How Not to Photograph Children

I know some people actually take photographs of children for a living. I don't know why they choose that occupation. I can think of other jobs that pay better and are less challenging, like being a brain surgeon. I like to post cute photos of my kids but getting a good shot can be difficult to say the least. I'm so glad my children were born in the age of digital photography. For every one good picture you see, there are dozens, even hundreds, that just didn't make the cut. I had the bright idea last week to take the kids over to the Barn to feed the ducks and snap some adorable pictures. We accomplished one of those tasks for which the ducks were very grateful. Here are the results of our other endeavor.

"We find the pavement more exciting than Mom."

"We call this the poor little orphans pose. If Mom sepia tones this we'll look like we just stepped off the boat at Ellis Island."

"I think Mom is violating child labor laws by making us do this."

"Are we dooooooooone yet?

"Fine, we'll look at the stupid camera but we're not smiling."

I'm not the only one who has trouble getting a nice posed shot of the kids. Jeff took these two weeks ago.

Colin - "I have no intention of cooperating. How 'bout you sis?"

Riley - "Nope."

Colin - " I am staring down the camera. I think I'm winning."

Riley - "These rocks hurt my tuckus."

Riley - ???

Colin - "I just do what she does."

Hallelujah, a nice picture!

Colin - "Ok, you got your shot. I'm outta here."

I Ain't Climbing No Sunshine Mountain

Last week was VBS which is a mighty big production at our church. We have over 500 kids there so it takes a lot of organizing. I'm so thankful that childcare is provided for the children of workers. Riley and Colin both loved VBS this year. After the first day I asked Colin, who was wearing half a cookie's worth of frosting on his face, what he thought of VBS, and his response was, "FUN!" Riley was a bit grumpy the first couple days because her friends Ethan and Sydney weren't in her group, but she eventually got over it and declared that Arianna was her new friend by the end of the week. Both kids loved the skits performed by our resident thespians, Mr. Steve and Mr. Randy. Riley enjoyed recounting the trials they endured on stage like getting sprayed by a stinky skunk or being plastered with silly string. I missed out on a lot of the action as I was coordinating the nursery, but I got to peek in on the kids every so often when I was walking the halls with fussy babies or searching for more batteries to keep the swings running.

VBS ended with a program on Friday night where all the children, starting with the preschoolers, got to go up on stage and sing some of the songs they had been learning that week. You'd never know it from this video, but Riley loves to sing and dance. I guess she just wasn't feeling it that night. The video is a little grainy because I was seated pretty far back. You should be able to make out the little red head refusing to climb sunshine mountain. I wonder how she's going to feel when she discovers she's being signed up for children's choir in the fall. Perhaps I won't mention that for a while.

Jeff's Photolog & Gallery

Jeff put a new photolog and gallery up -- jstewart.smugmug.com.