For cryin' out loud | Family Portraits gone sideways

For two years I've been threatening this post. Two long years.And here it is, a moment of complete, unfiltered, uncensored truth.  And in this post I'm outing my own flesh and blood...thats right....yes, I am admitting that my very own child doesn't always behave for the photographer his mother.Sometimes during sessions parents can get overwhelmed by their very own children.  Sometimes it's the meltdowns, the tears, the silly faces, no one is looking where they should be, someone blinked, a shirt gets dirty... and it happens at nearly every session.  I wanted to write this post to encourage the parents of little ones. You are not alone.Okay, we've established that meltdowns will inevidably happen at some point durring a photo shoot - now what to do about it?  Let. It. Happen. Just roll with the tears, they usually don't last long.  Laugh at the dirty shirt, it would probably be that way at home anyway. And most of the time these moments make for great images to remember just exactly who your little one was at this age.  You can't take the personality out of the little ones, just capture those real, raw moments.I wanted to post a some images from the last couple years - just to remind you that you aren't alone - we've all had these moments :)Sometimes the kids outnumber the adults...thats always an adventure.  Remembering this makes me break out into a cold sweat (just kidding - we had a blast!).This one had to be bribed out of the car...if my memory serves me well this wasn't as effective as we'd hoped.One dad trying to convince his son to put the cell phone games down...I think this resulted in a time out :)  And this last one is my own darling Taylor.  We got about 20 minutes into his "newborn" photos and decided he was done.  So I took advantage of his meltdown. So mom...dad...take heart.  SOMETIMES the out-takes become more precious than the posed images.