Our 2005 Christmas photo taken the first day of 4th grade for Crafty Daughter and 2nd grade for Sporty Daughter — Adventure Boy was 2
A Sears portrait of my oldest daughter in her First Communion outfit — her American Girl doll is wearing the same outfit. You might have to turn monitor to see. Apologize for poor Photoshop skills. :p
FireMom over at StopDropandBlog posted about photographing toddlers. Her post brought back a flood of memories of some great and not-so-great experiences photographing our children.
I made a decision early on with my oldest to have regular photographs taken. Since we had a so-so camera we joined a photoplan at Sears. Several times I used the Picture People for special family portraits. Sears was a good fit for us — in terms of money, we could get many photos for a relatively small amount of money. As the oldest grandchild, my daughter’s photographs were much in demand!
Now in terms of quality Sears had issues…lots of issues. Often it seemed as though the photographer was new to the job. I recall one time telling her how to set the camera. Seriously I’m not technical and I managed to help her. Another time we came away with double the pictures due to operator error. Now Sears was always consistent with the printing of the photographs — in 10 years I never had to ask for a second set of prints to be developed.
My tips for FireMom were as follows:
The only thing that kept my little ones occupied long enough to take a photo at Sears or at home was to give them something to hold. We have photos where one of them is holding at different times: a set of car keys, a pearl necklace, a sealed tube of M&Ms, and various other items. The toddler held the item long enough so that the photographer could snap the pic. Also, the toddlers loved the photographer madly waving a stuffed animal or squeaky toy. At home I had marginal success, placing toddler on something — a riding toy or on someone’s lap or in the sand box. I agree it is a struggle, but when you look back you will remember what a fast-paced time toddler hood is…kids always on the go.
