Family Pictures

Family pictures. What can I say.  Every few years we do our best to get a good shot of the family, but there is always a story associated with the photo session which explains why the pictures are less than picture perfect. But, it's much better to have fun-family-picture-taking-stories than to have a picture good enough to blow up poster-size to hang on the wall. Right? (Sigh) I'm working at believing that.

I do secretly wish for that poster-size print of all of the family looking just spiffy and smiling (with eyes open), so I'll keep trying every few years.  I'm a glutton for punishment.  


This is our most recent attempt.  We found a great photographer and planned to meet at Officer's Row in downtown Vancouver, a lovely spot with old houses and lots of greenery. We color coordinated outfits and curled and straightened and got ourselves presentable looking on a Friday evening.

Oops . . . mistake #1.  We were so busy making ourselves presentable that we forgot to make sure Child #4 ate a good lunch and a snack.  This child  doesn't usually enjoy eating and sometimes doesn't remember to eat unless we remind him.  When he gets ornery and out of sorts, he doesn't make the connection to his empty stomach. We didn't realize the error until we were at the pictures. So the stage was set for disaster.

Mistake #2 . . . well, Mother Nature was in charge of this one.  The weather had been nice all week and overcast for most of the day, but a few hours before the pictures the buckets of heaven started pouring down water. And poured. And poured. It was cold (high 40s), a little windy, and really humid and wet.  But, this was the only day available for pictures before Brandon left on his mission. We took the pictures on the big wraparound porch of one of the houses on Officer's Row. Behind us, the sky poured big sheets of rain. It was still a pretty spot, but it would have been nice to be out amongst the greenery and flowers.  Luckily, our photographer had a great lens which somehow captured light where there was none.

Joseph was really bothered by the weather.  He doesn't like picture-taking under the best of circumstances, and he was cold and uncomfortable and wet and seriously unhappy. And our hair which was so carefully straightened or curled?  It reverted to its usual state in a quick hurry, with plenty of frizz. Dan would like to point out that he doesn't have this problem.  His problem was that what little light there was bounced off his bald head, creating the illusion that he didn't have a complete head.

Mistake #3  - We never should have questioned Joseph's fashion sense.  About a month ago he suddenly began tucking in all his shirts (even jackets) into his jeans.  He needs a really "tight tuck" into the jeans, with no bagginess whatsoever in the shirt. The pants must be pulled as high as possible past his waist, Urkel-style. We had the audacity to question this sartorial choice as we began the photo session, and MAN did we pay for it.
This sweet child refused to cooperate with the picture taking.  Wouldn't smile.  Wouldn't stay put.  Wouldn't look at the camera.  Made it impossible to get many family shots.  We pulled out every bribe and threat at our disposal, but to no avail. Double Sigh.
What could we do?  Our great photographer took pictures anyway. She captured some great shots of the family in small groups.  We wish we had been able to try for more family shots (remember that poster-sized picture for the wall that I long for????) but we did the very best we could with a challenging situation.

 We are definitely blowing this one up. It really captured reality.

"Please, let this end," says poor Joseph in the picture above.  And then, below, he gives up.

Wrapped up in Brandon's coat when we were done and then walking to the car through the rain with the help of Aubrey.

We did try one more time to get some family shots . . . a friend offered to come by our home after church on the day of Brandon's farewell/open house.  Our plan was to get some nice pictures of the family with both sets of grandparents, preferably in our yard with the pretty flowers. Guess what the weather was like?  You got it.  Pouring rain.  So, no outside shots. We didn't really find a place in the house with great light, but we did our best.  At least we captured the moment, right?

More shots from the photo shoots are at the bottom of the post, for those family members who really care about seeing all the shots.  But, first I thought I would reminisce about some of our previous family pictures . . .

Remember Hawaii in November of 2009? Click here if you don't remember the fun adventure as we took pictures on the windy beach with dangerous sea animals nibbling at our toes.  Just for fun, I thought I would include some of the UNedited videos from that day (in the edited versions the photographer had to photoshop our hair to disguise the crazy wind hairstyles.)

 Oh yeah, that's really attractive.

Lovely, don't you think?

Then there were family pictures in August of 2007.  The photo session was fine, except for the fact that Joseph (then just 2 years old) wouldn't stay sitting down for the picture. The photographer had to photoshop his head from another shot into the family photo (photoshop is our friend).

And now, for those who have nothing better to do, I'll upload some of the other pictures from our two  family photo sessions.

 

 

 

 

 

 And some shots from Sunday after church:

 

 Oh, so NOW you remember how to smile, cute little Joseph!

 

 

 

 Maybe outside on the porch, the only place we could find shelter from the rain? 
 Or, we could try a quick shot under the tree (which provided a little shelter)

We really tried hard. And now we don't have to try for another two years!