Last week, we (as in all 4 of us) dragged ourselves to the local Portrait Innovations and had, yet another, family session and individual photos made of the boys.
We weren't there 5 minutes before Michael looked at me and said "I really hate doing pictures".
I could not agree more.
Don't get me wrong, I love Portrait Innovation, but having the same backdrops in all of our photos (as in, all of the photos from the last four years) is frustrating me. Equally as aggrivating is seeing the same 10 or so poses repeated in a different order by a varying amount of photographers. Then, of course, there's also the issue I have with them looking too staged. What other time are either of my boys sitting still, facing a wall with an angelic gleam about their rosey cheeks, prim and proper in a lovely (read: ironed) button down shirt? With socks on?
Never.
Ok, maybe Christmas and their birthday (maybe).
Of course, there's also the price. Twice a year, I go into panic mode looking for outfits that don't necessary match, but at least belong to the same color palette. Of course, this results in me hauling us to the mall to find a missing neutral long sleeve, or a pair of khakis that don't fall off my tiny-waisted children. All of those things being less than cheap.
The actual price of the pictures isn't "department store" high, but it's also not "do it at home or at the local drugstore" cheap. For this particular trip, our bill tallied at exactly 200 dollars. But that doesn't factor in the $70+ I spent on clothes since Chase would have otherwise modeled the same outfit as Conner's did in his photos at Chase's age (in the act same pose with the exact same backdrop. See my problem here?)
The pictures are lovely, I'll admit that. The photographer was kind and amusing (aside from the fact she needs to get a better "trick", the one she was using became old after the 10th time). They are surely memories I'll cherish forever.
I wanted to break this rut though, and I've long wanted a nice (niceish) SLR camera so I could take better photographs and need a professional studio less often. Honestly, however, I underestimated the power of a good financial sense and never presented this desire to my husband.
Until, it is, we came home that day after busting our butts for these pictures, simply drained from Chase's run-on tantrum and Conner's incessant proclamation for a bowl of ice cream, and a friend of Michael's mentioned that a nice camera could, possibly, eliminate the need for the biannual Portrait Innovations merry-go-round.
He, having a profession in the financial sector, was sold. For the same price of two of these sessions, the camera would be "paid for".
This is the part where I introduce all of you to our new, money-saving, less-headache-producing, thank-god-because-seriously-matching-outfits-for-pictures-makes-me-want-to-cry, Nikon D60.
Someone teach me how to use it?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 1:08PM 
