Holiday Portrait Disasters

One morning this week, I packed up the kids and headed to Target for a quick photo shoot  that would hopefully end  with a cute photo to send to family in our Christmas cards.

I made an early appointment  so that the kids would be happy and hopefully not too cranky by the time we got there.  I rushed around, dressed both kids (with the help of my husband) got out the door, dropped a child off at preschool and headed to Target, all by 9am!

As I grabbed a cart and stuck Andrew in and helped Ella off with her coat,  a women came rushing in with her two children, threw them in a cart and took off at a near dead sprint to the back of the store.  I just KNEW she was late for her photo appointment and I would be stuck trying to keep an 18mo old and 3yr old in dress clothes occupied while we waited to go in.

Sure enough, when we got to the studio, there was the women – LATE – with her two kids going into the studio.  GREAT!  After pulling fruit snacks off the shelves and feeding them to my children and walking around the holiday section for 20 minutes while Andrew screamed to get out of the cart, it was our turn.

Of course, they didn’t have our info on file and the photographer spent the next 10 minutes walking back and forth to the front trying to figure it out.   In the meantime, Ella decided she was hungry and wanted Vanilla Milk and Scones from Starbucks and Andrew found every single item that looked like a ball and was throwing it around the studio while I became more out of breath and began sweating from chasing him around.  Note: 18mo old boys DO NOT sit still!

FINALLY it was time to start.  The photographer nicely took a seat on the floor and looked at the kids blankly.   So, I jumped in and tried to get them both to smile at the same time.  I tried singing, playing peek-a-boo, throwing balls, giving fruit snacks and tickling.  I was freaking exhausted!  I glanced over the lady’s shoulder at the screen, saw a photo that both of the kids were smiling in and declared it a wrap!

We then proceeded out front to the (not so happy) lady to look at our photos and place our order.  I told her up front that I was only buying the package and didn’t want any enhancements – plain, color photo with kids smiling.  By now, Andrew was a bear and Ella was getting pretty grumpy as well.  The lady started to enhance this and color that and show me cards, etc, etc.  “NO”, I said firmly, “I just want to see the photos and pick ONE to order IN a package.”   She seemed to move at a snail’s pace and wasn’t one bit concerned with my now screaming toddler.

Oh – it was a mess!  This is the total reason we only do this once a year! And you know what, my photos with my Canon Power shot come out MUCH better than messing around with two ladies that obviously do not enjoy their job.  Where do these people come from anyway?

In the end, I am glad we got a professional photo to send out to family. For $9.95, you can’t beat the deal.  We ended up with a really cute shot (thanks to my peek-a-boo skills) that will put a smile on the grandparent’s faces all year long.  Next year… this mom’s taking the photo with my new DLSR (hint, hint) and sending to Kodak to print!

Do you get your child’s photo professionally taken each year for Christmas?   Is it worth the hassle of taking them to a studio?  Or do you just snap a few shots at home and make copies for family?