Say Cheese

I have been blogging here for about eight years now. While my children are quite well documented, there are very few photos of me. I don't love having my picture taken and, like many mothers, I am usually the one holding the camera. 

There aren't many pictures of me in the context of our daily events, but one thing Matt and I agreed to when Harper was a baby was trying to have a family photo taken each year. Even if my children don't have lots of snapshots of their parents as they get older, they will always have the family photos we take each fall. 

In the past we've always gone to a camera store/photo studio down the street for our family photo. It is priced well enough and we've had good luck getting nice photos there, especially of the children. But after eight years of having our photo taken in a very traditional studio setting we were ready to try something different.

It just so happens that a woman who was a co-worker of mine last year is also a photographer. After seeing some of the photos in her office and checking out her website we decided to try having her take our family photos at an arboretum near here, one of our favorite places.

The photos in this post are ones that I took myself with the phone, all but the very top one were from after our photo session with Danielle. This arboretum is such a picturesque place, especially with the autumn colors in all their glory. I am not sure I've ever been this excited to see how our pictures turn out.

One of the great things about the change in set up is that we'll get the digital images from our session today and I will be able to share them here and on Facebook, as well as being able to use them for our holiday card. (It may be a little overkill for those of you who will see them here, on Facebook, and receive a holiday card - my apologies in advance!)

Harper and Michael were a little wound up and wild at the photo session. Most likely because they think of the arboretum as a place they come to explore and play, and not so much where they sit still for photos - although I have taken my share of shots there.

Michael just wanted to run around and ended up slipping next to a little creek and getting all muddy about half-way through the proceedings. Maybe Danielle will be able to edit those stains out? We'll see. 

Harper was a complete ham. Half the time she was posing very sweetly and naturally and the other half of the time she was trying (I assume) to look cool by sticking one leg up in the air or making some sort of gangster face. She also did her share of running. 

Pictures of the four of us walking serenely through the woods together... not so much.

Is this place beautiful, or what?

We lucked out with the weather today. It was dry and cold enough to give us rosy cheeks but not enough to make us miserable. I'm very thankful the stars aligned for that and we didn't have to take the photos indoors with the dust bunny army at our house.

Whether we decide to stick to the roaming photographer vs. the studio photographer remains to be seen. Stay tuned!