The Baby Expert: Family Portraits

I’ve never been one for being in photos. The camera is not kind to me. Point one at me and I’m likely to rush at you with an outstretched palm blocking my face. No, I don’t like having pictures taken of me. I’d rather make strange or silly faces instead of actually trying to look proper. This way, if the pictures don’t come out right, I can attribute it to the fact that I was doing it on purpose. Nothing more embarrassing than trying to look all suave for the camera and then finding out that you’re not the GQ model you thought you were.

Until recently, I’ve never taken a family portrait before. I’m not talking about a casual family picture taken while on vacation, I mean a professional portrait done at a photo studio. I remember going to friends’ houses, seeing their family portraits and laughing at them, thinking how silly they looked. But at the same time, there was part of me that wanted to also have a nice picture of all of us together. Those feelings were quickly brushed off, however, when I’d remind myself that I don’t do photos. Thankfully, my parents never brought up the idea either.

Even after Caitlyn was born, I would still have this attitude of not wanting to be in photos, but I’m getting better. Most of the time, it’s out of reluctance and knowing that I should be in at least a handful of photos so our child would know what her daddy looked like. It was also after Caitlyn was born that I decided we should get some proper family photos of us together.

Our photo package was bought 2 ½ years ago. We didn’t get into the studio until this past summer. During that span of time, we received countless number of calls reminding us that we still hadn't taken our photos yet, and in reciprocation, we cancelled photo sessions countless number of times for no real reason other than we were too lazy to go in that day. And then another five months passed before we decided to go back to the photos studio to look at and choose the photos we wanted. If it wasn’t apparent to you before, it should be crystal clear to you now that we are no slouches when it comes to procrastinating.

Out of 300 plus photos that were taken, I deemed only 10 truly acceptable. Bad photographer or too picky? Either way, it worked out because 10 was the number of pictures in our package. So, without further ado, Caitlyn's and our first family photo shoot!