Thursday, April 23, 2009

NOT EXACTLY CAMERA READY

Tuesday members of my family gathered in Twin Falls for a family sealing at the new temple there. It was a beautiful day and we were enjoying our time together, then a few of us decided we needed a few pictures to commemorate the day, so out came the cameras even though we're not the most photogenic bunch. My little great niece, Sadie, was cute as can be and pictures of her turned out fine, but you know how it is at these amateur photo shoots. Someone has to take the picture and someone has to be in it. That's when half a dozen different cameras are passed to one unfortunate soul who becomes the designated photographer. My niece's new husband somehow got elected. He thought he was taking a still shot, but somehow turned on the video function.

Everyone has a family photo disaster story. Tell me yours. Each one will count as an entry for the Second half of April contest.

7 comments:

Kelsi Rose said...

My family hadn't had a picture taken for several years. Finally, we scheduled an appointment at SEARS, I think. Anyway, for some reason, when it was time to get ready we all started fighting. As we walked up to the studio we were still fighting. Sadly, we are not actors and you can tell in the picture. Luckily, our family pictures since then have been a better experience.

Haiku Amy said...

I was trying to take a video of my son. He was being so sweet and giving kisses to my friend's little baby girl. So I kept trying to get him to do it over and over again. I kept thinking I was recording, but it wasn't. Then it was recording when I thought it wasn't. It was just bad timing on my part. By the time I figured out what I was doing wrong, my son was tired of giving kisses. So much for that.

Haiku Amy said...

I've also done that with the camera. It was on video mode when I was trying to take a picture. This happened one time when Santa visited our ward Christmas party. We waited in line, my son got up there and I thought I took a picture, but no. Then I hurriedly tried to take a photo before the next kid came up, but it ended up being blurry.

Jen plus 6 said...

Hahaha... my husband is #8 of 8 kids... 4 years ago his whole family, (there were 41 of us then -minus only 2 kids -who got in trouble and had to stay home in Ohio) came to town for Christmas, mainly to see his Dad who wasn't doing too well (and actually passed away the day before the picture was taken...) Anyway, there we were trying to get the 3 of us ready and in the car to get over to the studio. By one clock we had plenty of time... another one said we were late- VERY late. We finished getting ready and hurried out of the house and got there as quickly as possible. As we walked in the photographer was putting the last 2 people in place (talk about timing) and someone yelled that they were going to take the picture without us blah, blah, blah and unfortunately I was about three months pregnant and not in the best mood so I told her to “shut up” –which I don’t say so I shocked them into silence (oops) while the photographer added us to the group. He shot take after take after take and finally decided he had enough and invited anyone who wanted to see them could come in the viewing room… which was impossibly tiny, yet we somehow managed to cram at least 10 adults in there – never again, I will wait outside next time. So the photographer handed over the remote to the system showed whoever had it how to use it and left us to it. Viewing the pictures I was watching the front row because the kids were doing hilarious things and then when they found one that the kids all “behaved” someone looked up, apparently because then it turned into a “but I don’t look good so there is no way we’re getting this one” or “Oooo I look great in this one, this is the one..” and on. Really I almost left then because in a group that big there is NO WAY everyone is going to look their best in the same shot right?!? Anyway the photographer finally came in to see what was taking so long and said if we would go decide on our orders then he would “photo-shop” it so everyone looked good in the final picture since he was putting in the three family members that weren’t there anyway.
That is my story; sorry it turned into such a longish one!
Side Note - There have been some new additions, by birth and added by marriage that bring the number up to 47 with one on the way - his sister is having her 6th in September...

Crystal said...

Oh my goodness, so many bad picture stories. There are 6 kids in my family and growing up we'd go get a family picture taken each year. We all had a made up name for these occasions and we would tell the photographer and he'd be calling us by those names instead of our real names. We'd be cracking up and our parents were always so mad at us for causing a raucous, but we sure had fun. When people started leaving on missions and/or getting married, we stopped getting professional pictures made each year. After both my brothers got back from their missions we decided to just get a cheap picture done at Walmart of the "original" family; no spouses or nieces or nephews. So there was 8 adults at the Walmart picture place. Ghetto, I know. And they are so not equipped for groups like that. The girl did a terrible job taking the pictures; there were three rows and we were too close together; you couldn't see people's chins because the person in front of them's head was too high. For old times sake, though, we did tell them our "fake" names and laughed the whole time. Our parents just rolled their eyes. I'm sure they're proud of how we've all turned out. lol

Kelsi Rose said...

I have another story that I just thought of. My oldest brother was preparing to go to the MTC for his mission so my parents decided to get a family picture before he left. We lived 5 minutes form the Mesa Temple so we had the photographer meet us there. As he was posing us for the pictures, we chatted. My youngest brother's name is Jarom so while we were being positioned around Jarom for a picture, the photographer starts giving Jarom a hard time about how he wishes his family was his harem. Jarom (about 10 at the time) turned bright red and we had to wait for his face to return to its normal hue before the picture could be taken.

SSvedin said...

Well with a father whose hobby is photography you're bound to have photo mishaps. We are a project family, so a lot of our pictures are outside doing hard labor. we were digging out the patio and my mom wanted to take pictures for the "Springgay Chronicles" - she recaps the year, with pictures and fun stories and then give that as a present to the springgay side of the family - she had just timed it right, how? we have no idea! Right as my dad was throwing dirt into the tractor trailor she took the picture. After the film was developed we saw the picture, the dirt had formed to look like the head of a bear! So we all said "Dad, you got in a fight with a bear?!" Another little mishap was in my yearbook class. I had put my head down on the table - I think I was hiding my face from a joke or something- and one of my friends snapped a picture. Well it happened that I put my head down next a girls foot, who was sitting on the desk. The picture looked like I was smelling her socks! It became our little inside joke for the rest of the semester!