Shockingly fun

My family is so over my photographs.

They really are.

I can see the "OK now I've got to act interested in catchlights

and composition" look when I ask them

to come and see a client session

that I've just edited.

They just don't get it.

They don't speak my language.

But I really can understand this because

I don't speak my husband's or son's language

when it comes to football either.

I do love the sport and I enjoy

watching key games and cheering as loudly

as the next person,

but to spend two or three whole months of

Saturdays on the couch watching

game after game after game

while so many other things are going on

around town

or being stuck to the phone updates

when you are dragged out of the house.....

well, that's just not my language.

Madison is emersed in her own photography,

so unless she is telling me that I need

to up the contrast on one of my photos,

she'd rather spend her free time pouring over the

1.5 million photographs that she has of herself and her friends.

I get that too.

She's 14 and her own little world

is all there is right now.

What I don't get though is

how shocked my own family members are

that my photo sessions are actually fun events

to participate in.

They've seen my smile upon returning home from a shoot.

They've heard me tell stories of funny things that happened.

They've even acted like they've heard me when they ask,

"How was the shoot mom?" and

I answer back, "It was soooo fun!"

For Thanksgiving this year,

we had my brother and his family in town.

Jeremy and Ashley have the only other grandchildren

on my side of the family,

so I could not pass up the opportunity

to do a shoot while everyone was together.

Trying to get everyone excited,

I pushed the shoot for a week before the event.

It had to take place on Thanksgiving afternoon

because of flight schedules,

so I heard alot about how stressful it was gonna be

right smack in the middle of cooking chaos,

but I insisted that this shoot MUST happen.

I told them that the resulting images from a shoot like this

would be well worth any stress that they anticipate happening.

We put the turkey and everything else in a holding pattern

and off we went.

It seemed fitting that we were doing the shoot

at an abandoned mental hospital.

Upon arrival,

I arranged everyone for the group shots and

snapped away.

Before long everyone was laughing and joking

and having the best time.

I was able to get some excellent shots of my mom and all

of her grandchildren gathered around her.

These are memories that she will cherish for many years to come.

I took a few of Ashley, Jeremy, Zane and Easton too.

I was even able to hand the camera to Jeremy and

let him take a few of our family with me in them.

Upon leaving, my boys kept saying

over and over again how much fun they had.

They sounded surprised that this was not a torturous event.

My husband even told me that he had more fun than he expected.

My mom was thrilled with the shoot and had a good time as well.

I don't know what they thought

my shoots were like

or why most of them thought that this would be a stressful

frustrating afternoon,

but I'm glad they were able to experience

a laid back, natural, fun session with me.

So now they know what I do

and why I love it so much....

even if I still can't get them to sit down

and let me show them a client session

without seeing them roll their eyes

or heaving a big sigh of dread.

Here are some highlights

from our {apparently} shockingly fun family session:

My mom and all her grandkids!

My grandmother and
all of the great grandkids from her daughter Joyce's kids.
My cousin Leah has the other two greats.

My favorite from the shoot...

Ashley and Jeremy.

My three men all together!

Our oldest three.

My favorite of our kids.
This is such a precious photograph

to me because Zach lives in Seattle

and I can't see this everyday in real life.

The family shot!

Another good one of the six of us.

And finally one of David and I.

I've got lots of ordering to do from this shoot!

Beyond the images,

the memories of the time we spent together

as a family laughing and having fun

will be held close to my heart

for a long, long time.