Saturday, April 10, 2010

Bluebonnet Bloopers::::Installment Uno



***can i just say upfront how annoyed I am with the font situation in this post??? but, since i've been working on it for 4 DAYS now, i'm surrendering to it being all out of whack.***

We live in one of the most beautiful parts of Texas this time of year.

Everything is green. Blankets of colors paint the rolling pastures.

It would only seem reasonable that I would try and capture a photo of my beauties in the bluebonnets along with the other 90 million tourists that brave the trip here.

Let me just say here that I’m honestly not a fan of bluebonnet pics. I have yet to find a way to be creative (with 3 kiddos) and not make them look entirely cheesy. I'm sure there are ways (and I've seen them), but I'm not really feeling the creative juices when I'm trying to capture just ONE picture of my girls in the bluebonnets. I'll take a "sit and smile squinty-eyed" photo any day.

I set out for what I thought might be an easy and almost nostalgic photo session. The weather was perfect. I even planned ahead and borrowed a stinkin' awesome baby carriage from THIS dear lady (thanks Aunt Berte!!!).

The girls wore the most precious smocked dresses from Aunt Debbie for Easter. I wanted to get a photo of them in their dresses in the bluebonnets with a prop. That was the goal! Seems easy enough.

Remember the Victorian Era?



Most of the children in Victorian photos are sitting stone-faced still.

I know that they didn’t have Benadryl back in the day. Honestly, how on earth did they do this?

Did they bribe them with Figgie pudding?


Did they even smile in those days? Was the goal for them NOT to smile?

“Sorry Jim Dandy. The kids smiled. We need a re-do.”

Okay sorry. That photo is now starting to depress me. I'm getting a little to carried away here.


There were three adults present- my sister and friend Robyn. Surely if a man (assuming the Victorian photographer was a man) with a big non-mobile camera hiding under a curtain can make these children all sit still, surely I can pull it off in the digital mobile age.

We were quite the sight lugging our old antiques through the pastures. We had an old baby carriage and an old suitcase. If there would have been a steamer train present, you might have confused us with regular ole' Victorian travelers about to go visit our dear Aunt Rodie to tell her that the old gray goose was dead. For sure.

At one point, we noticed that a couple photographing their dogs were having much better success than we were having.

And there were several people just taking pics of the flowers. Why didn't I think of that one?

Here is a series of photos I shot of the girls in all of their glory.

These are SOOC and required no editing. Because why even bother with that? These won’t be making the cut….that’s for sure.

The first shot: Laney Rae was extremely upset because she didn't get to hold the handle of the stroller. Off she goes.....arms crossed and everything. KK scooted over from holding the handle bar in order to make peace with Rae Rae. But, it was too late. This momma just kept shooting.



Okay, new strategy re-group. You both get to do the "pushing" from both ends. Brilliant! Let's give that a whirl. This could work.


It did in fact work well enough for one shot (you just need one), but then Laney Rae had a new idea.....


To march herself up to the foreground......


and plop herself down. She is pretty thrilled with this decision, but Kaylyn is not. Zoom in and take a look at that face.


Or this one....sheesh.



We did get some definite "keepers". I just thought this little series was funny and worth sharing. All jokes aside, my girls really were troopers. I was the doof wad that decided to have a picnic before hand to get them comfortable with their surroundings and feed them Cheetos- the bad kind- IN WHITE CLOTHING. Not smart and definite rookie bluebonnet picture mistake.

But, I had a smile on my face throughout {{mostly}}. I did say "are you kidding me??" lots of times.

I went into with the mindset that it may not workout and be the day for me to get the "perfect" bluebonnet picture of ALL three together. With children- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

The "keepers" post coming soon!

11 comments:

Kirby said...

Lyns! I loved this post! You crack me up! I was laughing all the way through. What a precious story for the girls to get to read one day!

Heather said...

You are cracking me up!! I love it! No matter what, you always have those fun memories!

shauna maness said...

ok, lyns, i have to go back to reading the full post- because i had to stop and almost pee my pants at the victorian image... because those kids aren't smiling because the baby in the chair is dead. um.. yeah, thats not a typo. most of the "sleeping babies & children" you see in old photographs are actually death pictures- so the families could remember the way their babies looked... and the ones with all of the alive kids- well, remember- the kids worked like dogs and were beaten :)
so, you know, i suppose you could MAKE them stand still- but it might change the dynamic of things a bit :) thank goodness for wiggling little ladies :)

too funny- love you!

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

OH. MY. HECK.

I'm peeing my pants and feeling so morbid at the same time. How is that even possible? I don't know. But, it is.

I had no idea. No wonder nobody is smiling in that photo.

And I'm even more creeped out by it.

Holly Mathis Interiors said...

danggg girl..cheetos! what were ya thinking!!!!! ha! love this post! Cant wait to see!
p.s. Shana is very correct....old paintings of children are usually postmartum too..if the child is holding a flower turning downward that is clue.

Kimberly said...

I actually LOVE the arm-crossed pic - this has real personality.. flip the convo - baby carriage.. I ain't pushin no more stinkin baby carriage... huffing away -- LOLOLOLOL -- the stuff memories are made of.. 1 thing you will never forget.. the day your crazy self decided to take these 3 into the blue bonnets with props :o)~

QuiltedSimple said...

I love these - funky faces and all! And I think Laney Rae will be giving you a run for your money in a couple years - she definitely has a mind of her own:) Gorgeous
Kris

Hendrick Family said...

Oh wow...this is fantastically funny.

And gross.

And sad.

And weird.

But mostly funny.

Ha!

Cottage Dreamers said...

Your girls are so cute, no matter what pose they strike! The first one is my favorite though!
I can't wait to see your keepers!
☺ Celeste

Anonymous said...

i'll take a copy of all them beautiful grandgirls'..bloopers tell the real story..ha.ha....love them little house on the prairie girls'.. love grandma

roxythekiller said...

Someone already said this, but I'll add some more info. The Victorian era photograph you posted is a death portrait. They were, in some cases, the only photograph family members had of their loved ones. Also, given that camera technology popular at that time required a subject to stay still for over ten minutes at a time, it was easier to take a picture of a dead person than a living one.

That, and even if this weren't a death portrait, smiling for over ten minutes straight is not only difficult, but results in a creepy leer!