Family Photo Session

On Sunday evening Chad and I engaged in a longstanding tradition in our household--the family Christmas picture. I love this tradition because I love to see how we've changed over the years and how our dog family has grown and changed. However, the actual act of taking said picture can be a bit of an ordeal since our family consists of all canines, who aren't necessarily always cooperative. The photo session was especially difficult this year because we didn't have a volunteer photographer like we've had in the past. This meant we had to rely on the camera's timer, which isn't so helpful when working with dogs who don't know they are supposed to be looking at an unmanned camera.

So the photo session took a while, with me extracting myself from the group after each picture to go reset the timer, hoping the dogs all stay in place, then clicking the shutter and jumping back into the group, then getting the dogs to focus back on the camera in just 10 seconds. Celtic was an old pro since he's done this for the last 12 years, and Hope did pretty well after getting over the initial trauma of being forced to sit facing away from Chad, and after several tries Fresco figured out that he was supposed to be sitting still. Remarkably, it only took us nine tries before we got a few pictures that were usable!

Fresco initially insisted on greeting me upon my return, while Hope only wanted to escape the horrible trauma.

Telling Fresco to look at the camera certainly didn't work, since he just responds to the person talking to him.

"Oh, hey Mom, welcome back again!"

Now he's quit looking at us and Hope has finally calmed down, but Celtic is just looking bored and distracted.

After a slight readjustment Fresco is getting it figured out, but Hope is trying to escape again!

Okay, we're getting closer. Fresco is finally looking at the camera, but now Celtic and Hope aren't paying attention!

Celtic and Hope have completely lost interest at this point.

We finally have all three dogs almost looking at the camera, and now there's a ridiculous bizarre look on my face!! Ugh--idiot!

Ok, finally something almost usable! All I had to do was Photoshop Celtic's eyes open and we look almost like a normal family! :)