It’s a holiday tradition at our house that we take our children for Christmas portraits.
That doesn’t sound so unusual until you realize that their birthdays come less than a month after Christmas…and they get portraits then, too. It doesn’t make sense to Matt, either, but in my mind there’s a perfectly logical reason. I’m sure all my girlfriends can support me on this one.
We had such a good experience for their birthday portraits that I couldn’t wait to see what this session would be like. We had a different photographer…and unfortunately a much different experience. Though I told her specifically we’d be back in January for individual shots, she insisted on taking the majority of pictures individually. Though I mentioned that these were to be CHRISTMAS portraits and I would prefer a mix of backgrounds and props, she used backgrounds for only 3 portraits in our session – and of those three, only one portrait was of them together – and absolutely no props.
Now here’s my rant: Call me crazy, but when I go to a portrait studio, I expect that I am paying a professional to create the portraits. I expect the photographer to take my request of “Christmas pictures” and make the pictures look, well, Christmasy. That may mean using a Christmas background. Or putting Santa hats on my kids. Or giving them a present as a prop. Or setting up a fake Christmas tree and having them sit beside it. I leave that to the discretion of the professional photographer, whose fees I am paying as part of my portrait package. I expect that the photographer has an idea of the arrangements and compositions that will look good, as well as the necessary skills to elicit natural-looking smiles and body positions. I expect that the photographer will actually proof the shots to make sure there is no glare on Trey’s glasses, or that Crisana doesn’t have a double chin, or that her dress lays naturally, or that Trey isn’t pulling his pants down when he puts his hands in his pockets. I expect that when I am in the room, the photographer is in charge, but will collaborate with me to be sure I am getting the pictures I want. Call me crazy, but that’s just what I expect.
Despite our photographer’s incompetence, Trey and Crisana were great. We got some great individual shots of them and one or two nice ones of them together. Not very Christmasy, mind you, but still great pictures. And because my kids are so cute, I have to share some of my favorites with you.
This was the only one we got of the two of them together with a Christmasy background.
Nevertheless, ain’t he handsome?
And ain’t she cute?
Deb- Spoke with one of my students who does this type of work. She thinks the photographer was brand new – Christmas pictures mean background etc. You should have been given choices and input. Courtney says the pictures should be redone gratis as this was not what you requested. But you certainly do have cute kids.