Back to my quest for a great photo of my kids for our 2006 Christmas card. First, I needed a backup, in case nothing from the actual session turned out decent. So I dressed all the kids up in their Christmas pajamas one night, piled them on Natalie's bed and told them to smile. OK, I bribed them a little; three beads each for their bead jars if they smile, look at the camera and sit still. I managed to come up with these photos, just in case the actual photo session produced no good photos. I removed the un-Christmassy bedroom background and photoshoppe'd in a Christmas bow.
Then I took another "just-in-case" photo, and added another background:
A couple of days later, it was time for the real thing. I took them to Stanford Shopping Center, which is all decked up for the holidays. I shamelessly told them that we were going to see Santa Claus, so they needed to dress up in holiday clothes. The chance to see Santa, plus another 3-bead bribe, were enough to get them cooperative, so I parked them in front of some decorations and started snapping away. Despite their best intentions, of course they could not help messing around for some of the shots:
Sometimes I was able to get good poses for two kids, while the third was throwing a hissy fit out of camera range:
Of course, there were always some pesky people messing up my background:
Sometimes the kids posed perfectly, but for some reason my camera refused to focus:
But eventually, miraculously, I managed to take a shot of all three of them smiling, with a nice Christmas background, with no Photoshop edits necessary -- all it took was a little cropping to frame my angels' faces. I'm not posting the photo here. Sorry, you'll have to wait till you receive our Christmas card - or until Chrismas Day!
they're soooo cute! =)
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