Today I took the girls to get professional photos taken. When M was 6 months old, we had her pictures taken at a place in the mall and it was so traumatic for Mr. A and me that we avoided doing that ever again.
That is until my mom got a bee in her bonnet last summer. She insisted we needed to have professional photos taken…quarterly. I don’t know about you, but quarterly is really fucking often. But, since she also offered to finance it, I figured we could suffer through for the sake of family harmony.
Today was the first time I had to wrangle two kids through the gauntlet of the professional photo session. It wasn’t fun at all. While I thought it looked like the photos they were taking looked good, the set was a little, uh, cheesy for my liking. So after I got the girls home, since they were already dressed in matching outfits I decided to haul them into the back yard and take some photos myself.
Now, I see why it is worth it to pay someone else to do that job.
Our photo shoot (Obviously in need of some color adjustment, but I don’t have photo shop so bear with me.)
L: “HOld still. I am going to pick you nose”
L: “What is she doing to me?? Make it stop!”
L: “Let’s go back in the house!”
L: “What is WRONG with you people! Will this torture never end?”
L: “No. I already told you, I will NOT smile.”
A few I actually do sort of like:
A face M makes relatively often. Mr. A makes this face too.
They found a bug.
Finally holding still.
And to prove that L actually can smile, a couple other recent photos:
Isn’t that the cutest smiling face ever??
And finally, (for his mama and Grandmama) L swings with the whitest baby in america.
i love the one of M making that sweet face! and the one of L smiling. those are super cute, and worth getting printed out!
we always take our kids pictures. of course, it helps that randy has a set-up at work and a reeeally nice camera there as well. but it takes lots and lots of pictures to get some decent ones. i think that is more the trick than anything. and knowing what the settings on your camera mean (randy does, i don’t).
call me next time! we’ll have fun.
How divinely gorgeous!!! I love the bug one. Thanks for sharing.
Heh. I thought my baby (Naim) was the whitest baby in America.
Those kids of yours are really cute! even when they aren’t cooperating. Once a quarter seems like pure hell to me. We try once a year, and with twins, that is torture enough. It is next to impossible to get two young kids to smile at the same time.
I hope you post the prof. pics when you get them.
Realistic – and therefore more beautiful than a professional photo shoot, in my opinion. Your daughters are lovely!
Have a good weekend!~
They are both 2 gorgeous girls! Thanks for sharing
Your girls are absolutely beautiful! I love your blog!
LID 11/21/05 (pretty soon)
Oh God, we’re doing that professional photo thing this weekend. Want to come to my house and take the pictures instead?
(Holy crap, are your girls gorgeous!)
The white dresses look fabulous. The last picture made me laugh and laugh. Thanks for that
Aw, they are SO ADORABLE.
I like the “let’s go back in the house” photo myself.
The dresses are gorgeous.
I’m six months overdue for the kids’ annual birthday formal photo. Damn.
Aw, what gorgeous girls! Kjames is right: the trick is to just take LOTS of pictures and hope to hell one turns out where they’re both looking in the same direction. I bow down to you; even with someone else paying for it, I wouldn’t do the quarterly professional pic. The very thought makes me shudder.
My parents were pretty much anti-photo studio (we have a few pictures here and there from when my sister and I were really little). They would usually do the same thing as you, get us dressed up and try and get us to pose nicely in pictures and they were lucky if they got one nice ‘posed’ pic out of a roll. But truthfully I like the mistake pictures even more than the posed ones becuase they show our personalities a lot more.
very cute!
LOVE the bug one and the one of L., just because that crumply face smile is so great and the one of M looking like A.
Those photos are awesome! I love the one when they are finally holding still with their heads bent together. Very nice.
Wow, M looks so much older! Her hair is especially pretty.
Oh man… Those are awesome~!
Fabulous captions. I love the last one of the two of them and the one of L smiling.
And C-mama’s youngest is totally the whitest baby in America. Whitey McWhite.
These are great. I think candid shots from home usually display more character than studio portraits.
Loved them all, esp. the last few. So nicely done!
I know what you mean..and I only have to deal with one squirmy one for now. The photos you took are beautiful but with such gorgeous girls how could they not be : )
I take a laying on the grass shot every year. The first one I took Linley was 18 months old, licking this side of 6 year old Mall’s face. Rory was next to them squinting in the sun. It’s my favorite picture. Better than all the studio pictures.
I adore the bug one. Beautiful girls.
As adorable as the good pictures are, I love the “outtakes.”
All of these are awesome.I could never pick just one!
Actually, he is The Whitest Baby Ever–no competition in or out of amerika thank you very much.
I love the bug finding picture, and that is the greatest smile!