Family pictures

My friend Dave and I agreed to 'trade' photo shoots last year when I took THESE pictures for him. He likes taking pictures as a hobby too and has a fancy dancy camera with lots of fun lenses to play with. Its taken this long to get us all together for a shoot. We met at Gardner village of course, because I like the atmosphere. It was early and Mattie was suffering from his stranger anxiety. I actually purchased jewelery for the occasion, something I NEVER wear, and I quite liked the look. Dave has never really taken family pictures so he kept just asking me what next. It was hard for me to see how we all looked when I wasn't behind the camera so there are quite a few with weird positioning or Taylor with his head behind someone else. I hated not being able to take them but there were some that turned out pretty cute . Here are a few.. I am going to try and edit a few others and I'll post them later..

(above) color boosted, cropped.. Poor grumpy Mattie..... I should have been in front of Taylor too..
(above)used curves to lighten up the kids a bit (although I think it washed Taylor and I out a bit) color boosted, cropped......
(above) I photo shopped an electrical box out and the door knob and lock for less distraction... I also blurred out the background just a bit. cropped and color boosted.

*****

unfortunately there weren't more than a few family shots that someone wasn't blurred out, looking the wrong way, or making a funny face in. Family pictures are SO stressful! You want something perfect . Getting everyone up early, and making sure they all stayed clean, wondering if they were smiling, (which most the time just one of them wasnt) and whether or not they were paying attention or staying in a good spot was so obnoxious. Not to mention I hate pictures of myself........That's why I try to really make the parents feel at ease when I do family shots.. I am goofy, and laid back so that everyone feels good and the children stay interested. I like to move people around alot and to let them be natural so that things don't look too posed. There were alot of pictures that could have been really cute but were a bit too blurry. Bummer.. Oh well, I think I'll take the kids back in the next month or two and do a shoot of just them..

One picture of all of us will just have to do for the year..