Photography Madness

Today I brought Ethan in to the Salem Picture People to have his first birthday pictures done. I received a coupon for a free 8x10 and figured why not? We've only done JCP pictures for Grace a couple of times with mostly bad results so I was optimistic that Picture People could do a better job. Plus Ethan is a very smiley baby and will smile at just about anything at the drop of a hat. I figured it was as good of a time as any to attempt Ethan's first professional photo shoot!

I should have known that fate wouldn't be on my side. It never is when it comes to professional photos of the kids. I timed the photo session to happen just after Ethan's nap so he'd be fresh and ready to go. Instead he was tired and wanted absolutely nothing to do with sitting still let alone SMILE at the camera. All he really wanted to do was get up and run to me the moment the photographer was ready to shoot. We tried lots of different props, set ups, and what not to see if anything would help him smile a little. Grace was upset that we weren't taking photos of her which I was prepared for. She really had no idea why anyone would want to take pictures of Ethan all by himself, it is such a foreign concept for her! I promised her a trip to the carousal if she cooperated which worked for the most part. She only whined and tried to jump into the photo half the time instead of the entire time.

I picked up the First Birthday onesie from Gymboree when it came on sale for under $5. I figured it will be worn for pictures, for his birthday party, and on his actual birthday and then will be sold on Ebay for hopefully what I paid for it. I also picked up the three balloons and the package of party hats for under $5 from the party store in Salem before the photos and I'm so glad I did. We'll be using the hats for his party in a few weeks, both Grace and Ethan seemed to really like them!

When we finally saw the results of the photo shoot I was pretty surprised with how many good shots the photographer had managed to capture. I think JCP really had my expectations fairly low so seeing some good photos was a pleasant surprise! I picked out my free 8x10 and one sheet of wallet sized photos for four sets of great grandparents and two sets of grandparents and called it a day.

I really wish I had a nice large white backdrop so I could take these photos myself, but until then I'll have to be happy with occasional trip to the photographers. My options at home are limited to the lovely background of messy house, suburbia front yard, or mass of weeds in the backyard. None of which are generally the look I'm going for.

So here you go, these are my pictures of the pictures. You get the idea.