So Much For That Photo Degree

Here is a little factoid about me, I was a photography major in college. I went to an actual univeristy and everything. I also have a couple of degrees in psychology. If you think about it, this is darn close to the perfect training for motherhood. What do we spend our time doing? Documenting the milestones, talking kids off the ledge, and wrestling little people in and out of things (clothes, carseats, strollers...) Study some hand-to-hand combat and you are as prepared as is possible for raising up some youngin's.

 

Some of you are out there thinking, "A degree in photography? What a waste of time. Anyone can take pictures." I know some of you are thinking that because A LOT of people say these things to my face. And then they usually say something like, "You know what would make a good photo?" Yes, yes I do. But you are probably going to share with me anyway, right? As needless as I think it is to say, taking pictures is NOT easy. And I am going to prove it.

 

It all started with this beautiful photo taken by DC Pix Photography in Cincinnati, OH.

 

 

Adorable, right? And basically simple to recreate. There are no fancy backgrounds, no lighting tricks, just three adorable siblings stacked on top of each other. I thought, "I am going to do this!" Silly me. I forgot who my kids are.

 

My mom has fantastic windows in her family room. I use the space as my own personal North Light Studio. She also suscribes to the "sterile hospital chic" school of decorating. Since everything in her house is white or grey, it makes for beautifully light photos that spotlight the children. 

 

I had my camera, my location, and my three children. I was good to go. Then I had my first problem. Red refused to play my reindeer games. He wanted nothing to do with being photographed. He had a sweet train track set up and he was not leaving it. I decided to just start shooting, get my settings how I wanted them, and hope Red would change his mind.

 

 

 

Above is my test shot. Hmmm...the skin tones looked nice, but there were a couple of problems. You could see the windows when I wanted a simple background, the hallway looked dark and added a weird element. I was trying to convince Babies 1 and 2 that they wanted to scootch over in front of the blank wall when Red decided that he did want to be photographed after all. As I was trying to get the three of them in the shot, Red lunged at the camera and I got this...

 

 

 

And then this...

 

Okay, forget moving to the blank wall. My standards were dropping rapidly. I just wanted a shot with the three of them together. If they had nice expressions maybe I would not care about the strange background? I convinced Eldest to lay down. Then I placed Red on top. The boys abruptly got a case of the giggles. I stuck Baby Girl on top and sprinted back to the camera.

This was not EXACTLY what I had in mind. "Look at Mommy! Yoohoo! Over here!"

Ack! She fell off!

 

"Gentle! Gentle with your sister!"

 

It was time for a new plan. Maybe a new pose would do the trick.

  

Eldest, sweetie? You are sort of strangling your sister. Look out, you are going to...".

"...fall over." <sigh>


"Hey, Mom? Can we be all done?"

"Yes. We can be done."

What is the moral of the story? The next time someone tells you that they spent 200 bucks on family photos, you tell them they got off cheap. Professional photographers are freakin' saints.