Christmas Photos...

My in-laws who live in Scotland have asked for a new photo of the girls for their wall to arrive in Scotland for Dec. 13th. We took them to a friend to get photos done, but I got greedy and decided to get some shots that I wanted done at the same time. Last time we did photos it took the girls a long time to warm up so all our good photos were taken at the end of the shoot. Accordingly, this time around I started with a couple of fun shots - pjs & tutus before changing the girls in to their nice dresses. Well, then the melt downs started and DH made the mistake of giving one girl her soother. Once she had it, she would not give it up and I was not having soothers in our photos. So then he traded the soother for his cell phone, which my other DD then needed. It was melt down city (flat on their faces bawling) when they did not have cell phones. So pretty much every photo has a cell phone in it. Urgh!

Long story short, although we did get a few cute pics, we did not get the studio shot of the girls together in their dresses that the inlaws wanted and our photographer has been kind enough to let us come back on Sunday for a reshoot of that photo. This is the ONLY pose we will try to get this time so hopefully the girls will be fresh. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to get them to stay put and look at the camera at the same time? I am desperate! I was even thinking of buying an elmo doll (their favourite character) to hold up behind the photographer, but I think they would both point at elmo for all the pics.

Thanks for any advice!

 

Oh I feel you! Photos are so difficult!! I can hardly get them both to look in the same direction for a photo at home! What did work for us though was having someone (it didn't work if it was one of us, but a stranger) stand behind the camera and be a complete idiot - making silly noises and having toys that made squeaks or quacks or whatever.

Good luck!!

 

I always liked bringing treats like M&Ms to keep them sitting still. They are young so maybe, Cheerios or Teddy Grahams? I would love to see the fun pics you got done!

 

M&M's!! :laughing: Bribes work for my girls. Now you know how I got that <----- shot.

How about standing behind the photographer and doing something that truly makes them laugh? We have had some great shots because my dh will stand in the background and talk like Elmo, or do little things that they do on SS. Anything we do at home, we try to do at the studios to make them smile.

 

Sorry cannot help. We even had a photographer come to our house who does candids and she could not EVEN GET A CANDID OF THEM TOGETHER. She came out again and tried to no avail. Our Holiday cards will have individual pics of each of them in their cute little x-mas outfits. I understand your frustration. I also tried the bribery thing and ended up with a bunch of pictures where they are each holding/eating an apple.

 

I second the "having someone stand behind them and act like a total idiot". The total idiot is usually me We have done photos 4 years in a row now, and this is what always works. Our photographer is really good and she only needs about 5 minutes where they are sitting together and laughing to get enough shots to make me happy. I act like a complete moron to get them giggling and don't worry about how I look because I know it will result in awesome photos!

Also, she has digitally removed toys from their hands that end up in the pictures. Can your photographer do some digital patching up and remove the cell phone??

I would say don't bother with outfit changes in the future. In my experience, you only really get about 10 perfect minutes out of a 1 hour photo shoot with kids this little, so you want to keep it as simple as possible.

Also, the most important thing - make sure it's not too close to naptime! That would spell disaster for us in terms of cranky behavior.

Good luck on Sunday!

Michelle

 

Well I went in this year just accepting that as long as one isn’t crying it was a good pix (but mine are younger)… so the one I took in late Oct for our xmas card Nathan isn’t looking at the camera (but smiling)… now last weekend we did the extended family one (as a xmas gift for my Mom)… and I hired my babysitter (that they adore) to stand behind the photographer w/ there fav toy and it worked… now when my sister was taking hers family pixs w/ just her family and her youngest would sit with the family (much less smile and look cute) I busted out my sons Halloween candy (and promised my son I would “pay him back” w/ double what we used) and every time they did what they were told.. candy!!! Now my sister is anti candy/bribe , and normally I am too… but my sister said after that’s she glad I did it as they were the best pixs she every got from her girls… and my sister just tells her girls: “No, mommy doesn’t do candy only Aunt Elizabeth…” so they don’t expect candy to behave ALL the time… good luck…

 

I SO feel your pain!! At that age, getting both babies (Let alone my other 2) to even look at the camera at the same time was impossible!!! Forget about a nice look on their faces at the same time.
I can say, it does get better as they get older.

 

Trust me, if I figure out what it takes to have multiples sit and have pretty pictures, I am going to patent it and make a fortune!

Sarah