Brandi's Blog: My Family's Photo

It just so happened that me and my son and my sister and her family were all going to be at my parents house after Christmas all at the same time so I decided to give my parents a family photo shoot of our whole family for one of their Christmas gifts. It's a rarity that the whole family ends up at my parent's cottage at the same time very often so I wanted to take advantage of it while we were all going to be together. Plus, my personal family status changed this year so we were due for an updated portrait. Let me just tell you from a photographer's stand point that it's not any easier photographing your own family! You still get the belly aching about getting ready and the mumbling under the breath and then my mom even laid out my dad's shirt that he was supposed to wear and he waltz's up to get in the photo with his MIZZOU hat and his MIZZOU jacket on and I had to scold him to take it off and put it back in the car. Then, he wasn't happy. Sheesh! Come on, people! Since we were doing this in late December, we knew the weather could be challenging but we watched the weather for the 3 days we were there and decided Tuesday looked the best! Tuesday was the best day by far but we still ended up with 40 mph winds which needless to say makes for a very challenging shoot! My parents moved to the Texas Gulf 4 years ago and they LOVE living on the beach so I knew we had to have the beach as our backdrop. We all looked so good when we left their cottage and within our first step out of the car all the hard work of fixing our hair was gone...G-O-N-E...gone! Why'd we bother? Probably all should've just worn our sweats and tennies and pony tails...my mom would've been happy either way. She was the only one smiling out there just proud as punch to be doing this. I have to say she actually did really good looking at the camera for this. Because she doesn't like to be photographed, she likes to look off to the side instead of directly at the camera which usually results at me yelling at her, "LOOK AT THE CAMERA, MOM!" Not this time though! She was ready and happy to be there and did perfectly. We got the car angled on the beach just right to try and block the wind for everyone while I got my gear set up. You'd never know that half the fam grew up in Missouri in blistering cold winters but now we're all big babies in the cold weather. Once I got my gear set up, the other challenge was that I was the photographer and I was in the photo and I wanted to use my long lens for a nice soft blurred background so I had to set my tripod even further from the group which made my run to get into my spot with the group, get my body positioned correctly, get my hair out of my face and smile almost impossible! As soon as I'd hit the self timer, I'd sprint over to my family while their all yelling at me, "HURRY! THE LIGHTS BLINKING! THE LIGHTS BLINKING!" Der. Really? I'm the one who pushed the button people! I know the lights blinking and I have about 10 seconds to get it right. So, I thought I'd share my bloopers today of all the wrongs it took to get it right. I got really tickled as I reviewed through the photos and saw how the wind was not our friend that day but like I said before my mom was going to be happy anyway you sliced it...even if I did look like Chewbacca. Here's a little slice into my personal life that hopefully will make you giggle. Enjoy!