Sunday, November 27, 2011

Christmas Card Rejects

I had a whole year to come up with a Christmas card photo. A whole year!  Why don’t we take a look at what happened…

Our first big photo opportunity was in Niagara Falls. 

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Usually someone is looking kind of funny, but I struck gold with this one…and it’s blurry.  Bonus!

My hopes were probably way too high when I snapped this one after the Maid of the Mist.

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During our trip to Lititz Park, I decided to take some pictures before we headed home.  We should have just headed home.

Jack=eyes closed:

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Ben= eyes closed:

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Maddie= eyes closed:

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I give up.  Let’s go home.

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The beach!  Why, that’s the perfect location to get family photos!

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Two eyes open out of six?  Geez Louise.

I have about 50 more photos with somebody’s eyes closed.  I promise I won’t show you another one, but trust me, I’ve got plenty.

The beach at Cape May was crowded.  It was very hard to get a photo without another person… or shall I say family barging in.

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This is a nice one.  Except for the couple right on top of Ben’s head.

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Let’s try something else.

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Or maybe not.

In October, I decided to put sweaters on them and head to a nice leafy location at dusk.  Good lighting, good background.  What could go wrong?

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Why is this so hard?

Sometimes I tell them to say funny things to make their smiles more real, like “Okay, everybody say,' ‘Uncle Dave has diarrhea!’”  Unfortunately, sometimes it backfires.

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About 130 pictures later, I had two photos that I liked.  And one is not quite clear.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Last week I threw some Christmas lights on the floor and told the kids to lay on their stomachs in front of them (I saw this idea on Pinterest).  First of all, I placed the kids at a bad angle and they all looked a  little bit spooky.  Second of all,  Jack just couldn’t take his eyes off the lights:

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Also I don’t like the look of the carpet.DSCF7612

So now it’s the end of November and crunch time for Christmas cards!  Which do you think I should pick?

This:

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Or this:

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Or maybe a collage with these three:

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Help!  What do you think?

9 comments:

stephanie said...

I'm with Maria. Love the black & white collage at the bottom. You know this is why I didn't even send Christmas cards out last year, so much pressure!!!

Wendy said...

Agree, the black and white collage! Love how it captures all their personalities :)
And you know it is why we used Marcy to take our pictures last year!

Deb said...

Yay! I love this annual "issue"!

What is up with that couple -- they could have at least put on a shirt for your picture. Geesh.

Well, I do love the b/w collage. But I'm a face person. I LOVE close-ups of faces, so I would probably choose the first one.

Do we get a zucchini bread if we win????

Tara said...

I love the black and white pics!!!!

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Jen said...

def collage

corners of my life said...

I LOVE the tree light collage and I also am a bit partial to the "Maid of the Mist" photo. Looking forward t seeing the final card.

Karen said...

Take everything Deb said and switch it! I love the personalities in the collage, but if not, my vote is for the ultra-cool, casual pose on the rock. HOWEVER, they are all great - even he Uncle Dave has diarrhea shot!

Crickit said...

I like the collage at the bottom best! Thanks for sharing these...it always seems like you can never get just the right shot when you need it! Your kids are too cute!