Fall 2012 Photo Shoot

One of the stipulations when Jake agreed to buy my DSLR was that I would not put us through family photos with a photographer again for several years.  Jake determined that I could take good enough photos of the children myself and in a few years, we could hire someone again to take photos of the entire family.  Considering that I could have purchased the camera and at least two additional lenses with what we have spent each fall on professional photos since the twins were babies, I agreed.

 

I won't say I wasn't nervous ahead of time with the photo shoot.  I am my worst critic.  I picked out the kids' outfits in August (Old Navy, how I love you!) and bought them in early September (shout out to a sale and a coupon!).  I decided we'd go to Ritter Farm again, the same place we went last year with bc fotos.  I just had to wait for the colors to start to change.  The last weekend of September we were so busy with family events but I knew the colors were about where I wanted them to be.  A look at the weather report revealed that it was going to be cold by the following weekend and I was afraid one big wind would take all the leaves off the trees.  So Tuesday afternoon, about 10 minutes after Ellie got off the bus, I hustled the children into their clothes, fixed everyone's hair, and drove them all to the park.

 

I kept my finger on the shutter button and took 250 photos.  I am pleased to say that I couldn't be much happier with the results.  It was my first time really trying to pose the kids and I did the photo arranging, picture taking, and child wrangling all on my own.  Not bad for 45 minutes of work!

 

Here are some of my faves:

 

I love this last photo because I was trying to get all of them to walk together towards me.  Carter always wants to be the leader so he kept rushing ahead.  Hannah is crying because she wants to be in the front and she's not.  And Ava and Ellie are paused mid-step. 

 

I will put more of my favorite shots up in the days to come.  I didn't want to have a post with 20+ photos in it.  All in all, not a bad photo shoot and aside from the cost of the camera and the prints I want developed, it cost me nothing but a little sanity!