Taking Photos of Your Kids at Home {the Lowdown}

This afternoon was gorgeous: the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and my kids were dressed relatively nicely. Since everything seemed just so, I decided to grab my camera and try to capture some cute shots of the girls. It was great in theory, but in practice, things didn't turn out so well. There are many things that can go wrong during a DIY photo session. Allow me to document. 

Number 1: Children will give fake smiles. I'm talking, squinty eyes, wrinkled nose fake. They want this to end quickly so at first, they pretend to cooperate. They just don't realize that smile wasn't quite what you were going for. 

Number 2: Only one child will be looking at the camera/smiling at any giving moment. If you want to take your own photos, you should be proficient enough in Photoshop to swap out heads.

Number 3: Your children will get bored. They might start pulling up the foliage around them and throwing it on siblings.

Number 4: Said siblings may have itchy noses due to flying grass and not be able to help scratching. This doesn't make for a nice shot. 

Number 5: Things will not going according to plan. You will picture a nice shot of your baby sitting in your toddler's lap. Your toddler will think it's a wrestling match to get the cell phone away from the baby. This will result in tears and...

Number 6: ... babies trying to escape from older kids. Caroline was fed up with Riley's antics and made a run for it. 

Number 7: You will give this one last go. By this point, your patience is thin, your batteries are probably dying, and you are dreading going through the 347 photos you've taken in the past 15 minutes.

Number 8: You will go through the photos one by one and realize that you might have actually gotten a couple of good ones. This will lead you to a quick run through of the Sunday school song Sometimes God Answers "Yes" When We Pray!

Number 9: You and your children will live to tell about it, but, in the end, you will understand why photographers charge as much as they do. After posting all the photos on your blog, you will also realize that you desperately need a class in photo editing because you pretty much stink at it - especially when it comes to skin tones.