Professional photography

Ug. I am not a good judge of professional photography. I do not think it is worth the EXCESSIVE amount of money you pay to get a few pictures of your kid. I do think it is worth while to do Senior Pictures done this way. However, with Trevor, it was a necessary evil when he turned 1. We tried the JCPenney portraits, and he wouldn't stand still. And I think I had a horrible photographer that did nothing to try to distract him. So, we found a place and at least I got a few pictures. But overall, even those just didn't look like him. He wasn't in a setting that meant anything. The props he played with didn't have any significant meaning. Plus, I think I have always just liked the "typical" portrait pose. Even my wedding photographs, most of them that I like the best are the posed shots. NOT the candids.

And I realize this is just my style. But now that I had Trevor's done, I feel like I have to have it equal, and do Gwen's photographs the same way. And of course, the place that I had Trevor's done either closed or relocated. I probably should have researched more, or compared prices or something. But I was all about easy. I got a postcard in the mail a while back and decided to use that place.

The drive was about a half hour. Kind of obscure location, but it turns out that that was because it was at someone's house. Then I started talking to the "receptionist". Turns out they had wrong information on me. Spelled my name wrong, and thought I wanted all outdoor photographs. Actually, all of Trevor's pictures were indoors, so I wasn't thinking outdoor much at all.

Then, the photographer happened to be a guy. I probably should have asked about that first. Gwen isn't all that comfortable with most guys. Thankfully, he stayed out of her face for most of the time, but when she first saw him she ran to my leg and pulled. So while the guy rearranged the "studio" for the indoor shots, he talked my ear off. About absolutely random stuff. Again, I know it is just my personality, but I HATE when people do that. He talked about the Twin Cities Marathon, how computer illiterate he is (another wonderful star for him), bugs, toxicly spraying and killing them....it just made me want to get out of there fast. Then I was surprised at how few pictures he took of each setting.

Anyway, fast forward to today. I was supposed to have the pictures online by this morning, but I had to call to say that they weren't there. A different person that I had not met, helped put them online for me to view. While at the session, I knew she had some good shots based on her smile. But really, it gets lost with all the extra stuff around her. Or maybe I'm not remembering correctly. Or maybe they weren't as smiley as I thought because she had an ear infection at the time. Or maybe the actual pictures were taken a second after she actually smiled.

Whatever the reason, whenever I actually pay for the pictures, I'm going to just have to scream silently. Or maybe I'll have to go back to the card club and win the money to pay for the pictures. ;-) Anyway, thank you for listening to my rant. Oh, and in case I need further clarification, I have seen other people's photographs done by professional photographers. THOSE are always beautiful. I just don't like them with my kids for some reason. Oh well. Last time I will have to use one for another 13 years or so....unless we have baby J3 ;-)