The Perfect Photo

Wow, you guys!  Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my last post!  It was pretty unanimous that A) I need to post more and B) a lot more people are interested in more than just client photos.  I’ll do my best to spice things up around here.  I have a fun idea for a contest and someone else mentioned they’d like to see a post on what kind of gear I use.  I’ll get to that soon, but first, more photos of my kiddos and the story behind them.

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I’m not sure if it’s a symptom of being the older sibling or if it just comes with the territory of being a 3 year-old, but Sophia has to be the center of attention.  She’s constantly taking her sister’s toy away, asks me to put down the baby so I can pick her up and anytime I start taking pictures of Lucy, she magically appears.

I thought I was being sneaky one day when Lucy woke up fresh from a nap lookin’ all adorable and I decided to pull out my camera and snap a few photos of her while Sophia was happily playing downstairs.  After what seemed like only a couple of minutes, out of nowhere, I hear the pitter patter of footsteps coming up the stairs.  Oh no, I thought.  I whipped around and told Sophia to stay back.  She wouldn’t listen.  Stay behind mommy Sophia.  Behind Mommy! I pleaded.  No dice.  Getting desperate now, I say, I’ll let you watch a video on my phone.  Let me just take a few more pictures of Lucy.

She wasn’t buying it.  She ignores me and plops down right next to Lucy, taking away the spotlight away from Lucy once again.  I’ll admit, I was kind of annoyed, but I took a few more frames just to appease her. (Will you look at that cheesy grin?)

But just as I was ready to give up, they both looked at me.  And in that split second, I captured one of my favorite photos of them.

I smile every time I see this photo.  Not just because of the sweet faces in front of me, but because some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken are ones that aren’t planned.  If I had planned this moment, I certainly would have brushed Sophia’s hair and changed her shirt.  (She had just woken up from a nap too and was still in her PJ’s)  It also makes me laugh because I have fooled people into thinking I have the most well-behaved children who look at the camera and hold that expression until I take the picture.  I really don’t have any magic tricks that work with my kids.  Just a lucky mama who happened to press the shutter at the right time.  Because a second later, this is what I got.