Picture This

Autumn arrived pretty much on time this year in terms of the leaves changing colors.  The fall is my favorite season for numerous reasons, from the color to the weather to the sports in season.  In the eastern part of the state we have some beautiful trees...nothing quite as spectacular as the Northeast where the trees create an entire blanket, but because of the river, the clusters of trees are magnificent when the bare branches glisten in ice, then become spotted with spring colors and then turn into canopies of lush green.  They are equally as beautiful when those same leaves begin to change to brilliant colors and drop to the ground.  Walking from our house to church, I feel like I'm back in college--living on a little campus, waving to friends as they pass by, walking along a little brick road.  That little brick road is seriously so beautiful with the fallen golden leaves that line the edges and the blazing colors still hanging onto the branches above that I knew we had to take our family pictures on that street!

The idea was grand...ideas usually are.  :)  The execution of the idea?  Well, *sigh*, it wasn't simple, easy, or entirely as fruitful as I would've liked.  Seriously, one would think that everyone would know the drill by now and we could get the whole thing done in 5 minutes!  Not so.  Every year there is a new joker.  This year?  Joe.


 
Between him, the random consistent horsing around from everyone else, and some technical difficulties with a camera lens, plus the fact that it was COLD and the occasional car that would drive down the road (just as we finally got situated!), we were challenged to find that really great Christmas card picture.  Our good friend Mr. B, who shot most of the pictures was a trooper though.  The pictures that everyone managed to look AND smile AND have their eyes open at the same time were of course the ones affected by the lens.  :)

All of that being said though, when I look at the pictures, I see my family--in real life--the chaos, the fun, the frustration and the happiness.  Sometimes capturing those shots are priceless, because we don't often pose for them on purpose.  Seiously...look where we started:  nice white socks with your black shoes son!


LENS BLUR

Pixilated Photoshop gone wrong