Why I usually take photos of flowers and muffins

A woman has to know her limitations. There are photographers who can take great shots of people, specifically posed shots of people, but I am not one of them. I can’t practice this skill on Larry, due to his propensity for making rude gestures when I try to take photos of him. I can take good photos of Riley, because he is bribable. Larry does take bribes, but his preferences in this area have a tendency to interrupt the photo session and that is just not helpful at all. To me, I mean.

There are some other people I like to practice on occasionally however. I was all holier-than-thou about bribing my own kids when they were growing up, but I am totally okay with bribing these two. I think it is actually required that I engage them in activities that are just slightly off center from their parents’ plans for their overall enrichment. So, when they were here last week, I suggested that we work on Grandma’s photo taking skills. I may have mentioned the bag of sugared gumdrop fruit slice thingies I had on the counter. They were all a bout that!

“Can you guys try to smile for me?”notsmiling“Okay – Anna! Look at me!”annanotlook“Good Anna! Now, Mark, you look at me too!”marknotlook“Thant’s nice Anna – now look at Grandma again!”annalookup“You guys are doing great! Isn’t this fun! Okay – hold still now!”almostIn five minutes, I took about 80 frames. Here is the pinacle of photo acheivment for the day:bestThings kind of went downhill from there. Anytime Anna’s nose is running, she very helpfully points to the problem and says, “Snot!”snotI did wipe it for her, but apparently I missed something.annapickRight around that time, they decided that 4 minutes and 27 seconds was plenty long enough to sit still for one lousy piece of candy, so we were done. igiveupI can still get a good one once in awhile.mark1

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11 Responses to Why I usually take photos of flowers and muffins

  1. They are beautiful! Snot and all;)

  2. Laura says:

    I so love mark he is so handsome and so reminds me of someone… his sister is a beauty and personally i think you did great getting pics… I take HUNDREDS to get that ONE decient shot… people just dont know what WORK it is to get that ONE fantastic shot… but I know you are like me … we grandmas dont care EVERY shot is perfect when it is of our babies!

  3. Ashleigh says:

    Those are ADORABLE. I love your captions.

    Snot! LOL. Gotta love kids.

    p.s. I think Dixie and Riley are in cahoots for treats.

  4. carlac says:

    They are way cuter than muffins :)

  5. Kate says:

    I feel your pain. It’s why I take pictures of my dog (who will pose), flowers, food and landscapes.
    I am not a people taker, although it’s one of my jobs at school so you think I’d be good at it now.
    PW is having a Faces contest that incorporates making a Shutterfly photo book so I looked in my files last night and I’ve hardly got anything. So why bother?

  6. Donalyn says:

    Kate – I thought the same thing. I hope at the end she does the 40% off thing like last year – I got a couple of them then and they came out nicely.

    And thanks everyone – they are the world’s most fabulous grandchildren after all :)

  7. ellyn says:

    It’s actually called ‘not but whatever.

    Bribery is the only thing that worked on these two. I’m not too good for it.

    Great pictures.

  8. Trisha says:

    I think they are all good! Pictures like the ones you got show the real personalities of the kiddos not just the “smiling” personalities. Keep taking those pictures!

  9. Janis says:

    Beautiful, beautiful children.

  10. Gail says:

    This truly made me laugh … I’ve had the same experience over and over:)…Yesterday I tried to find a photo for my daughter of her family of four in one shot…in the past year I did not get one picture where all four of them look good…makes me appreciate portrait photographers all the more:)

  11. What cuties!

    I rarely ask my kids to pose or smile… it feels so forced. I love just capturing random moments. It kills me when I’ll be happily snapping away at people and someone will call out “Oh! Everyone smile!” Grrrr….

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