There will be crying. There will be screaming. There will be bribery. There will be pleading.
There will be grown adults leaping through the air, bursting into song & dance.
But one thing's for certain: There will NOT be smiling. Or posing on cue. Or even fleeting eye contact with the camera.
Oh, yes, it's holiday portrait time!
This year I took both kids --solo-- to 3 different portrait studios in as many weeks and also enlisted a friend to take in-home shots. That is the labor intensive reality of managing one sitting-still-looking-at-the-camera-and-actually-smiling photo when the subjects are aged 1 & 2. I wistfully recall taking 9-month-old Joshua for Christmas pictures --my beaming baby, clad only in a red diaper cover and Santa hat, cooperative, charming, and oh, so adorable. The photos make my heart leap to this day. Ah, those were the days --photographically speaking. Fast forward to last year, when I took a rambunctious 1 year old and a colicky 2 month old --alone again (Eric's no fool) for Christmas pictures. Because Cara screamed continuously when not being held by me, the photographer ingeniously placed me under a black cloak so I could cuddle Cara on the sly. Said sheet did not cover my ever unruly hair, which jutted out from under my shroud of darkness in every direction. Nothing says Noel like a frizzy headed mother holding a howling infant. Wearing a burqa. Oh, and I lost my purse that day in the parking lot. Good times. This year's photo didn't have quite the drama --unless you count my fruitless pleas for smiles --Come on! I grew you from seeds! 35 hours of combined labor! Or Cara's blatant insistence that her red hair bow be tossed continuously across the room. In the end, I emerged from Target, unscathed, with still-happy children and 108 adorable holiday cards.
Because, really, when the photo involves this much effort, it should be shared with the masses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment