Photography - For fun, not for a living

While we were in California for Thanksgiving, my sister asked if I would take photos of her and the family for their Christmas cards. She found a professional photographer who would stage the photos at the beach, but that turned into a bad idea when the weather forecast was for rain and wind. Instead she asked me to give it a try. I like to focus on fish, flowers, and landscapes, but I thought it would be interesting.

So on Sunday after turkey-day, we drove to the Claremont Colleges - Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, McKenna, Keck and more. Beautiful architecture, manicured lawns, trees, gardens, fountains, and good weather. There were a number of families there enjoying the park-like setting and wide-open spaces. Being a long holiday weekend, there were literally no students to be found.

At times, trying to get the 2 year old and 5 year old boys to pose for photos was difficult when all they wanted to do was run and play. And climb trees. And kick through the leaves, go up and down the steps, play tag, find bugs, climb the low walls, and sit on the benches. Getting them to stay still was the hard part, but they are kids afterall. Here are a few of my favs.

And a slideshow of fun bloopers to give you an idea of the fun we had trying to get them all smiling and looking at me at the same time. Taking pics of fish and flowers is a lot easier. They don't move like a 2 year old! In hindsight I would try a couple different settings on the camera and I'd bring along a couple of props to get their attention.

I wish I could have explored the campuses, but taking the photos of them was a lot of fun. I think we all had fun. And I hope they are able to use a couple of the photos for their Christmas card.