Taking Christmas Card pictures

Every year we have a standing appointment with photographer extraordinaire, Scott Pitocco and second photographer, Antonio Pitocco over the Thanksgiving weekend to get our family Christmas pictures taken. Thankfully we're related to them and can get our pick of appointment times, top venue selection and access to all digital copies of photography. Helps that they take the pictures with my camera as well, so at the end of the session I get handed back my camera right away with all digital copies.

Kids can be running all over the place, weather can be chilly and sounds of complaints can be heard from said kids running all over the place "not another picture!!!" What I say to that is "Tough! Put your smile in place and let's get this thing done." What we end up with is priceless to me.

What I love each year is that we get amazing pictures, shots of our family that I just am in love with and that can grace our Christmas card picture, update our frames in the home and images that will remain with us forever. What I also love is that we get some pretty great outtakes too. Pure silliness, sometimes moodiness and all of this really captures the essence of my family. Makes me really smile.

The kids are great sports with this. Among the whining of "are we done yet?" we get some great faces with big, beautiful smiles and looking back through the shots, a constant reminder of how big they are all getting. So big, too fast.

We don't go far for the pictures. Sometimes it's just right down the street from my parent's house which thankfully has really nice backdrops that are perfect for Christmas pictures. It's good to not have too much time designated to taking a picture, especially with kids. They get tired, you get tired and in the end it's not enjoyable for anyone. It's good to have an idea of what you're looking for ahead of time to save on just standing around trying to see what you want to do and what you're going for.

I say the more, the merrier. In terms of keeping clicking away. The worst that happens is that you have a bunch that you won't use and just end up deleting them when you get home and get them downloaded. No big deal. The best that can happen is that you capture moments that you will want to hold onto forever.

Beyond grateful for Scott's talent, Antonio's patience with the kids and my desire to do this every year. Planning what to wear for the family, where to go for pictures, repeating "we're almost done" for the hundredth time, and the editing afterwards is all worth it to me. We're making memories with our family. 

And who wouldn't want to hold onto memories like these forever?!?