Harder Than It Looks

I'm not a photographer, but I have a camera and frequently press the shutter button. With that distinction in mind, I told my friend Sarah that I would take pictures of her children in their matching Hawaiian outfits their grandparents sent. My mom was in town for the weekend, and she brought her digital SLR for me to use for a while, so I was using a much better camera than usual. The factor that I failed to weigh properly was the tenacity and energy of a two-and-a-half-year-old.

I've taken some good photos before. Some of my favorites are my macro still life pictures. I've taken good pictures of people too, e.g. Dallas and Shannon's wedding announcement, Brent and Jennie's, Ashlee's, and even Brian Tanner's "we've got to mail this tonight" headshot that he continued to use for a few years. But all of these things have a common factor- they're willing to hold still. They smile while you adjust camera settings and continue to look at the camera, or in flowers' cases, continue to show their petals.

Small children have very different ideas of how picture-taking should go. I thought it would be a simple matter of setting the children in a good spot, and pressing a few buttons. Not so much. Mr J absolutely refused to hold still, let alone look at the camera. This photo shows Katie trying to lift him into place as he attempts to keep that from happening.

This photo shows what J really wanted to be doing. Miss G was a pretty good sport. The best pictures came when we strapped J in his stroller and had G stand next to him.

Those guys at Kiddie Candids must be really talented.

And yes Brian, I do go to the Botanical Garden more often than most.