Family Pictures!
Historically, we've been consistently inconsistent with having family pictures taken. Our plan was to have them done every year but as it turns out, we've only been doing them on even numbered years since Josh was born.
Over the weekend, we decided that this was something that we couldn't procrastinate any longer about, so we made an appointment at a Sears Portrait Studio and planned for the mayhem that would ensue.
We had planned on getting the boys haircuts before the shoot but some dilly-dallying on my part left us an hour to get both of their hair cuts, get them ready and get to Sears. And since most of you have and/or had kids you know that that's practically impossible. So we skipped the cuts, which left us plenty of time to get ready. After the pre-determined amount of time yelling, threatening and bribing the boys got dressed with out a fuss. They dress themselves and Helen dresses Morgan. Technically, I could dress Morgan and I do on occasion but that usually also includes doing her hair, which is perfectly fine if we want her to look like she just got done skydiving after a 2 hour nap.
Previous experience has taught us, that going into a portrait studio unprepared is a recipe for disaster, so careful thought went into packing our supplies. Comb, check, spray bottle, check, gel, check, sippy cup, check, blankie, check, candy, check. For you that just thought "Candy?", yes, candy. A certain amount of "behavioral motivation & modification" is necessary to have a decent outing, for us, that motivation is supplied by candy. As the kids get older, we'll need to bump that up to something more significant but at 6, 4 and 2, the lure of a skittle does the trick nicely.
Having all of our gear in order, we're off. This was our first time at a Sears Portrait Studio, normally we go the cheap route and hit Wal-Mart but after several less that stellar experiences and feeling that the pictures looked... cheap, we switched it up. We have had one professional family picture taken, when Ben was almost a year and that picture is by far my favorite. When the budget allows, I plan on having professional pictures done. This time though it was a step up from Wal-Mart.
We took family pictures in two different poses, pictures of the kids in three different poses, individuals of the kids and one of Helen and I.
I don't know if it was the skittles, or the air in Sears but the kids were practically perfect! Normally there's a bit of resistance, the don't want to sit or sit still or smile or... you get the drift. This time, Josh protested once and that was cured by dangling a purple skittle in front of him. We were amazed, shocked at how well they did. When the photographer gave instructions, the kids did it immediately in unison! Smiles, posing, you name it. It was awesome.
Almost every picture came out fine. The only difficulty came in that, they have a monitor set up so we can preview the picture right after it was taken. The kids caught onto this and liked seeing the picture come up and themselves on tv. So they, especially Josh, tried to anticipate the picture on the screen and several shots had to be retaken as he/they were looking at the screen and not the camera.
To see the pictures click here. Sears family pictures.
You can even log in and purchase them if you so choose. We're planning on sending out SOME family portraits and at $8 bucks a pop we can't send each portrait to everyone and actually, we can't send one portrait to everyone. The family pictures need to be rotated, which can be done if you create an account.
Of course, when we get the pictures I'll be scanning them in and posting them as well!
Enjoy!
Over the weekend, we decided that this was something that we couldn't procrastinate any longer about, so we made an appointment at a Sears Portrait Studio and planned for the mayhem that would ensue.
We had planned on getting the boys haircuts before the shoot but some dilly-dallying on my part left us an hour to get both of their hair cuts, get them ready and get to Sears. And since most of you have and/or had kids you know that that's practically impossible. So we skipped the cuts, which left us plenty of time to get ready. After the pre-determined amount of time yelling, threatening and bribing the boys got dressed with out a fuss. They dress themselves and Helen dresses Morgan. Technically, I could dress Morgan and I do on occasion but that usually also includes doing her hair, which is perfectly fine if we want her to look like she just got done skydiving after a 2 hour nap.
Previous experience has taught us, that going into a portrait studio unprepared is a recipe for disaster, so careful thought went into packing our supplies. Comb, check, spray bottle, check, gel, check, sippy cup, check, blankie, check, candy, check. For you that just thought "Candy?", yes, candy. A certain amount of "behavioral motivation & modification" is necessary to have a decent outing, for us, that motivation is supplied by candy. As the kids get older, we'll need to bump that up to something more significant but at 6, 4 and 2, the lure of a skittle does the trick nicely.
Having all of our gear in order, we're off. This was our first time at a Sears Portrait Studio, normally we go the cheap route and hit Wal-Mart but after several less that stellar experiences and feeling that the pictures looked... cheap, we switched it up. We have had one professional family picture taken, when Ben was almost a year and that picture is by far my favorite. When the budget allows, I plan on having professional pictures done. This time though it was a step up from Wal-Mart.
We took family pictures in two different poses, pictures of the kids in three different poses, individuals of the kids and one of Helen and I.
I don't know if it was the skittles, or the air in Sears but the kids were practically perfect! Normally there's a bit of resistance, the don't want to sit or sit still or smile or... you get the drift. This time, Josh protested once and that was cured by dangling a purple skittle in front of him. We were amazed, shocked at how well they did. When the photographer gave instructions, the kids did it immediately in unison! Smiles, posing, you name it. It was awesome.
Almost every picture came out fine. The only difficulty came in that, they have a monitor set up so we can preview the picture right after it was taken. The kids caught onto this and liked seeing the picture come up and themselves on tv. So they, especially Josh, tried to anticipate the picture on the screen and several shots had to be retaken as he/they were looking at the screen and not the camera.
To see the pictures click here. Sears family pictures.
You can even log in and purchase them if you so choose. We're planning on sending out SOME family portraits and at $8 bucks a pop we can't send each portrait to everyone and actually, we can't send one portrait to everyone. The family pictures need to be rotated, which can be done if you create an account.
Of course, when we get the pictures I'll be scanning them in and posting them as well!
Enjoy!
posted by Mike at Tuesday, December 05, 2006
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