family photos

Capturing a photo of my family smiling sweetly for the camera may seem like an easy task, but that task is far from simple. IF we are able to get even one decent photo of my crew, chances are there were a hundred photos before that that we utter failures. Thank goodness for digital images. The behind the scenes to get a good photo of my family could make for a hilarious outtake reel. I even included these outtakes on our recent Christmas card.

The enormous amount of bribing, threatening and sweet talking I do to coax my boys into smiling for the camera is ridiculous. I could spend hours trying to coordinate the kids’ outfits to go together just right for them to drop a wet M&M from their mouth five minutes after our photo session begins. Ruining that freshly pressed collared shirt with a piece of candy I just bribed them with.

My new motto is “just get them all in the frame.” There are several photos of my three boys were one is either screaming, crying, or running away. My middle tends to pout, arms crossed in the background of photos, and I love how that image captures his personality so perfectly. I’ve given up on trying to get the “perfect” photo long ago. Perfect isn’t real life. It’s not always smiles and hugs at my house, so why should our photos pretend like we’re always happy with each other?

It’s a very rare sight if all three of my boys are happy at the same time. Much less if those happy moments fall during a photo session. I just want to have visual memories of my boys at all stages. Happy, mad, toddler fits and all. I want to remember it all. So I take photos of them even when they are running away screaming or pushing each other away instead of hugging. I know I’ll love it later, and they will too. Some of my favorite family photos are during those moments that I attempted to get smiles, but ended up capturing real life with my boys.

These are a few of my family’s best worst photos:

Sibling problems

 

That time my son thought roaring at a fly would make it stop flying near his face.

 

When one brother’s love language is physical touch…and the other’s is NOT.

 

I have no words. 

 

The goal was to get a sweet picture of these three cousins matching and hugging. We failed.

 

Parent’s rite of passage is torturing our kids by placing them in the arms of a strange (and scary) giant bunny.

 

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