New Family Pics

We have been taking Brad to parks this summer because we don't have a swing set for him yet. He likes to swing but he really loves the slides, too.

Thankfully, someone gave us a Fisher Price slide tonight that they weren't using and when we got home it was on our front yard. Brad saw it and had to go down it a few times before he went inside for the night.

While we were swinging at the park the other day I asked David to get a picture of Brad and I. I have not been getting very many of us together this summer and I need to work on that!

Then we walked to a field next to the playground and I set up the camera to take some automatic pictures of us. I didn't have the tripod as this was not planned. We just propped the camera up on the strap and the lens on David's pager.
It worked pretty well.

Brad is usually pretty good when we do these self portraits but sometimes he doesn't smile.
I'm just happy he sits there for a few second while the 10 shots fire away.
He was smiling in the above photograph a little but this second family picture he wasn't smiling. I cropped this one because it came out the best as far as exposure and clarity- I had moved the camera closer, but unfortunately the novelty of seeing the lens click was lost on Brad at this point. :-)

We usually get our family photos last minute- so, our hair isn't perfect and maybe we're not "coordinating" with our outfits but that's OK- every day life is worth photographing and you don't have to be perfect!
I think that families should really practice this more often. Don't worry if you don't have the money to pay a professional to get your family pictures- just set up your own camera(on anything- a table- stack of books) and put it on the timer setting, set it and then run back to your family and smile! :)