Day Eighteen--An Organized Photo Shoot

One of the things that challenges me to no end is getting the kids' pictures taken on their birthday. I avoid it like the plague and then, of course, feel extremely guilty when I look back and find a big 3-year gap between pictures and I find myself trying to remember what they looked like during that time. All right, it's not really that bad, but it is something that stresses me out. It's not the actual picture-taking itself that I find worrisome, it's the aftermath of trying to sift through forty or so pictures with a salesperson breathing down your neck, trying to get you to purchase the $90 package, while juggling a hungry, ornery, active toddler that all of a sudden is no longer interested in any of the toys he was trying to get at the whole time he was supposed to be smiling and charming for the camera.

So, I took Tyler to the Target Portrait Studio to get his 2-year old pictures taken today. (I can't believe my baby is turning two!) Of course I took coupons and I decided I needed a plan of action before I got in there, so I would know exactly what I was after and wouldn't get sucked into buying more than I needed by the sheer pressure and confusion of that critical decision-making moment. I pulled the whole thing off pretty well, although I wish I had taken a few more things into consideration that I will definitely keep in mind for next time. These are the tips I would suggest:

1. Decide what you are going to be using the photos for. Who are you buying them for? Will they be hung on the wall or in albums? What sizes do you need? For me, I typically buy an 8x10 for my mom, a couple 5x7s for my in-laws, and a 5x7 or 8x10 for myself, depending on how much I liked the photo. Maybe I'm weird, but I don't usually put their photos on the wall (unless I LOVE the photo), but keep them in a book, so a 5x7 is just fine with me.
2. Decide what your favorite background preferences are. Some times too many choices are just that--too much. The photographer asked me today which 3 backgrounds I wanted. I made the mistake of going along with it and picking three, even though the brown is my favorite. I love the way it warms up the skin and it looks so much better in my house. Plus it was a nice compliment to the blue and gray shirt he was wearing. As it was, I ended up picking a couple of pictures with a gray background, because they were the ones of him smiling, but, oh, how I wished they had been against the brown background. Know what you like before you get in the photo studio (you might research your options on the studio's website first) and don't let the photographer talk you into something you really don't want.
3. Come with a budget in mind. For me, I come in with two figures. The bottom number is my budgeted amount--I know how many pictures I need and what sizes and I figure out the actual cost. But I also go in with a higher number of what I'm willing to spend if, for some reason, the pictures are phenomenal and I can't live without them. As it was, today I actually came in lower than my bottom number, because, unfortunately, the pictures weren't the greatest and I just wanted a couple copies for his birthday and the grandparents.
4. In actually choosing the pictures, first find your favorite two, if possible. I like to do that first thing, if it's actually obvious, because then the final decision just seems to go a lot quicker for me. If there's more than two, great! Count yourself lucky and go from there. However, like today, I didn't have any favorites, so I had to try and choose the best ones and then whittle them down from there. As it was, I ended up choosing the only one where he was smiling (with the boring gray background) and another with him peeking through a number 2 (just to show that it was for his second birthday.)
5. As far as timing goes, if it's for a birthday, I suggest making the appointment for 2-4 weeks before the birthday. If you do it at least 2 weeks in advance, most photo studios will have your pictures back by the birthday so you can frame them and show them off for the big day, which is kind of fun. But more importantly, I have found, I am more likely to get them done if I do them in anticipation for the big day, rather than as an afterthought when I lose much of my momentum and it becomes easier and easier to procrastinate.

Someday, it is my hope to pull off a photo session with one of my kids with near perfect organization. I know I don't have the ultimate control, especially when it comes to their particular performance, but the more I know what I want, the closer I think I can come to getting it, so that, at least, is a start.