “cheese” 500 times in a row that we actually got a nice picture. Go figure.