Photos

I love taking photos of my family though I can't say the same about myself. Before having my baby, I would take lots of photos and videos of my nephews and nieces whenever they come by. And now with my own baby, I try to do the same. My intention for taking these photos is as a way to remind my kids (and nephews, nieces) that they are loved and cherished, other than as a storytelling tool. From my experience, I always wondered how life was for my parents and grandparents. I wanted to know their stories, but they didn't have them documented in any written form. We only have photos. So I think that by having these stories documented, the future generation can feel connected to us.

As for professional photos, we hardly take them at all. My parents used to do it during special occasions (e.g. Eid), but not yearly. Maybe a few years apart. But it's not a tradition.

 

My kids are grown and out of the house so not a lot of family pics. No one likes having their photo taken so I don’t get a chance to take many of them and have never had portraits taken by another photographer. I have more luck with birds and dogs

 

The last photo shoot I had was for my birthday in 2019 - a few days before my oldest left for the UK and I haven't hugged him since. Miss him so much.
It gets complicated as the kids get older.
I get some photos from the boys' girlfriends. And my daughter shares some of hers.
But flowers, food and my cats are usually willing subjects as I wait for the weddings and grand babies.

 

We have a ton of photos but sadly they're all on hard drives since everything went digital. I'm slowly working on catching up photo books. And we do have photos in frames around our home.

We never have done a professional shoot - DH is a photographer so it's always a case of putting the camera on a tripod and him running into the group shot to beat the timer.

 

As I use only my phone to take photos now, I take every time photos. It's not easy with my teenager.
I don't have professionnal photos, it's very expensive and I know hubby will not like that. So no professionnal photos except the photos from the children's school. But I have to scan then if I want to them in my scrap.

 

PSA Time:

Make sure you have photos of yourself with the kids!!!! Give the camera to someone else if you can and have them take photos (no matter how bad they might be). And, I'm not talking selfies. I'm talking about actual photos. Get the camera into the hands of other people... and get photos of everyone with everyone else.

Why do I say this? In 2008 when I was first digi-scrapping I wanted to do a layout of photos of my mother and I and I had scanned a lot of older photos since they were film photos. I had photos of both my parents and I over the years when I was an adult. But the last photo I had of my mother and I was from 1965 when I was 10 years old!!! Since she had died in 1996 I couldn't have a photo taken. I did have photos of Dad and I when I was an adult but guess who took the photos... yep, Mom. Then it dawned on me that I had very few photos of Dad and I from 1996 on so I made it a point from then on to have a photo of Dad and I taken every 2 years.

Just the other day I found a photo of Mom and me although you can't see my face. It was hidden in a magnetic photo album she had put together with photos and memorabilia when she retired from teaching in 1986. Someone had taken a photo of her and I hugging when she walked into the surprise party Dad and I threw for her. I cried when I realized that it was me. I had thought I had all the photos from that party but found some others that must have been given to her by other people (I had scanned the photos and negatives I had of this event). They are now scanned. As are the photos from another retirement party given by her co-workers. The magnetic album has been torn apart and I am paper scrapping and putting everything into a CM 12x12 album.

As for photos around the house, there are some. Mom had put together several collages of ancestors and I still have them up. The last professional photo of the 3 of us is still up as are the graduation pictures for all 3 of us. And, I have a few special landscape photos I've taken over the years displayed as well. I also have several 12x12 layouts framed and displayed.

 

The last time I went to a photo studio was when my nearly-20-year-old was 2. I decided I preferred the candid photos I was taking frequently myself. In 2012, when my kids were 11, 8, and 5, I learned manual DSLR photography and for several years I was photographing them nearly every day. As teens, they have not wanted to be photographed much and it began to feel very invasive so now it's rare and usually surreptitious, with my phone, the photos only destined for my private journal. The family portrait we have on the wall here by my desk was taken by me (with a tripod and my DSLR) in 2014. I have more recent selfie family portraits though.

 

It's been years since we've done pro photos. I have hundreds, or so it seems, professional photos of my older GKs, but about 14-15 years ago the kid photo place closed in the mall. I do have the yearly school photos of the grands. I also have lots of sport team photos of my kids, not so many of the grands b/c the sports leagues stopped doing them. Last "family" photo was a selfie of my, my daughter and her three kids ( 26, 24½ and 15½) that I took at Christmas. My youngest grandson (15½) HATES to have his photo taken so there's that too.

 

my 'kid' is 23 and rarely lets me take his photograph. If he does it is a big fuss and he of course has to see it first. As for professional photos I haven't had those done since he was little, very little and it was just of him. I have thought of having a mini shoot done with just us and Harlow (my Lab), but then life happened in me getting sick and losing my hair, not fond of the growing back process. Anyway, this may be something I do actually do in the future, but like so many I hate having my photo taken!

