Picture, Picture

I’m tired of griping; I feel like that’s all I do these days, so tonight, I’m going to talk about something that makes me laugh. I took Dolly to get her spring picture taken today. For some reason, I never got the notice that spring pictures had to be pre-paid. I think I mentioned that the other night in a different post. In any case, I drove to Lees Summit today to the LifeTouch studio to have a three-second picture taken. I’d told the girl on the phone that I could be there between 8:00 and 8:30. We got there right at 8:00 but had a heck of a time finding it. According to Google Directions I was in the right area but was supposed to turn left on one road; then make a right to stay on that road; then make a left onto the road where the studio is located. What I found, after I made the initial left was that there was no right to make to stay on that road but there was a right to make onto the road of the studio. So I made the turn and, after driving through the industrial complex four times finally found the place. Nothing like getting really good directions first thing in the morning.

Even though they open at 8:00, they weren’t ready for us when we got there a few minutes after 8:00 so we ended up waiting a half hour before they could take Dolly’s picture. For whatever reason, the camera wasn’t starting up the way it was supposed to and the photographer had to reboot the computer. Okay, that’s fine. The photog came to get us to take this very simple photo and walked us back to the “studio” (a big, warehouse-looking room) where she had the back-drop up with a little set of white steps in front of it. Dolly was dressed in jeans and a pastel striped shirt. It wasn’t exactly warm this morning but it’s supposed to be a spring photo so I helped her dress accordingly. She climbed up on the steps as directed and sat there very pretty and still like the photog asked of her. I quickly combed her hair because the wind had seriously messed it up on our way into the building. We were ready to take the picture; then it happened.

The photog said, “Okay, smile for me” and all Dolly did was give a little tiny close-lipped smile, even though we had practiced it beforehand. The photog and I asked her to smile bigger, which she did – with one of those fake kid smiles. It’s the type of smile kids give when taking a school photo and they’re not sure exactly what’s being asked. There lips are apart, teeth are together but the rest of the face is completely expressionless. I never realized how hard it was for a kid to smile naturally. It is pretty funny, though, when you think about it. Dolly was just sitting there with her mouth spread into a semi-smile with her teeth pressed together and her eyes looking like, “Is this it; am I smiling?” We all know that look.

Zach has never done it in any of his pictures, and I never did it in any of mine, but one of Ty’s, I’m pretty sure it’s a Headstart picture, has his eyes wide open with his eyebrows way up on his forehead while he was smiling. I’m thinking the photog said, “Smile big,” so Tyler did – his whole face smiled big. The picture is still adorable, though. Even their dad had a school picture taken in second grade that wasn’t all that great. The first time I saw it I asked him if he’d slept standing on his head the night before because his hair was, literally, sticking straight up on his head in one spot. I think he said his hair was fine before he left his house but ended up that way because he’d been playing or something before the picture was taken. It’s still a cute photo and is definitely gets a laugh. What I don’t understand is why the photographer or a teacher didn’t ask Tyler to smile a little smaller; or why someone didn’t do something to try to fix Paul’s hair before his photo was taken. I actually think photogs have a contest every year to see who can take the goofiest school photo of a kid. I really do.

Anyway, Dolly was smiling her forced smile and the photog and I both asked her to relax a little bit. If I was at home and she was smiling like that, and she has in the past, I would have told her to smile like Zach just farted. That would’ve gotten a natural smile out of her; but I wasn’t sure the photog would’ve liked that, although, it might have made her laugh too. After we asked Dolly to relax a bit, she did, and the picture came out cute. The photog suggested we take another just to see if we could get Dolly to smile a little better. The second time, she smiled great and that’s the photo we kept. The whole thing took about three minutes altogether – from the time she sat down until she stood up to leave. The picture taking itself took about a minute to get both shots. The really funny thing is that all I could think about is all the photos in the boys’ yearbooks the past couple of years where the kid in the photo has a really goofy look on his or her face.

Some of them are just that fake smile with lips spread and teeth pressed together; then there is one girl who looks completely startled, as if she’s just been goosed; there’s a boy who actually looks like he’s growling; another boy has a look on his face that says, “Oops, they caught me”; and yet some have that same surprised smile that Ty had in his picture and a good many of them look like the kid hasn’t combed his or her hair in a month. Doesn’t anyone care that these kids are taking pictures that are going to last a lifetime and that they should be taken with care? I wonder how many photogs go home at the end of a day of taking school photos and just laugh and compare the funny shots they got out of the kids.

I guess if they actually took the time to get the kids to smile nicely and to fix their hair, all the kids would look the same as each other; and the same year after year. A little variety never hurt and it does give us something to laugh at occasionally. Besides, those photos are good blackmail photos for later in life, right? I’m just glad I was with Dolly when she took this photo. Her fall photo came out beautiful but this one may have had the faux smile had she taken it in school. That’s okay; I would’ve loved it anyway. One really great thing did come of it, though. Since we had to wait so long for them to take the picture, they’re comping me the photo package. I can handle that; I always like getting stuff for free. It makes me happy; as happy as the silly faces kids make when they smile for pictures.

For my next post I’ll try to come up with something really funny. I tried tonight but don’t really feel like the humor is there. Probably because I’m tired. I’ll go to bed now and see what happens when I wake up in the morning. Until tomorrow…peace to all.