Fall Portrait Session

Every couple of months I decide it's time to get the kids dressed up, and have their portraits taken. Being a picky mom with an artistic eye, I just can't haul my kids to the nearest department store and get their picture taken seated neatly in front of a "blue clouds" backdrop. Nope, that would be too easy. Also, being very cheap, the idea of shelling out $500+ for a professional photographer to come out every time I need to update my photo albums doesn't seem too practical. The solution? Convert my breakfast room into a makeshift studio, and take the photos myself. This process involves removing furniture, stacking chairs on top of the table, draping fabric over the chairs to create a backdrop, and trying to convince a toddler to stay in the "studio" for more than a minute so Mommy can take his picture. On this particular occasion, I chose a set of chocolate brown curtains as the backdrop to offset the outfits the kids were wearing. Within the first 2 minutes, the backdrop fell. After I re-draped the curtains over the chairs, this time using clothespins to affix them to the chairs for extra support, I got the kids situated and start again. One picture later, the backdrop came tumbling down for the second time. At that point, I decided to move the backdrop over to the wall, using duct tape to hold it up. The duct tape proved to be too weak. So I threw out the backdrop idea entirely, and with that out of the picture, I was freed to focus solely on the picture taking......and that is precisely when the sound of the lawnmower buzzed by the window. The portrait session was over. After 2 hours of fighting cheap backdrop solutions and trying to get a 1 year old to look in my general direction, we decided to go outside and watch Daddy mow the lawn, and I managed to snap a few extra photos. Now, if only someone would print them out in a nice portrait package and deliver them to my door!