Our Less-Than-Perfect Family Photo Shoot

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (Did I leave anyone out?)

I spent the last week in Arizona, visiting my twin brother and his family, for Thanksgiving. My dad joined us as did my oldest daughter, Maurina, which also means I got to see my adorable grandson, Oliver. It is hard living so far away from them! Despite the 1,000+ miles between us, we have been able to work out four different visits (including his birth) in his five short months of life. I would say that’s pretty good! Still, he changes so much in between visits. He’s grown so much just in the past couple of months since we last saw him.

Since we were all together for Thanksgiving, I really wanted to get a nice family picture. We haven’t done professional photos since Maurina’s senior year of high school, five years ago. We were supposed to take family photos last Christmas, but we all came down with the flu! They would be outdated by now anyway, because our little Ollie hadn’t joined us yet.

Even though I don’t know any professional photographers in Arizona, I was bound and determined to get a good set of family photos. The pictures on my wall need some updating! My sister-in-law has a good camera and a great eye, so I thought it was reasonable to set up a photo shoot while were there. How hard could it really be? She agreed that she would take some nice pictures for us and in turn, I would take some family pictures for her. I devoted much of my time last week to coordinating our wardrobe and browsing family pictures on Pinterest. I saw so many great poses and ideas and I had a complete vision in my mind of how our pictures would turn out. I wanted the works; photos all together, photos of just siblings, just sisters, just brothers, just Jeff and me…you get the idea. I had it all figured out. When all was said and done, I had planned to share our beautiful collection of photos on my blog this week; they would be nothing less than Instagram and Pinterest worthy!

Keepin’ It Real

We arrived “on location” late afternoon because that’s supposed to be the best time for pictures. We ended up there a tad bit early apparently because the lighting from the sun was not cooperating with us. So we played around with the camera and different poses for a bit while we waited for the sun to set. Once it finally went down, we had only a short time (to squeeze in two families) to try and get the perfect shots. Even then, we were fighting with shadows and kids who were now antsy and ready to go home. As the sun set even more, the desert cooled off and everyone started whining about being cold. After only a couple of family shots, my brother took off to the car because he was cold and that’s all it took for the kids to follow suit.   Needless to say, I didn’t get all those perfectly posed, individual pictures I had planned on (I barely got a full group picture!) We were lucky to get a few good pictures that are Christmas card worthy, but they were a far stretch from anything Instagram or Pinterest worthy. After all of the planning and shopping and coordinating, I felt like a total failure in my efforts for a beautiful portrait collection.

I almost didn’t write this post at all. It’s not that our photos didn’t turn out nice, but it was nothing like what I had envisioned. Don’t get me wrong, my sister-in-law did a great job, but we lacked the experience needed to pull off this grandiose vision in my mind. And the truth is, I’ve fallen into that dangerous trap of comparison one-too many times. I love blogging but I have to admit that one of the hardest parts about it is comparing myself to other people, especially when it comes to the photo department. I don’t feel like I am photogenic (I hate taking selfies!) or possess the artistic quality to produce visually appealing images. I compare everything I do to other people and that comparison holds me back. I am making the decision for my readers that what I have to say or what I have to post doesn’t measure up to every other blogger out there. And so I stay quiet.

But not today.

Today I am deciding to publish this post, even though it is less than perfect; even though the lighting didn’t work in our favor and there are shadows on some of our faces and we couldn’t get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. It might not be worthy of a pin, but gosh dang it, my family is cute and I am proud to call them mine! And really, do we need one more perfect photo to make us all feel bad about our less-than-perfect real lives? I say no! Let’s share a little bit of those real moments; those un-photoshopped, unfiltered, real moments. Being real doesn’t make us any less beautiful!

Instead of wallowing in my self-pity about not being good enough, I am going to celebrate that we were all together for a moment to take this picture together. That, my friends, is how we make lemonade. Find the joy in the moment and don’t let comparison rob you of your joy.

And now for your viewing pleasure (or at the very least, mine), here are a few shots of my beautiful family.

I didn’t get a full sibling photo like I had intended, but Jeff captured a couple moments with the younger 3 and we were able to get a nice shot of Maurina and her little family. I love the personality that shines through in the first picture!

Aubrey and Cody got a photo or two by themselves. Somehow Ryder was missed, but he did get a picture with his BFF and cousin, Adri. Both pictures really show their crazy personalities, and their love and connection with each other.

Jeff and my picture together wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned, but whatever. We still look good together 😉

I think what I’m most bummed about was not getting a mother-daughter picture with my girls. Jeff got a picture with the boys. but they were all either too blurry or too dark. I still loved their goofy personalities in this picture. I wish the light had been better!

Maurina got a picture of Oliver and me, which made my Nonna heart happy! She got one with Aunt Aubrey too; not the best lighting, but they’re cute anyway.

And that’s a wrap. It wasn’t a total fail, because we were together. Now that I’m looking at them again, they might be okay with a little Photoshop to fix the color (which I don’t have). But this post is all about being real! Next time, I will for sure be calling in the professionals!