A few weeks ago, I got an email from my friend that was forwarded from the photography studio where her sister works. They were looking for a family to sit in on a training session for their new photographers. The studio was bringing in a professional photographer/consultant to lead the session on posing. A free training session on posing? I mean..... free pictures of our family? Heck yeah!! My friend laughed at the speed to which I responded to the email (all the while completely relieved that I did because the original email was for her and she hates being photographed). I told them, "If you want a challenging family, choose us. We have a totally disinterested 12-year old and a 3-year old who won't stand still." By, gosh, they did choose us! I loved sitting in on the training session and hearing everything being taught (way more so than my family did!). I have to admit it was quite awkward being on the other side of the camera. As with most people, I've only been photographed professionally for those classic moments: childhood family photos, high school senior, graduating from the academy, and our wedding. I'm fortunate that my passion is photography and I've been able to document the heck out of my family. But for others, I see how being photographed professionally is easily overlooked with the time and money involved. My philosophy has always been that you never know what may happen tomorrow, so you may be thankful for the photos you have today. I've learned through my photography training that the quality of the experience is equally important to the quality of the photos. This session may not have yielded a lot of the classic family poses, but it did yield a lot of laughs. That is something we'll always remember. I'm so glad we were chosen to do this session. It was an invaluable insight for what goes on for my clients when they plan a session with me. Who knew 'coordinating outfits' could be such a daunting task?! In conclusion, I'm going to end this post with one piece of advice: don't wait for a 'special moment' to have your family photographed. EACH moment is special. And, when you have growing children, each moment is CHANGING. After all, I assume (read: hope) that in a year or two, Emalie will no longer be casting Spiderman webs on strangers, and that Nikolas finds it within himself to SMILE (a genuine smile) instead of the cross-eyed, tongue out one he relies on now. But you know what, I have some serious ammunition in my arsenal when these two start dating..... hahahaha.......
PS-- I had the intention of editing all of these photos (I see many edits that need to be made). Then I decided that I have enough of my own photos to edit without having to edit the work of others. The only one I touched up was the one of which I ordered the canvas.
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| This is the one I ordered as a canvas. |
