Outtakes

A friend of mine suggested I post some outtakes from a photo session with my kids, so here goes. Hope this makes you feel better. I get LOTS of these...
(These are straight out of camera, no editing.)

Here I have caught them BOTH with their eyes closed--nice.


Doing everything but following mommy's directions...Oh so many of these.


Awww, poor Kyle. Why is he crying? Because I fell off the thing I was standing on and landed on his finger. I accidently hit the button.


And this one is probably the most typical kind of outtake...one brother trying to be sweet while the other one doesn't want to be touched.

I am often asked....

"How do you get your kids to cooperate for pictures?" The short answer is: I don't. But if I think about it a little longer I can come up with a few things I do in an attempt to get them to do what I want like bribery offering fruit snacks or marshmallows for boys who follow directions. When it comes to photographing my own kids, though, I always seem to get out of sweet, conversational photographer mode and go directly into impatient mommy mode. I think this is why it's universally more difficult to take pictures of your own kids than it is to have someone else (besides their parent) take them. They have figured out how to tune out Mommy's voice, but they still listen to people they don't know as well.
When I am in photographer mode, I don't use bribes or get impatient. There's no bargaining with kids. Depending on the age, I ask questions, play games, act silly, sing songs. I also do a little bit of shooting them while they do what THEY want to do. This often captures their personality the most, although it's not going to be a perfectly poised and smiling for the camera type shot either. Doing this also gives their little cheeks a break from all that smiling and makes them feel like they are getting to make some choices. I just wish I could remember to do this with my own kids.
Despite my bad mommy moments, we managed to get a couple cute shots.

Filthy, Dirty, Slimy, and Sopping Wet!

I have been thinking lately that too often I try to keep the boys from getting dirty, tracking dirt in the house, and not hurting themselves when they play. I mean, they ARE boys and boys are supposed to do that stuff...although I may not give up on not tracking dirt in the house. There IS a line for goodness sake, and boys need to be taught to respect their property and to wipe their feet. While I don't want them to get hurt, I don't want them to grow up not knowing their own limits or afraid of everything. If they take some small tumbles now, it will teach them to make better choices, and that bad choices can hurt. They will try new things and accomplish more than they, or I thought they could, and feel the sense of pride that goes with that. They are learning to use their imaginations because sticks become bridges, and leaves become boats. Even though it goes against my instincts as a woman and mother, I think boys need these experiences to become strong men. All of this stumbling, exploring, achieving, and imagining apparently requires massive amounts of dirt, rocks and sticks! Don't ask me why...I am a girl.

Yesterday, we went for a walk and discovered a shallow creek next to the walking trail. So we went back today, and this time I brought my camera. Barrett and Kyle immediately wanted to throw rocks into the water. What is that about? Is it some innate thing in boys? "Water, I must throw rocks into it." Again, I AM a girl, what do I know about these things? After they fulfilled their rock throwing quota, we all waded, and slipped into the water. smack. on. our. bottoms. They saw a duck and "a million billion" minnows. Then, they heard some trickling water and found a little waterfall. They discovered that they could hold hands and help each other up the slippery rocks. Then, in order to get back up to the walking trail we had to climb up a steep slope of sliding dirt. They amazed me and maybe even themselves with their slope-climbing abilities. Barrett was very proud of himself when he reached the top.

They were filthy, dirty, slimy and sopping wet, but they had so much fun doing what comes so naturally--being boys. I had a lot more fun watching them knowing that this kind of play is good for them and that dirt washes off with a little soap and water.

Kyle

I shot this photo while Barrett and Cody were playing soccer. Barrett did not want to sit for a photo. hmmm...Running around kicking a ball or sitting still in itchy grass? I cannot for the life of me figure out why he wouldn't let me take his picture.

By the way, Barrett may be the Monica Seles of soccer...UH!....Ooomph!....UH!

our new header picture

I took this on the way to Granbury for Thanksgiving last week. I kept watching the sky get prettier and prettier and finally I couldn't stand it any more. I made Cody pull over on a side street. I got my settings figured out using just Cody, then we got the kids out of the car. I took the shot with a self timer, scooping up Barrett on my way from the camera to our position. We were all back in the car and on the road in less than 5 minutes.