{Sneak Preview} My Kids Outtakes

It can be easy and a pain in my butt to photograph my own children. By this time in their life they have been on enough photo shoots or sat through enough on their own that they are very familiar with the camera. At the same time I am very familiar with nuances of my children and that Elliot never looks at the camera and Erik would rather be doing goofy faces that giving me a real smile.

Then I always bring my husband along to just wrangle the kids and try to help with smiles, but at some point he tries to take over and doesn't listen to my instruction and it all goes awry. Husbands and wives don't always make the best teams, especially when you are both control freaks like me and my husband.

That said, when I was photographing the Isabella children the other day I caught a glimpse of photograph I wish I could explore further. It was sunset overlooking the basin of Burbank. So today, with the fluffy clouds, sun out, and Erik begging me to do their pictures, we went back.

I don't like to photograph at this park, in this spot, on Sunday. Mostly it is because its a popular party spot and this shot requires that people not walk in the background. We lucked out and the field was mostly clear and people respected our time today. That doesn't always happen.

I didn't really diversify my shot because I just wanted this one picture. I will probably take them to a few more places just for fun and the heck of it, I need some formal pictures for their photobooks. But I got my money shot today. That shot will be shown later when you get my Christmas card.

The first of our funny pictures is a pretty random idea. Erik decided his special picture word instead of cheese would be presidents, and our first was "Obama." The problem with that word is that your mouth looks like a "o" when you end. For the life of me, I couldn't get Carl to stop saying it and get them to stop. The power struggles. So I got some good pictures in the beginning, but with "o" mouth.

The other issue I struggle with, is Erik likes to make mean faces. It takes a lot to get him out of mean face mode, but we always somehow manage.

Even Elliot has a mean face sometimes, but its more of an angry face.

Then when I am trying to get the sweet photo Erik always insists in silly photos so I have some with both being silly, some with just Erik and vice versa. Its fun I guess that is what matters.

 

Then there is the famous, one person is looking at the playground shot. Its not their fault, I am looking at this beautiful background, but these poor kids are sitting right next to a playground watching all these kids have fun while they get their photo taken. Of course one is always not looking.

 

Then lastly I like variety and I always end up with way more images than I could possibly use or hang on my wall, so here are some of my favorites that didn't make it to my top 5 pics.

  

Just for fun, here are the pictures from years past. Its interesting in looking back because I have always been interested in studio lighting and have definitely evolved in my tastes and style. Last year maybe be one of the only years I did all natural light. I definitely like an off camera lighting in my pictures consistently.

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007