Click, Click

"A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed. " -Ansel Adams 
 

How do you capture moments for a family photo?  You want there to be the emotion, the authenticity, the truth of who our family is and what we're like.  Oh, and try to do all that with a one and a half year old toddler who has no interest in holding still, smiling, or ceasing to put pine needles in her hair.

The best answer I've found to this conundrum so far is to have a patient friend do your photography.  Maeve is not into strangers, sitting on our laps, smiling for big black boxes, or holding still.  She barely tolerated my putting her into the oh-so-perfect Gymboree pumpkin sweater dress and leggings, but she did love her new white patent leather dress shoes that went clop-clop-clop.  The noise practically made my heart stop, my little girl is not big enough to be wearing dress shoes like that! But she is!

Anyway, thanks to a wonderful friend, I think we got some excellent shots of our family.  Maeve mostly took off running, and Daddy and I tried to keep up with her, all the while looking photogenic, smiling, laughing, acting like chasing our little girl all over a field in our dress clothes was perfectly commonplace.  And did I mention it was windy?  Twenty-five mile an hour gusts the whole time - so we were chasing a windblown toddler.

But with some skill and a nice camera, our friend captured some of our family moments, our real selves, the light that ignites in us.  I am so grateful to her, and grateful that we didn't end up in a Sears portrait studio wishing we were dead.  But boy, were we tired after all the chasing, the wind, the attempts to get Maeve to look at a camera and maybe smile a little.  Authenticity has its price!