Entry FeedFor my in-laws 40 Wedding Anniversary last fall, we (all of their kids) bought them a family photo. It has taken us nine months to get together for the photograph, and still one family member was missing.
I suspect that this will be the last photo we take with everyone, at least for a few years. Yes, it was that painful. Unfortunately, Son Two really doesn't like to co-operate. We explained that his insolence was causing pain to the 14 other people in the photo, but he didn't care. He just didn't want to look at the camera and smile.
To be fair, we were there for a long, long time and he is just five. However, his three year old sister managed fairly well.
Son Two asked for us to take him to Chuck E. Cheese if he looked at the camera and smiled. I think that we need to see the proofs before we take him - just to make sure.
Personally, I am not a fan of the posed formal portrait. I used to walk by a few photography studios in the neighbourhood and see the family portraits and remember how painful formally posing was as a kid. We take lots of pictures of our kids, and have many great shots that we can, and sometimes do, blow up and put on the wall. While I think that the formal portraits usually have nice composition, I find that the faces lack the joy that you get from the casual family snap shot. And they don't tell a story.
I am assuming that there is good money to be made by having people pose their children, or themselves and their children. And I know that formal family portraits are nice, especially for grandparents. I just hope that we never have to do that again.
Proofs are ready in two weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for me that something turned out.