The Perfect Photo Session?

I don't like posting photos of my family because I feel that my children need their privacy to grow up, be awkward, mess up, and just generally be human.  I don't want to use them as a ploy to gain followers or involvement.  They're people, not products.   But, they were so pleased with how our family photo session turned out that they gave me permission to share these photos of our family.

Social media has done a real number on our society.  Keeping up with the Jones' has gone to the extreme thanks to social media posts of pretty people on perfect vacations in the throws of blissful living.  Sitting at home in sweat pants on a Friday night, sharing a block of cheese with the cat, we come across these photos and feel suddenly inadequate.  We want that life, we want that Perfect life.  The cure?  There's really only two ways to get over FOMO, either get out there and try to have the perfect body, perfect wardrobe, perfect vacation, perfect photos, perfect life and eventually come to the realization that nothing is perfect, no matter how it looks on social media, or just stay off social media altogether so you don't feel inadequate.  Maybe your life could use a tweak or two, but more than likely, you're just fine and totally normal doing what you're doing.

I tend to stay off social media as much as possible, it's one of the reasons my interaction rates are so low on all my platforms.  I don't need to feel bad about myself for just having a very real and very normal life.  I'm not opposed to creating Kodak moments, but my expectations are very realistic.  I have also learned over time that all those perfect photos of perfect people range from "not telling the whole story" to "just totally fake."  When we lived in Japan, we were packed in like sardines and we knew all the details of our neighbors' lives thanks to our paper thin walls.  I heard the way they spoke to each other and treated each other in real life, then saw their smiling faces on social media dolled up in a fashion I never once saw in real life and it sickened me how fake their posts were.  So, in the interest of transparency, let me tell you a little something about our family photo session. 

We haven't done family photos in seven years because our family has been through a tough time that made me unable to look at past photos and of which I didn't want current photos.   Now that things seem to be getting better, I decided it was time to take some photos together before my children grow up and move out.  I rented a studio so that I could take our photos myself  (Mistake #1).  I wanted us to look our best (Mistake #2) in some of my most favorite gowns and spent some time (hours!) coordinating, locating, and steaming our dresses.  I booked the studio for Saturday at 10 a.m. so that no one had to get up early and yet it was early enough in the day that once we were done people could do other things with their day.  Even so, no one wanted to get up, people dragged their feet getting ready, refused to shave their legs, decided to cut their own bangs waaay too short and shave off half their eyebrows the night before, tried tons of dresses deciding that none would work, fought over shoes, etc, etc, etc.  It was chaos.

When we arrived, one person still wasn't ready and spent 15 minutes of our 60 minute session in the bathroom applying makeup.  The studio owner was very helpful in setting up some props and lighting and left us to our own devices.  It's hard enough for me to take my own photos, but when you have a group of people who don't know how to pose and fight to slouch, look away from the camera, and just generally don't want to be there, it becomes nearly impossible to set up a shot, push the button, run to take your own place, and have everything look great so you get the most amazing photos in one hour.  Of the hundred or so photos that I took, we probably got a ten usable shots.  It was frustrating and irritating, like herding cats, and I was afraid that all our smiles would be fake, but a wonderful thing happened.  Somewhere near the last quarter of an hour, we started laughing, really laughing, and most of these smiles were genuine.  The girls looked at the photos I had taken and decided that they liked the way they looked; they felt pretty and were happy to be there.

After the session, Mr. Bleu decided to treat the girls to coffee.  Can you guess what happened next?  That's right, one of them spilled coffee all over her (my) dress.   I didn't even bat an eye at this point.  I knew I could wash it as soon as we got home and most likely get the stain out, and I did.  Then I settled into my chair to decompress.  Anything worth having is going to take hard work, and this was definitely hard work.  Are the photos perfect?  Nope, so don't look too close.  If I could have spent all my time behind the camera I would have been much happier with how everyone was posed, but since I had to split my time in front of and behind the camera, I knew it wasn't going to be perfect.  We got a few family photos dressed in our best with some true and heart-felt smiles.  It's not perfect, but it's real and that's good enough for me.

Shopping Info:  Star dress is from Teuta Matoshi, Ruffle dresses are from Selkie