Thursday, August 7, 2014

Anatomy of a family portrait

We decided to take some family pictures at the beach.  I scoped out the timing for perfect lighting for a few days, waited a few more while it rained, and finally we had a "The" evening!  

When I attempt a posed portrait with my girls it's goes a lot like this... "Put your arm around her. No, gently, not like a tackle. Not so tight. Stand up straight. Not like that. Okay, now smile. Nice smiles. Not silly pictures yet, at the end. You look like you're in pain. Think of something funny. Nice smiles. Give me some good ones! The better you do with this the sooner we'll get it done. Maybe ice cream afterwards? Okay, stop acting like you're tackling her. Okay, a real smile. Look at me. Is this really that hard?! We'll work on it all night. What do I need to take away? This isn't that hard. Come on....!!!"  And so it goes.

It's a painful process.  Especially to get three (or five) good sincere smiles, no closed eyes (I'm looking at you, Brad!), and everyone looking right at the camera. Little did I know that we were going to have a semi-professional smile inducer with us! I took pictures of the kids and then for our family portraits I posed everyone, checked exposure, then handed the camera to Theresa and told her to just keep snapping. Out of a hundred pictures we should have at least two or three frame-able ones, right?

Once the typical conversations ensued Shawn was awesome enough to step in!  He was an absolute lifesaver. I can't imagine another family picture without him! P.S. He might be for hire! (Cadence managed to pick up some of his best moves and she comes cheap!)


The depth of sisterly love is palpable, right?!

There's always one.  How do people with big families do it?!  

Notice Cadence's mischievous smile?

And the big girls realize what she did...

But she looks pretty pleased with herself!

Pre-Shawn


Post-Shawn... much better!

Not sure what Laurel thinks of his moves.  *cough, cough* Um, Brad!

It was non-stop... probably the most fun I've ever had doing family pictures!

Why is she growing up so fast?

Portrait intermission

Get the animosity out of the way

Awesome



This one is definitely a keeper!

Are we done yet?!

Little better

I attempted to get some "frolicking in the ocean" pictures but by then we were all kinda done


This dog wanted to get in on it!




Sierra can be a pretty awesome big sister!


Can you have the nice without the silly?  Probably not!

So what was Shawn doing exactly?

Yes!

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