I’m sweating just thinking about the yearly family photo session.
Do family photo sessions give anyone else massive anxiety? Is it just me? I am type A, semi-organized (in my head, at least), and a minor control freak. So naturally, I want our family photos to be perfect. The only problem? We aren’t perfect! Oh, and we have 3 children under 5. I should be going into the family photo session with extremely low expectations, but no matter how much I prep myself I still end up overwhelmed, pissed and literally sweating bullets. Makes for great photos, right?
We try to have photos taken twice a year. The thing about these babies…they grow and change so fast and naturally, we want to capture as much of it as we can. We aim for spring and the typical and basic (AF) Christmas card photos. I book the photographer weeks out. Spend time outfit planning and purchasing. Work with the photographer to pick the best outdoor location. It’s a process.
For me, the most overwhelming part is getting everyone dressed and ready the day of the photos. I literally sweat getting these 3 kids dressed, hair brushed, shoes on and out the door in time to meet the photographer. So, the stress of family photos ultimately starts with me. Yep, I sabotage my own family photos (insert major eye-roll here). My husband has been telling me this for years. That my energy gets the entire afternoon off to a bad start and the kids end up feeding off of my bad energy. Those aren’t his words, but that’s what he’s been trying to tell me and he’s probably not far off. I’ll give him that win, especially since I published the elephant story last week 🙂 So then, when the photo session actually starts the kids act like total a-holes…because I’ve been acting like one all morning.
The attitude is REAL.
At any one point during the photo session one child will be crying, another needs a diaper change and the other is wandering away toward an unenclosed body of water (no joke!). They are all asking for snacks, taking off articles of clothing and throwing hair bows into the wind. At one point during last year’s Christmas photo session, we were taking photos of Ben for his first birthday. My husband and I are running in opposite directions trying to tame the wild beasts, knowing that at this point, it’s probably a lost cause. Fara was not cooperating in the least and running toward an unfenced lake (hence the reference above) so we strapped her into the stroller, put the stroller in lock and kept going. She was screaming and kicking her legs, strapped in a stroller, in a gorgeous white tulle skirt. God, I wish I had that photo. Those are the moments when you just throw everyone together in some sort of order and plaster on your best fake smile. Fake it till you make it and pray your photographer can work some serious magic.
The beautiful photos plastered all over this blog? Yea, that’s a session I will never forget. The session was specifically for the blog but while we were taking photos thought it would be nice to get updated images of the kids, too. Well. They didn’t care what we thought. Faith was literally sobbing because the grass was the wet. Fara was just screaming ‘cheese’ the entire time but not actually smiling and Ben wanted nothing to do with anything. My happy, sweet, and all around well behaved baby turns into stone when the camera is anywhere near.
You know who I should be thinking about through all of this? The poor photographer who has to deal with all of our drama. This woman stages the photos, gets down on her knees to get the right shot, speaks to my children with so much patience and tries to make the shoot as fun (and calm) as possible. I should take a lesson or two from her. Our photographer designed our Christmas card last year. Based on the tag-line, she has our family pinned pretty well… ‘Rarely Calm, Always Bright.’ Genius.
I scroll through Instagram around the holidays (or anytime really) and see these perfectly posed family photos, with backdrops to die for. Before kids, I used to think ‘WOW, these are gorgeous. I can’t wait to do this with my family.’ But now? Now I dread those photos. Now, I just scroll through, still admire the photos, but also just have to laugh. Because 1, you know there was some crazy business going on before that photo was taken. 2, you know the outtakes would be hilarious and 3, nothing is perfect. You are not fooling me with your perfectly staged family photo. A good photographer can go a long way, though.
Does this need all need to be so dramatic? No. We always end up with gorgeous photos. I’ll be scheduling those holiday photos soon. When the time comes, someone please shake me back to normalcy, put my attitude in check and give me some damn perspective!
Mommy Diatribes
PS – Check out the gallery below – almost one year ago! I’ll share a new story, hopefully one that will be include better behavior on my part, and updated photos soon.
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