H - E - Double Toothpicks.

Here's how Photo Scrooge envisions it:

I had to spell it out because my kids are offended by my potty mouth. If they come across this word in the scriptures, they'll protest ("Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to...I AM NOT SAYING THAT WORD").

But they'd probably agree with Rob. No one loved the ordeal of going for our first ever professional family portrait. Not even me, and hello, I'm the Photo Nazi. I got stressed over what to have everyone wear, haircuts, getting it all washed and ironed, checking kids out of school early, and trying to achieve the impossible feat of having us all looking decent at the same time.

I did relax and stop snapping at everyone once we were there. Everyone I've worked with at Busath has been so professional and nice. I asked our photographer, Dave, if his assistant could take a picture of him taking our picture, for the blog and year-end slideshow. He told me he gets that request all the time, being such a famous photographer. :)

I just hope we'll have at least one good photo and it'll be worth all the work. If it turns out anything like these photos, I'll be thrilled.

I love these.

I would never copy a professional photo, but I'm so excited to show the great portraits of the kids by Richard Busath, I'm thinking it's okay to show low-res proofs here. Anyone know the protocol on this? Hopefully this would be considered free advertising from a very happy client.

I ordered 12x12 prints of each of these:

And a collage of 5x5's that will look like this:

We should have the prints about the same time we go in for our family sitting, March 11th. I can't wait to hang them on the wall, and I'll be sure to post the finished product.

Picture Day

I know that anyone reading this might see that post title and think, "Isn't every day picture day at your house?" But I'm talking about studio portraits. At Busath, no less. In the past I've tried to take the kids in on their birthdays, but it's been a few years since I've done even that, so I scheduled all four kids on the same day. What was I thinking? I guess I've forgotten how much stress is involved in picking out clothes, fixing hair and getting them all cleaned up, especially on a school day. Luckily I knew I wanted black and white close-ups, so I didn't have to match colors, as you can see below.

The staff at Busath couldn't have been nicer, and the photographer, Richard Busath, was awesome. We were there for an hour-and-a-half, and most of that time was spent trying to get Ainsley to 1) sit still, 2) look at the camera, and 3) quit being a goofball. Richard had some great tricks and he and his assistant, Katie, were so patient and great with the kids. They even agreed to what I'm sure is the strangest request they've ever heard, a photo with the kids. But I'm all about the daily photo, and this was a big deal for us. Hopefully my recommendation will score them another client or two, or at least give them another "weird client" story. :)

We're going back in March for a family photo. What do you think, black and white or color?

Photography Class

For Christmas Rob gave me a beginning photography class from Gallery Photography and it was tonight from 5:00-9:00. It was awesome. I have a nice DSLR, and have loved the quality of photos I've been getting even on auto mode, but I didn't even know how to manually focus. I'd just keep pushing the shutter half-way down until it gave me the focus I wanted. I also learned how to set the aperture so that I can get great depth of field—it might be kind of hard to see in this small size, but the focus is just on that one line, "Milk Chocolate with Toffee & Almonds."

We covered shutter priority, and I'm excited to try some action shots now that I understand that. Also ISO, white balance, metering, exposure compensation, composition and lighting.

The last half-hour of class we went outside to shoot. Our model was the photographer's 9 year-old son. And my kids think they get tortured! This poor kid had four of us taking pictures of him, in the freezing cold. He did make $10 though, and I'm not willing to pay my kids for taking their photos. :) I did NOT expect to get any good shots at almost 9:00 p.m., but was pleasantly surprised that my new-found knowledge led to some decent photos. Sort of dramatic and edgy. My daily photo is going to be fun again while I play with what seems like a brand-new camera!