Christmas Card Photos...Oy...

On Thursday the school announced that it was make-up picture day.  I guess I kind of knew that and had let the day sneak up on us because I knew it would be pretty futile to convince Samantha to have her picture taken by a stranger.  The first go-round did not go well, and no photo was taken, even with Daddy's reassuring presence there.  I mean, unless the photographer (who looked like she was about 16 and bored out of her skull) planned on spending about 15 minutes with Samantha to get to know her and warm her up, there is no way on this earth that Sammi would sit happily with no tears, let alone smile.  She barely smiles for me, when I've got my camera stuck in her face, and getting her to even look at the camera is a real challenge.  Ugh, when did that happen?  And I've heard that this is pretty common for people with Down syndrome, I think, but I truly do not understand it.  Any thoughts?

Sooooo...last weekend I got Sammi dressed and took her for a walk along the lake by our house to get some sweet fall pics to use for our holiday/Christmas/whatever cards this year.  I've got my free card code from Shutterfly in my hot little hands, and am chomping at the bit to create and order them.  Out of the 250 or so photos I took on our walk, there were 2 or 3 shots where she was smiling and looking at the camera.  My math skills suck, but even I know that that ratio is not very good...  And, of course, the very best shot, the one I had been waiting all morning for that I took right before we came back into the house (literally, it was the second-to-last shot), won't. work.  Why?  Because I cut most of her head off. 

Oy.

Now I am not in the least bit skittish about taking tight, tight headshots.  When they're nice and tight like that, missing tops or sides of heads is actually okay!  But when you want to keep the shot wide enough to show her cute outfit, you're kinda screwed. 

I tried dropping it into some of the card templates on Shutterfly, and lo and behold, they looked totally weird.  No surprise.  It looks like she's ducking to be seen beneath a large overhang.  I've also cropped the image into a tight headshot, and that actually worked a bit better.  But, no outfit.  Hmph.  This past weekend, I tried again to get some decent shots, and again, got a small handful out of a rather large number taken, but I now have some options.  I won't share them now, but as I get closer to making my decision, and once I can get Steve's opinion, I may publish a few...  Not the etheral, angelic vision I'd had initially when I set out to stage the moment, but cute nonetheless.

Who'dathought getting just. the. right. Christmas. card. photo. would be such a production????

(Btw...can someone please tell me why this post is appearing AFTER the post I published yesterday?  Makes no sense to me...)