I was so looking forward to Eliseo's 6 month pictures. I wanted to do a Christmas card in his cute new First Christmas sleeper, and I brought several different things for him to wear: a Ralph Lauren orange and gray knitted sweater with his little jeans and Gap baseball hat; a hand knitted baby blue sweater someone made him with white jammie pants ( I pictured him holding his bare feet in this one); and I wanted to do a few diaper shots: one with a white scarf that was my brother's that my mom gave me recently ( I love pictures with a meaningful item) and I bought a navy blue knitted hat that matched the decoration on the scarf; and lastly I brought a blanket a friend made me with a baby blue winter hat and a Pooh bear. (I am obsessed with hats for him). I walked into the studio and it was like a circus. There was a family of about 20 from adults to toddlers that were all wearing red pajamas. There was the 2 year old that was having a temper tantrum because he had to wear the button down shirt that his parents made him wear that he apparently hated. There were the 7 year olds chasing each other around the openings of overcrowded people. Literally, I couldn't even walk in from the door. I also showed up a little early ( never happens) to be told that they were running late. So...it had been over 2 hours since Eliseo last ate, and I knew he was verging on the hunger breakdown if he had to wait another hour. There was really no where to nurse unless I went to the car in the crowded parking lot, and with all the kids I didn't feel comfortable nursing with my apron in the studio ( not that there was anywhere to sit). I brought a zucchini puree with me, so I fed him that, hoping it would hold him over. I guess it did the trick, he never went into full meltdown mode. I changed him into his $32 sleeper ( I only bring up the price because in the picture I settled on, all you can see is the arm). They called us in and were ready to snap away. Well, he can't sit up on his own yet, I'm working with him but he throws himself back too hard, so while he sits for a few seconds at a time, he may have cracked his head open and it really wasn't worth the risk. Out came the bean bag. I knew from the start it wouldn't be a good session because in the Christmas set, she looked at him and said, lets put him on a blue blanket cuz it will look really good with his red outfit. I was going to question, personally I would have preferred green, but I figured she was the professional so maybe she knew something I didn't. She started with the pics, before he was even smiling, she wasn't even really trying to make him smile. So I started with the peek a boo and the boo's and doh's and he laughed...the only problem is, he was never looking at the camera, always at me. Then she started tickling him with a feather duster...WTF!!!! And that's exactly the look he was giving her. I think she took more time doing the Christmas pictures than she intended to, because then she said "oh...let's move into the other room to do the black background." I said " you know I have other outfits, right"? To which she said, " Hmm well we can do a few pictures in a couple of them". I was like, Huh??? I have 4 and I wanted to take more than a few in all of them. Onto the next fiasco, the diaper shots on the white satin sheet. So she props him on the famous bean bag again, puts the white satin sheet over it. Well, he slid right down it. So she asked me to hold him there. That resulted in my hands being in all of those pictures. Next outfit, the scarf and hat. She didn't even allow me to get the scarf in position and she's clicking away. Now she says "Ok, one more outfit". Grumble. So I can't decide which, I go with the Polo sweater and Gap hat. I don't have the hat on his head and there goes her trigger finger again. Someone needed to take that camera away from her. A 10 year old would have taken better pictures. And that was that.
Well, surprisingly (not), when it came time to choose pictures, they starting popping up and they were all lame. Half smiles, no smiles, side smiles, hands in the pictures, hats not all the way on, WTF feather duster expressions...and her reaction to each one was " oh this one is so cute!!!" and "Awesome!!!" Obviously she was the world's worst saleswoman. She was trying to explain the things I could buy with my crappy pictures, like photo books and calendars. I said to her "I can't find 3 pictures I like, much less 12 or 22". I don't know what she expected, but the word "awesome" came up a lot less after that comment. I felt like "that girl" that couldn't make a decision. Last time, I had too many I loved to choose. This time, I didn't love any. I decided to start at least with the Christmas card. There was one decent picture of him actually looking at the camera. I didn't notice until later that it didn't even show his cute sleeper, I was just glad that he was smiling at the camera. But honestly, that was the only picture I could bring myself to buy.
Needless to say, I'm not sure I'll go back there, like ever. If I do, it won't be on a weekend, and surely not before Christmas. So, I left feeling very disappointed and now I feel like I need to reschedule 6 month pictures. I think I might try them myself, first. It's obvious that I can make him smile at a camera at least.
Ok, rant is over, thanks for listening (or reading...)! I attached the 1 picture that I walked out the door with, and if you are on my list of Christmas card exchanges, you will see it soon in person too.
Merry Freaking Christmas...LOL.
No comments:
Post a Comment