R and G had their first official photo session at nursery last week and seeing the proofs transported me back to my school days. I used to dread seeing the pile of photographs in the brown cardboard frames wrapped in cellophane on my teachers’ desk because I knew that at the bottom, there would be a single plain brown envelope with my pictures in, with my eyes shut in every single one.
I hate having my photo taken. Lots of people say this but I speak from years of agony. Apparently, until I was one I loved the camera and then, as many children do, I became camera shy. Most people grow out of this but I never have. Point a camera with a bright flash at me and my eyes go into blinking overdrive. Digital cameras have made the process much less painful because I can delete all of the images where I appear to be asleep. Dh has set up the digital camera so that it takes lots of pictures in quick succession in the hope of getting one of me looking at least half-awake and this seems to work quite well. I’m also better if I’ve had a drink, which is why my graduation and wedding pictures look half-decent.
My sister, on the other hand, is ridiculously photogenic. She can tumble out of bed, turn on a megawatt smile and look extremely fabulous. Luckily (for the moment at least), R and G seem to take after her. The problem is that babies born now are the most documented and photographed children ever. Digital pictures mean hundreds of photos and only the best ones get selected for albums.
The photos taken at nursery were nice enough, but no better really than any we had taken. G, generally the more smiley of the two apparently revelled in the photo session but the photographer evidently didn’t manage to capture this as she isn’t really smiling in any of the pictures. In most of them she looks extremely cheeky and mischievous but we have better images at home.
Dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans, with bare feet, R looks like a model from a jeans commercial. There is one photo I really like but it wouldn’t be fair to buy one of her and not of G. They also had some pictures taken together but they are clearly working to a one smile or grimace per photo policy as there isn’t a single photo of them both smiling at the same time.
Also, the photo packages are ridiculously expensive. One small reprint? £12. That’s the cheapest package they offer. It’s a lot of money for one child, let alone two plus the sibling pictures as well. I don’t think we’ll be buying any of the photos, which is a shame but I would have expected better shots from a professional photographer.
Dh has said that he’ll wait for a dry day, dress the girls up in pretty dresses, take them to the park and photograph them next to some nice flowers. We’ll probably get nicer photos and it will be infinitely cheaper to get reprints done.
I hope that R and G continue to be camera-lovers like my sister. I’d hate them to get paranoid about it like me and I don’t want them to have to deal with brown envelope embarrassment at school. Hopefully the advent of the digital camera will mean that all their photos are lovely.