Self Timer Family Photos

I have a love hate relationship with photo xmas cards. I LOVE them because I love getting other people’s creative photo cards!! And back before social media I LOVED getting the photo cards to see how much everyone had changed over the year.  Now though with instagram and facebook I can go MONTHS without seeing people but still feel like I see them all the time!!! Sad really.  But Xmas card time means…shit I need to get a decent family photo…ugggh!

And luckily I have a friend that take REALLY REALLY good pictures.  Like professional level photos.  BUT sometimes I either a) feel bad asking her to take pictures of us b) can never find a time to make it happen during that “golden hour” c) don’t want to bug, bother or anything.  So this year I got out the big camera, the tripod and my iphone.  Found a location that “would work”…wasn’t being very picky. 

I don’t know who is worse for these sessions…my grumpy ass husband OR my crazy kids!  Oh man. He’s impatient. The kids are…well…kids. I was rushing and clicking.  Half are HORRIBLE.  We got to the location a bit too early…so the sun wasn’t down enough.  But this was a one shot chance. 

Got everyone out of the car and gave it a try. Here are a few I got…all bad…I know…BUT they are what we got.

The shadows were horrible. I wish we could have been more patient and waited on the sun BUT the area we were in was…sketchy. haha So we were rushing…especially when we saw 3 males walking our way. (scaredy-cats)

Oh my children. I’d get one to smile good and the other 2 would look frumpy.  So I went all “pretend photographer” on them and whipped out a little chair I brought and took some solo portraits. I’m happy I did this…I want to remember their precious faces at every holiday and stage. And I don’t have enough pictures of them alone!!

So after the scary guys we tried one more place.  And of course THIS place the sun was down…and yeah.  Ugh.

Next year I’m going to have to nut up, ask my girlfriend and make it happen! She would have been able to get WAY better pictures that I did with my self timer!