Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Outtakes

So, I mentioned that we had a little trouble getting a picture for our Christmas card. First it was our outfits. I had gotten matching outfits for the kids to wear ages ago. They were blue with red and green smocking, and I didn't think finding something for me and David to wear would be too hard. But it was. I just couldn't find a thing. I went to Motherhood Maternity looking for something for myself multiple times. I ended up wandering around like a deer in the headlights. I brought many things home to try, but I ended up just wearing something I already had. Of course the shirt I picked made me look like I had a spare tire around my middle though :( I was beyond caring at that point, though.

Then there were the actual pictures. I've said it a million times, but I am NO photographer. However, I usually don't have a ton of trouble getting the camera settings good enough to get a decent picture outside in natural light. Sadly, it just wasn't happening on this day, though. I tried so many different things, and all our pictures came out like this:Blurry with awful lighting! I just can't handle blurry pictures. Ughh!

And then the kids wouldn't cooperate. Please look at their facial expressions. You would think they were being tortured.We did finally get a smile out of Aubrey. You want to know how? My brother started saying "poo poo" in a loud voice, and she thought that was hilarious. Seriously, my delicate little girl has the sense of humor of an adolescent boy.But again, the pictures were blurry :(

David finally pulled out a storage box that we had in our garage just to contain the kids who were going in opposite directions by this point. They really seemed to enjoy that, strangely.I really didn't want a picture of my children trapped in a box for our Christmas card picture, so we called it a day. (We did actually end up using one of these pictures on our card, ironically. It's on the back, though. Ha!)

We gave it another go a few days later. In the rain. During naptime. It went about as well as the first attempt.These pictures crack me up, because we were sitting on our front porch in the rain, and my mom was taking the pictures from her car. Oh yeah.We finally admitted defeat, pulled out our external flash, and tried one more time. It wasn't looking good until my grandmother saved the day by bouncing a ball and getting a smile out of both kids!

And I have to admit that we did get a few cute pictures of the kids between the two photo shoots. Nothing really Christmas card worthy, but cute pictures.We told Aubrey to hold Jude's hand, and she took that VERY seriously.

(Oh, and by the way, if you happened to notice a bruise on Jude's forehead, that is from him throwing himself on the rug in our living room over our brick floors to be dramatic and have a little fit over something.)

So, no, our Christmas card picture isn't perfect. But it's our family right now. The fact of the matter is that we have two very young children who probably aren't going to be looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. I'm pregnant; I'm going to look fat. We were standing in our driveway having my mom snap these pictures for us; they're not going to be professional quality. I took some deep breaths and reminded myself that that's OK! This is my family, and I'm thankful for all of them :)

But I'm already thinking we might just not send out a Christmas card next year when we're trying to get three kids to look at the camera. Oh my!

5 comments:

Nathalie said...

LOVE the pictures of the kids in the storage box! Aubrey an Jude are precious!!

I think everyone can relate to the difficulties of getting good family pictures. These outtakes are fun and I'm sure you'll look back on them years from now and just smile :).

Amy said...

oh carrie, i can laugh at this post only because i can TOTALLY relate! :) we had tons of outtakes, too. oddly enough, some of them are my favorite pictures because they make me laugh every time i look at them (although i would never use them on my christmas card because our girls look like they're being tortured - ha!)
btw, i used to think aubrey and jude looked SO much alike, but in these pics, i think he is starting to look different. he looks like david and she looks like you??? or maybe the other way around???

Whitney said...

I am learning my camera on manual too and have even taken a class. The good pictures, for me, look good but the bad ones are terrible. I never really thought that on automatic! I took Avery's picture for our card the first year, but we've gone to our professional the last two years so I don't lose my mind. I think you look great, btw!

Courtney said...

I loved reading this post. I spent an hour Sunday evening trying to get a Christmas card worthy picture of my niece and nephew, who are 2 and 4. It was exhausting. I can finally laugh about it now, but I wasn't at the time.

Sarah Broadus said...

i am hovering over the idea of using costumes and props in this years christmas card. Too much pressure to get "the right pic" and I think it will be amusing for all who love us! These are cute precious! I think you should go with the "tortured" look. Very chic.