I love taking pictures. I especially love taking pictures of my kids and pictures of tourist attractions when I travel. I once even considered taking photography classes so I could become a professional photographer on the side. That never happened, but I still enjoy taking pictures even if I have no idea what I am doing. Since becoming a mom, I always schedule an annual family photo session with a photographer.
I absolutely love it, but the problem is that the rest of my family dreads it.
It all starts in the hospital. You know, the photographer in the hospital who randomly pops in and says, “I’m here to take newborn pictures” and the mom is never ready and cannot be in any pictures because she has just given birth and looks and feels terrible. Then, you have to wait a few days so you can recover and look presentable for another photographer to come to your house to take pictures. You have to plan those sessions so carefully, around feeding time, so that your baby will cooperate. Now that my kids are older, they will participate during our photo shoots and I always have plenty of time to prepare and look presentable. What you often cannot see in these photos is what moms go through behind the scenes to capture what appear to be perfect little moments on camera.
During the toddler years, I had to plan our photo sessions either before or after nap time, but you know what would often happen? They would still fall asleep on the way, and I would get frustrated and stressed and would worry about if they would be in a good mood and smile in the photos. Toddlers have a mind of their own, so you just never really know what you are going to get. It’s always a toss up. There are a few pictures of my daughter as a toddler in which she refused to smile. It just portrayed her personality as, “I like to sleep so don’t wake me up from a nap to take pictures.”
But, at the end of the day, does it really matter if they have the perfect smile?
Another huge and important part of planning out these sessions is the outfits. What is everyone going to wear? I do not make my family wear matching clothes, but I do like to coordinate colors so that we will look fairly stylish and not clash. My son does not particularly like to dress up and he absolutely hates wearing jeans. I’m almost certain that I buy him jeans once a year specifically for our family photos. One year I decided at the last minute to schedule our photos at the beach because we were going to be there for Thanksgiving. When I spoke to the photographer on the phone, he mentioned that we should wear white, khaki or jeans because those colors look best in beach scenes. This was on a Monday. We were leaving on Tuesday. None of us had those colors. I frantically began searching online, making phone calls, and putting items on hold. I stopped on the way out of town to pick up and purchase the clothes. The shirt for my son ended up being too small, so we rolled up the sleeves. The jeans were way too big so he had to squeeze into the same jeans from the previous year. Thank goodness we took the photos barefoot, so you couldn’t tell they were too short. He was so uncomfortable, but you would never know from looking at the pictures.
I still have to plan our photo sessions carefully because now my kids have soccer or basketball games almost every weekend. We also often attend Tennessee football games on Saturdays. Last year, our session was right after one of my son’s basketball games and right before a Tennessee football game that my husband and son were planning to attend. So, after his basketball game, he had to change from his sweaty uniform into a “dressy” outfit in the car. I worried that he would look sloppy and sweaty with messed up hair and a red face. Our session took place outside at Sequoyah Park. While we were taking the pictures, we could hear the fireworks from the Tennessee football game that was about to start. My husband and son were ready to go and wanted to hurry and finish. Once we quickly finished up, they had to change clothes again, in the car, so they could make it to the game. It was hectic, but I considered it a win-win situation. I got my family photos, they got to go to the game.
I love that photographers are able to capture such sweet moments so that nobody can tell by looking at the pictures what the situation really was behind the scenes. With that said, every year I always love our family photos. They always turn out great and make us look so perfect. However, just know that while many family photos may look perfect, the moments leading up to them are often full of a lot of planning, stress, and complaints. Those of you who take family pictures multiple times a year, I have no idea how you do it, but I admire you.
