Today I took the kids to have their Christmas pictures taken and my sweet husband took an hour out of his day to meet us and witness the chaos first hand. Our appointment was at 9:20 am. I was confident with this going well because it was first thing in the morning, both kids were in great moods and their Christmas outfits were stain-free. We were off to a great start. All I needed was one photo....just ONE for our Christmas cards (which I have tried to get several times and have been defeated by Braden, now it is someone else’s turn).
I am pretty sure our photographer earned her days pay in the hour she spent with us AND was glad to see us go. (I was also secretly glad to see it was not just me, Braden will not sit still for anyone.) Brynn was very patient and did exactly as she was told while Braden was a ball-of-energy with no cooperation what-so-ever. We would sit him down and he would get up and run off. We did this over and over. Our photographer tried everything to get his attention; stuffed animals, a feather tickler, a ball, jumping up and down, clapping loudly - nothing worked. She gave him an ornament (in the shape of a ball) from the prop tree and he threw it! We went through "presents", a book and sitting on a stool which was three feet off the ground! I thought the stool was the ticket since he could not jump down, but it still took an entire hour to get 20 shots (and that included the bad ones).
When were we leaving I saw an ad in the window stating, "choose from 50-75 pictures in an hours session" and thought, not today. We did get out with our ONE photo and I must admit it was the cheapest I have ever paid for pictures. It is the only photo where they are both in the photo and looking at the camera. And for me…well every time I look the photo I will know right after the photographer snapped the photo Braden was literally up and running. So when you receive your Christmas cards…..look for the little boy who could not sit still…you can almost see him in motion.
I am pretty sure our photographer earned her days pay in the hour she spent with us AND was glad to see us go. (I was also secretly glad to see it was not just me, Braden will not sit still for anyone.) Brynn was very patient and did exactly as she was told while Braden was a ball-of-energy with no cooperation what-so-ever. We would sit him down and he would get up and run off. We did this over and over. Our photographer tried everything to get his attention; stuffed animals, a feather tickler, a ball, jumping up and down, clapping loudly - nothing worked. She gave him an ornament (in the shape of a ball) from the prop tree and he threw it! We went through "presents", a book and sitting on a stool which was three feet off the ground! I thought the stool was the ticket since he could not jump down, but it still took an entire hour to get 20 shots (and that included the bad ones).
When were we leaving I saw an ad in the window stating, "choose from 50-75 pictures in an hours session" and thought, not today. We did get out with our ONE photo and I must admit it was the cheapest I have ever paid for pictures. It is the only photo where they are both in the photo and looking at the camera. And for me…well every time I look the photo I will know right after the photographer snapped the photo Braden was literally up and running. So when you receive your Christmas cards…..look for the little boy who could not sit still…you can almost see him in motion.
2 comments:
Someday, Shanda, I will share with you my patented technique of dropping mini M&M's in the mouths of children each time they smile nicely for a picture. They're like trained seals now. Smile... Snap photo... open mouth... chew candy...suck chocolate off the teeth...repeat as necessary.
I just showed Davis your commentabout the acorn and I showed him YOUR blog. He looked at the pictures across the top and said, "How many kids does she HAVE?!" heehee
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