All Three, Framed

For Fathers Day this year, I knew exactly what we should give Andy.  For a couple of years now he has commented that he wished he had pictures of the kids for his office.  I decided, before Macie was even born, that this year we would deliver.  I would magically photograph all three kids.  They would be angelic and do exactly as I asked.  My autistic son would not mind the flash and would not get hyper because of all of the contact with his siblings.  My two year old would forget that he was supposed to be terrible and would sit and smile long enough for me to get all of the shots I needed.  And my baby?  She wouldn't be hungry.  She wouldn't want to sleep.  She would be patient and wouldn't mind being held by the smaller and less experienced hands of her brothers.  Oh, and I would of course be able to pose the kids, keep them from dropping Macie and step back far enough to take the pictures all without the aid of my trusty spouse.

Yeah.  I knew that it wasn't going to be so easy.

But I didn't think that it would take two weeks to have the opportunity to even attempt the shoot.  Yeah.  It took two weeks.  Two weeks for Charlie to be in a conforming state of mind at the same time that Ephram was not sick and Macie was not sleeping or eating or hungry or spitting up every five minutes.

The Monday before Fathers Day, the planets Charlie, Ephram and Macie finally aligned.  I grabbed my opportunity and threw their shirts on them as fast as I could.  And we got busy.  You know, it may have taken two weeks for the opportunity to present itself.  But once it did, it actually did go really well.

The secret to getting some good shots of my kids is just to take a LOT of pictures.  I took 82 pictures in 24 minutes and 39 seconds.  I moved them to three different places to keep them engaged, and to try different lighting in my home.  And I got quite a few pictures that I love.  Here are my favorites.

Yes, that last picture was 22.5 minutes after the first picture.  She was done.  She was hungry.  Charlie was so hyper that he was yelling about everything and practically wiggling out of his skin.  And Ephram just wanted to jump on the bed, not pose.  So, even though I hadn't gotten the last three pictures I'd originally hoped for, we called it a wrap.  After all, I think 24 minutes is pretty darn good for these three kids.

In the end I had to chose four pictures to put together a collage for Andy.  I hoped that I had at least four acceptable pictures.  I ended up having a very hard time selecting from many that I loved.  But then again, these are my kids, so I think just about every picture of them is cute.

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And since this is my blog, I hope you'll all oblige me in that belief.