A couple of weeks ago, a favorite photographer of mine was running a special on family portraits. I, so badly, wanted my family to get one. The deal was he would snap about 5-7 photos and edit the best one. Then he would my post them online to a password protected site. It only cost us $30! This seemed like a great idea. He is a great commercial and family photographer. His work has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, and he is a chosen photographer for the Clinton Library. I tell my husband this and he's like - SO? He's got a camera and he takes pictures - Big Deal! I really try to breed culture into this family of mine but they constantly just let me know that NBA on TV, burgers, Xbox and Disney XD will suit them just fine. The Struggle is real!
The last
time I tried to get my family to take photos, my middle child was 3 months
old. Now that he is 7 and there is an extra child in the mix, I figured it was
about time to do it again.
When we
last took a family photo, my husband and oldest son complained...and…complained... and complained.
Why
are we wearing blue?
I
don’t want to wear blue.
You
don’t have blue on…why?
Why
are we wearing church clothes?
How
long is this going to take?
I planned everyone’s
outfit and yet, it still took us a longtime to get ready. I was determined to
be better prepared this time around. Here’s what I did
and my advice on how to make your family photo shoot less stressful:
1.
Scour Pinterest for ideas i.e. clothing,
color, theme, setting, etc. You get the picture. I based our outfits from my husband’s peach long-sleeve
button shirt. Make sure your other family members have outfits to go with your
inspiration. My daughter and youngest
son had nothing. I had to buy my
daughter a new outfit and my youngest son wore one of his brother’s old shirts. It was kind of cold and the shirt I found for
him was short-sleeved. That meant that he was going to have to be cold for
those 5-7 shots and the during time waiting for the photographer to call us prior to
the photo. I am a terrible mom but it’s all for the sake of a great family photo. Who knows when I’ll get the energy to force
these people to do this again?
2.
Make sure all clothing is clean the
night before. Don’t
wash any part of said outfits with black sneakers the night before. I made the
mistake of washing my husband nice shirt with my son’s black Nike’s. Epic FAIL! I really don’t know why I did
it. Trying to kill two birds with one stone, I guess. It looked like a
bicycle tire had invaded my husband’s neck and arms. I ruined his shirt, the shirt that I based
everyone’s outfit on! I discovered this tragedy an hour before we were to leave
for the photo. He was upset but promised he’d improvised. Oh boy!
3.
Have everyone eat BEFORE they get
dressed. My kids are messy eaters, even the twelve
year old. They were all dressed in record timing. I knew they’d be hungry but
they could eat later, or so I thought. They
all wanted to eat jelly toast. Yes,
people – JELLY TOAST. Last time I
checked, jelly is not invisible. Like I said before – THE STRUGGLE! When I
discovered my 12 year old had made the others toast for breakfast - I, figuratively,
skipped a 4 foot distance to intercept those jelly toast plates of destruction.
Oh no! Not in my our award-winning-photographer-low-cost-but-good-quality
pictures. Catastrophe evaded….WHEW! He would have never tried to be so helpful
any other morning.
4.
Know the photographer’s location at
least the day before the shoot.
I kind of knew where the photo would be but I didn't. Yeah, I know – NO CLUE. I knew the vicinity but that was it. Needless
to say, we were an hour late. We drove
to the park where I thought it was, but it wasn't.
I mentioned the park name to my husband and he immediately knew where
and so did my oldest son. I always underestimate my husband. I should give him more
credit. The photographer took us on. He was
still there in between shoots. It was a
family photo day. Good thing because
tardy was our name that morning. Why I never referred to Google Maps, I'll never know.
5.
Steer clear of dog poop walking up to the
photo shoot spot. Pet
owners you ‘gotta’ scoop the poop. I fussed at everyone this particular morning about applying
lotion to elbows, rubbing Chapstick to lips, and keeping food away from clothes but
I really didn't think about having to yell to my husband to catch my son from stepping
in the doggy do. We were walking up to the photo shoot and because I was on a
quest to block all things that could ruin my our family photo, my super mom senses laser-ed in on the poop pile. I yelled to my husband and I swear this scene
happened in slow motion. He grabbed my son around the waist just as he was about to ruin his shoes in the "prize" and whirled around in a circle like a ballerina and her partner and then ever so gently tiptoed over it himself. Yes, ladies and gentlemen - my husband is superman.
6.
Give your youngest time to warm up to
the photographer. She was mean-mugging through the whole
session. I guess the 5-7 shots were good
for everyone else but not her. She needed
time to warm up to this stranger pointing a camera at her family. This stranger
that kept repeating her name was not cool with her. The evidence is in the picture.
7.
When taking pictures outside make sure
that it is not too bright that your family cannot open their eyes. The sun was really nowhere to be seen
but if you already have tight eyes, it won’t take much to make them squint. It
was a bright beautiful day. When I saw the picture, it looked like we are all
struggling to open our eyes while smiling.
This was clearly a forced picture.
Even though
it took an act of congress to get this picture, I am glad we have one. There is record that my family exists and we
exist together - even if my husband and oldest look dorky, my youngest son was
cold on his birthday (Yep - I did this to him on his birthday), my daughter was a
mean toddler and I had too much going on around my neck (frills on blouse and a
scarf – fashion NO NO). I’ll take it
because I know everyone will have the memories leading up to the moment of the photo.
We were happy to be together.
