Sittin’ in the Back Seat

I love to take pictures and make scrapbooks. I have always been the mom who everyone knew would bring her “good” camera to an event or family gathering. My 3 kids are now 17, 20 and 21, but I have to laugh when I think back on all the times we tried to get the kids to sit still, look at the camera, smile for M&M’s…you get the picture.

When we have our annual holiday gathering at my mother-in-law’s house we have this checklist of photos that we have always taken…each individual family, the “original” family (my husband’s mother with her kids) and there are 11 cousins who we also try to coerce into standing for a group photo. Of course now they are all old enough to complain and roll their eyes, and I always tell them, “You’ll thank me one day.” Hopefully I will live long enough to hear them utter those words!

Even though they haven’t thanked me yet, they do seem to love looking at those group photos that I have taken over the years. Actually I think they just enjoy harassing the parents about the clothes we used to dress them in and how we fixed their hair, but they are laughing so I’ll take credit for entertaining a group of teenagers.

One of the projects that I want to work on this year is a scrapbook that highlights my favorite photos of my kids. I am visualizing a random book, no particular order of maybe 5×7’s and 8×10’s. As I have been going through years of photos I am thankful that I did spend time in the back seat…taking photos behind the scenes when my kids didn’t know I was even taking a picture. Some of my favorite photographs are those taken from behind the kids…gives a whole new perspective to being able to see what they were seeing at that moment.

Of course there are many professional photographers who have the gift of already knowing this. In the current edition of the Austin Kid’s Directory, we have two clients who offer professional, custom portrait opportunities: Bright Sight Photography (http://www.brightsightphotography.com) and Enchanted Fairytale Portraits (http://www.enchantedfairytaleportraits.com). I think you will enjoy their unique styles of photographing children & families! You can see their work featured on our January and February covers. And when taking your own photos at home, if you want to get a new perspective, try sitting in the back seat.