Photo Frustrations

Safety Helmet, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

Here goes our little girl deciding to change a little more again. Ava had always been a big smiler whenever the camera gets out. Granted, I haven't been uploading too many pictures lately to prove that, but there should be ample evidence from the pictures already online. It used to be that I'd get out the camera and the cheesy grins would seemingly pour out of her. Here we thought she would be the youngest person to ever grace the cover of Vogue magazine. That girl can pose! Apparently she no longer wants to share her sheer joy for life with an electronic device.

This hasn't been a problem because through time, effort, and unlimited exposures I am still able to catch an occasional smirk. I think of it like hunting. You may spend a whole day waiting for the right shot, but when you get it there's nothing more satisfying.

However, when we go to get Ava's one-year old pictures we don't have the same luxuries. I introduce you to "last Friday". Doni had the day off last Friday because her Spring Break is this week. I didn't have the same luxury of having Friday off OR having a Spring Break this year (something I'm still pretty tore up about). But I digress... Doni got Ava all gussied up in her Easter dress, took an outfit change, and bought a baby-sized birthday cake for the shoot. Unfortunately, its hard to get the big cheesy smiles that we're used to if we don't have a willing participant. Round 1 went to Ava.

I was luckily able to leave the hospital early that day and go with Doni and Ava for the reattempt that afternoon after Ava was able to get a nap. We took the dress shots and the outdoor shots. We took the eating-the-cake shots and the Spring cutesy outfit shots. I tried everything in my repertoire to get her to crack and we thankfully came away with some smiling shots. We also got a lot of great non-smiling shots, which I'm excited to see how they turn out.

FYI: Ava's photographer's website is at www.carpenterpd.com. See if you can spot Ava's picture on there.