This Year's Family Portrait

Last Sunday, we had our family portrait session for the year. Sometimes it's easier to schedule other people than 'shooting' your own family. I don't know, I guess we were just more busy than usual especially that Christmas time is here. Ophine just had her finals for her Master's and the two kids, well you know, kids. I was actually planning to do it late November but I was also kind of pushing it a little more since I'm still on a diet and wanted to lose a few more pounds besides I know I can have a 24 hour turnaround including the greeting cards we just had made in Costco.

It's hard for a photographer to do a kind of self-portrait (I was included, so it counts) since I can't see my composition with me in it I had to rely on a TV screen in front of us as we were doing the takes. It was actually not real time as I can only correct/coach the kids, adjust the posing and the level/height of each one after the image was captured. So after making a number of test shots and doing a lot more to capture the best one overall, we came up with this one. I just made several versions on the tone to have a variety.