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Nov. 19th, 2004 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerToday the girls had a sitting a Proex to have pictures taken. We do a nice set of portrait-studio pictures of the girls (or girl, back when it was just Molly) every year, and we do it in November or December so that we can send it out as a Christmas card. The Proex staff are really quite good at getting the girls to laugh, which makes for good pictures, but more importantly, they have nice studio lighting (Ed and I have a good camera, but it has your basic flash, which is not ideal) and nice plain backgrounds. There is nowhere in our house with a nice plain background with no mess or weird-looking stuff intruding. At best, the background is distracting.
I decided to dress the girls AT Proex because otherwise I was sure they would fall into a mud puddle on the way to the car (especially as it was raining). I got them dressed, brushed Molly's hair, and took them into the studio. The photographer set up the table, put Molly and Kiera on it, and got two pictures, I think, before Kiera decided to stop cooperating.
These sittings are supposed to take about fifteen minutes -- that's the time they allocate for you. Luckily, no one was booked right after us, because we were there for an HOUR. The photographer tried bubbles. She tried funny noises. She tried stuffed animals that made funny noises. She tried everything short of a soft-shoe hat-and-cane dance to get Kiera to sit down and at least stop crying, but Kiera was having none of it. They have a rocking horse for kids to pose on. Kiera LOVES rocking horses. Unless they're in front of a camera, apparently, in which case rocking horses are evil. They have a rocking chair. Kiera LOVES rocking chairs. Unless they're on a table in front of a camera. They had a little wicker chair. Kiera LOVED climbing in the little wicker chair WHILE IT WAS ON THE FLOOR IN THE CORNER but as soon as it was on the table in front of the camera, NO WAY.
I tried giving her the stuffed animals I'd brought for her to play with. My cell phone. My business card case. A credit card, since she likes to play with them. Since she's pretty good at understanding stuff, I promised her a cookie if she would pose. No dice.
Molly was so very patient. She did want to know if she would also get a cookie (yes!) but she held poses, sat still, refrained from running around the studio, and in general was amazingly cooperative as we tried to cajole Kiera into sitting down and letting us take her picture. Should I note that normally (like, if we're at home and I take out the camera), Kiera LOVES having her picture taken? She's a ham. Not today. We did take one picture just of Molly, hoping that this would make Kiera jealous. Normally, if Molly is playing with something, that is a surefire way to get Kiera to want to shove her sister right out of the way. And that probably would've worked anywhere else, but not on the table in front of the camera.
We finally gave up after getting about half the normal number of shots. (Kiera did settle down and pose a handful of other times.) I changed Kiera back into normal clothes. They have proofs ready in an hour and a half, so we went to Bruegger's for lunch, did some other errands, and then went back. And GLORY HALLELUJAH, of those half-dozen shots, several were actually excellent. So! Whew. And they gave us a discount since they were only able to do half the normal number -- totally unfair, I think, since they spent WAY more time on us, but I'm not going to argue.
I decided to dress the girls AT Proex because otherwise I was sure they would fall into a mud puddle on the way to the car (especially as it was raining). I got them dressed, brushed Molly's hair, and took them into the studio. The photographer set up the table, put Molly and Kiera on it, and got two pictures, I think, before Kiera decided to stop cooperating.
These sittings are supposed to take about fifteen minutes -- that's the time they allocate for you. Luckily, no one was booked right after us, because we were there for an HOUR. The photographer tried bubbles. She tried funny noises. She tried stuffed animals that made funny noises. She tried everything short of a soft-shoe hat-and-cane dance to get Kiera to sit down and at least stop crying, but Kiera was having none of it. They have a rocking horse for kids to pose on. Kiera LOVES rocking horses. Unless they're in front of a camera, apparently, in which case rocking horses are evil. They have a rocking chair. Kiera LOVES rocking chairs. Unless they're on a table in front of a camera. They had a little wicker chair. Kiera LOVED climbing in the little wicker chair WHILE IT WAS ON THE FLOOR IN THE CORNER but as soon as it was on the table in front of the camera, NO WAY.
I tried giving her the stuffed animals I'd brought for her to play with. My cell phone. My business card case. A credit card, since she likes to play with them. Since she's pretty good at understanding stuff, I promised her a cookie if she would pose. No dice.
Molly was so very patient. She did want to know if she would also get a cookie (yes!) but she held poses, sat still, refrained from running around the studio, and in general was amazingly cooperative as we tried to cajole Kiera into sitting down and letting us take her picture. Should I note that normally (like, if we're at home and I take out the camera), Kiera LOVES having her picture taken? She's a ham. Not today. We did take one picture just of Molly, hoping that this would make Kiera jealous. Normally, if Molly is playing with something, that is a surefire way to get Kiera to want to shove her sister right out of the way. And that probably would've worked anywhere else, but not on the table in front of the camera.
We finally gave up after getting about half the normal number of shots. (Kiera did settle down and pose a handful of other times.) I changed Kiera back into normal clothes. They have proofs ready in an hour and a half, so we went to Bruegger's for lunch, did some other errands, and then went back. And GLORY HALLELUJAH, of those half-dozen shots, several were actually excellent. So! Whew. And they gave us a discount since they were only able to do half the normal number -- totally unfair, I think, since they spent WAY more time on us, but I'm not going to argue.
