Photo Shoot

Have you ever tried to photograph six distinct personalities (between the ages of 1 and 12) in the same shot? Impossible! Well, actually, I'm sure it's not impossible for more seasoned photographers. But any mom will tell you that trying to take a picture of all the cousins happily looking at the camera at once is pretty comical at best. If the photo is for something special,--say the new picture frame Jessica bought Mom for her birthday--, well a photo shoot like that can be really stressful.

cousins


Mom's birthday happens to be today, so Jessica's idea was to get a picture of all the kids together at our July 4th celebration so Mom could have a photo to put in that new frame. The kids started off on the swingset, but they were too spread out.


cousins2


So we decided to move them over in front of the wall. "This will only take a minute, Guys, then you can get back to playing." No, really! Thus begins the comedy of the older two trying to corral and contain the youngest two. Now I'm taking photos while trying to suppress my laughter. Not so great if you want clear shots.

(Jess, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I know you were frustrated, but I couldn't help but laugh.)

photo shoot


It became pretty clear that we were not going to get a suitable group photo that day. Even when they were all in the shot, half of them were looking somewhere else. What we really needed was for my Dad to something really silly behind us to keep the kids' attention. Ah, well, there's always next time.

Later, when I was editing photos from the day, I realized that in several of these "botched" shots, at least one of the kids had a nice expression. So I cropped them down to feature the individuals.


meg&owen tyler



cameron henry


Ethan2


Have any of you had similar family photo shoots? Does anyone out there have super suggestions for a great group shot? How about a tip for engaging the kid who always seems determined to escape from the shot? Do tell! I love reading your comments and suggestions!

Comments

Alicia W. said…
These are great! Glad you had a wonderful fourth of July! :)
Wow---so many BOYS.... That's the problem!!!!! ha ha (I raised three boys ---so I remember those days!!!!

Cute pictures regardless!!!!

Hugs,
Betsy
Alice said…
i've got an idea to use these 5 individual shots and fill your photo frame - www.mcpactions.com has an action called magic print borders - you can stitch photos side-by-side and make them into one photo. i use this program alot making collages. on my blog, in my second post down - called 'Introducing Holland' - i took 7 photos and stitched them side-by-side, if you want to look.

anyway, i love your photos :) you are a braver woman than me trying to get all those guys to smile and be under control - lol! have a great week :O)
Jessica said…
LoL!! yes ~ I can look back and laugh today! I love Ethan's expression!! I think we need to just take a picture of everyone minus Karson & Owen and then just photoshop them in! Definetly less stress? We'll see!
ProdigalWife said…
My husband the magician says the trick is to have a second -- and hopefully entertaining -- person right by the photographer keeping their attention. You ended up with some nice individual shots though!
Unknown said…
Looks like the kids were having fun :) Love the colors in these!
jen@odbt said…
I have a hard time getting 3 to cooperate. I like how you ended up using individual photos...great solution.
Oh this is so funny! One day I hope to have lots of kiddos, too, so I'll remember that individual portraits might work better :)
Deejbrown said…
Perhaps use these as a collagae (but will need a new frame). Great family photos!
Unknown said…
I love it. Love it! LOVE it Adrienne. So funny! So, my great trick would be bribery. Like a prize for each person participating in the picture. Stuff from the dollar store. Water guns would be a hit at my house. I use bribery all the time. Kaish gets SO sick of pictures. It's hard : ) You did a super job on the individual shots though. Really great!
Kelly said…
Hahaha! Yes...it's like a bunch of squirming puppies...(same thing happens when you try to photograph 3 men and 3 teenaged boys!).
NikonSniper said…
great portraits! what a cool gang you have.
nikonsniper steve
Drew said…
You've seen my blog header, so you know that I have no useful advice for you. :) I do like the idea given above to combine all the photos into a collage for the frame.
Carletta said…
These are precious - all of them!
Linda said…
No tips I'm afraid except to keep feeding them so that they grow into teens. At some point during the teenage years a combination of flattery and bribery, with a dose of appeal to their better nature, results in some decent shots. But these are still great 'action shots'!

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