Capturing the Family Photo

I LOVE & dearly treasure family photos and individual portraits of my children, therefore taking them yearly is a must for us - no exceptions! This year we decided to try our hand at doing our own (actually we decided on this late last year, so one of Mike's 2006 Christmas gifts was a tri-pod!). I began sifting through area second hand shops last fall trying to get burgundy shirts for all of us and guesstimate the sizes we would be needing for the 2007 fall photo shoot. I would pick up long sleeve shirts in this hue here and there and throw them in a large bag I had in my closet until I had accumulated enough, extra even - which turned out to be a good thing since we had a few more bodies to outfit for the pics this year!

We had planned all along on having outdoor family, group, and individual photos taken during the fall in the peak of the colors here in the woods, but sadly there were only a few days that would have been ideal in mid-late September and we were already busy on those days... so we waited and waited for a day w/o rain, wind, cold, etc. that might work to get the job done. As we waited we watched the colors fade, and the leaves fall and began to give up the hope of our fall shoot... BUT then I heard there might be a glimmer of hope for this past Saturday. Indeed, we discovered a short window of a few hours Saturday afternoon - so quickly we suited up, grabbed the equipment and went to scout out possible locations where there were: 1) Still leaves on the trees that looked nice, 2) Areas we could pose with kids of various ages and heights, 3) not too far away because we had early evening plans.

Amazingly God pointed the way just 3 minutes from our home and we were off in a whirlwind of creativity. Mike took many images that day and of course with 7 kids to try to pose and get all looking half happy and presentable in the shot while Mike set the camera timer and came racing into his spot was quite mmmm... interesting - but we got it accomplished!

Now, begins the selection process for Christmas cards, enlargements for framing and so on. Our goal is to mail holiday greetings to all of you by the end of November - let's hope! The pic you see above was one of the first ones taken that day... many, many more followed.