trial run

So, being a photographer means that I can take nice pictures of my friends and their families, but I'm embarrassed to say that we haven't had any decent family pictures of our own taken for a couple of years. I just can't stand the thought of paying another photographer to take pictures and not have them turn out well, when I "could do it myself for free." I put that in quotes because obviously that's easier said than done. It's hard to be on both sides of the camera at the same time. So, last month I loaded up my camera and tripod to get an idea of how it would work to take pictures with the camera's timer function. So, without thinking about what we were wearing, or the location, or the lighting, or whether anyone had done their hair, we did a trial run of family pictures. Here's what we got:

Let me just say that it's a lot easier to get nice pictures of a group when I can take a bunch of pictures before we change poses, and when I can double check that no one is going to get their arm (or head) cropped off. Five year-olds don't stay still very well and when they have to keep sitting still while I run back and forth from the camera, they get cranky quick. But, it may work to get a decent picture for now, and then after the baby comes maybe we can hire a real photographer.