will my kids ever learn to be still for pictures?

[lizzywednesday]

It's totally like herding cats!!!!

Can I tell you about taking photos with a 3-year-old, two 2-year-olds and a 2-month-old?

One 2-year-old was having a clingy day, so it was next to impossible to get him to cooperate ... the other 2-year-old was ready yesterday ... and she smiled but then refused to look at the camera.

The 3-year-old wouldn't smile and keep his hands in his lap. Then he wouldn't hold his baby brother (the 2-month-old) ... then he decided to hold the baby, but someone said "oh he's gonna drop the baby" ... and, guess what? He dropped the baby.

We think that we might have gotten usable photos, but we're not entirely sure yet.

Oh, and next year, there will be a 6-month-old, a 14-month-old, two 3-year-olds and a 4-year-old. It's going to be a riot.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Oh, and I have also resorted to fake burping and farting in order to get them to laugh naturally. I must look like a complete fool at the park. I have tried everything, and that's the quickest and easiest way to get them to laugh.

LOL, this has me rolling!!! Actually when we got professional pics taken, whilie she was taking pics of the kids i was next to the photographer making monkey sounds...acting like a monkey (saying "ooh-ah-ah!!", etc) and dancing around acting like a monkey....it was the only thing to get their attention. So embarrassing but that is what worked.

And as for the camera, i have a pretty fast lens (f/1.8) and usually ISO is at 800 or 1600 (sometimes higher). I guess the thing is now that it's wintertime and they're in school full-time, plus it's the holidays (want to take pics of lights, etc)..most pictures i am taking of them are when it's dark, and/or indoors. I crank ISO up to 1600 and have the thing wide open and the fastest i can do is usually 1/60 and even that will end up blurry if they are moving a lot. And with it wide open i have to make sure the focus is spot-on. Sigh...

I agree that the best kind of pictures i can get of them are candid pictures, when they are doing something. though it's hard (more like impossible) to do that at night w/o a flash bc all they want to do is run around.

the tickling thing is a good trick. DS is super ticklish. and DS has started with the super cheesy smile SOMETIMES but i was actually grateful for that, bc at least i got to see his face!