As for photos around the house I am terrible. . . . photos of my pets (past and present) in my nest (office) and one of my son when he was two with my brother at his police academy graduation. I have nothing on my walls because I have commitment issues in that I will change my mind later on.

 

I don't remember the last time we had professional photos taken. We send out a Christmas card with a family photo, so we have at least that photo every year. Some years I use the timer and other times I get someone to push the button.

Being homeschoolers, only my oldest has school photos, but we have lots and lots of candid photos. I used to make the two homeschooled ones take "first day of school" photo each year. Now they are all grown up.

 

I still do that with my youngest grandson (he lives with me). I've established a tradition of bribing him with a giant Hershey chocolate bar, and I have to be quick about it.

 

With my older girls I sporadically did professional shots with them when they were little. That stopped around the time my oldest was 5 - probably around the time I got a DSLR and started taking better photos myself. We've only ever gotten family photos done 2x - the last one being 2017 once we sort of knew our family was complete (at least for awhile). I do actually prefer the more candid photos of my kids over professional photos. I have pulled out my DSLR and taken my own "professional" photos of my kids over the years. Last year, my daughter graduated and our schedule High School photo shoot got cancelled due to Covid. So I ended up just taking her out and doing our own photos shoot. It was so fun, we made fun memories & got some good shots out of it.

We have photos hanging all over the house, in every room, on every wall.

 

I need to hang photos up downstairs. I was waiting for Nick, but I think I'm just going to do it myself. I got a cool wire memo board thing from Ikea that I hung up in Munchkin's room. I hung photos on it, and on his bulletin board. We've always had photos up in our other homes, just need to get them hung up here.

As far as professional photos, I got a deal on them once when Munchkin was a toddler. It's the only time I've done it because I was thoroughly unimpressed. He didn't connect with the photographer very well, so they felt really forced. The only one he smiled in, I was standing next to the photographer, it was the last one. I have bought the professional sports photos, and I bought his school photos. We also did homeschool photos with the school photographer, so I have those too. We had one of Nick's friends, who basically is a professional photographer do our family photos once, and we've done them when my parents do family photos. I wanted to have them done last year before we moved, but it didn't work out. So, for now we use the timer, remote, tripod, or hand the camera to someone. Munchkin has gotten pretty good at taking photos of Nick and I.

Overall, I prefer the photos I take myself (I did love the ones by Nick's friend!). Munchkin's preteen, but I can still get him to let me do some photo shoots. It's nice because it also pushes me to learn how to use my camera better. I've gotten some really nice ones!

 

I have hundreds of photos of my son that I have taken. I used to take photos all the time, but he’s a stroppy teenager now who doesn’t want his photo taken anymore.

I actually only have three small photos on display at home. I did have a wall full of photos but we redecorated and I took them all down. Have new photos printed has been on my list to do forever.

We don’t have professional photos done often, last ones were at my wedding in 2019. But I do have a few from professional shoots over the years. My mum had actually booked a photo shoot with my wedding photographer to get photographs of all her grandkids together and it got cancelled / postponed due to covid.

 

Now that my kids are teens, they're very much not into photos. I try to get a decent candid of each of them once every month or two, usually while we're doing a family activity. If I limit it like that, they're more willing to cooperate when I do ask. They also know that I'm going to do a nicer photo with them on the first day of school and on their birthday.

My brother's side gig is a wedding photography business. Once a year he takes family photos of all of us--we do the entire family (15 people), one photo of each individual family, and one of just the kids. So we have those going back many years. We missed our 2020 opportunity due to covid, but we got lucky and the school I teach at did a photography fundraiser. We had a relatively inexpensive mini-session with a professional photographer and got great photos.

 

OOh - I've hundred of thousand photos on my computer that I've taken that'll never get scrapped. My DH doesn't like too much stuff on the walls, so everything has to be kept in albums. I had professional photos taken at least once a year for my kids (more frequent when they were babies), then I relied on school photos for the rest. We tried to take family photos whenever we were out on vacation, and I'm so glad I did.

I also make a point of taking photos of friends we've visited we've visited over the years, especially family photos. I'm glad I have because I've been able to send those photos along when someone has passed away. Now I'm wanting to take videos of people, too, simply because I wish I had with my parents. Plenty of photos, but how I wish I could hear their voices again!

 

We've only had professional pictures taken of our family twice. Once when they did a new church directory about 15 years ago and then another time maybe 12 years ago? Eek! We get pictures taken sometimes at Easter or Christmas at church because we're dressed up nicer and I bully my family into it. It's the only time I can! My hubby hates posed pictures and my 17 YO doesn't smile in them. Lol. Oh well, I keep taking them anyway. I don't print them ever though, except in my scrapbooks. I probably should print some more often just to put on the walls. I do have a few 4x6 pictures on the frig at least.

 

I have to say, we haven't done professional pics in a while and hubby is a professional photographer.... so I'll leave you with that to think about it.