Home Photo Anti-Studio

Back in November JCPenney was doing free family portraits, so we went in, hoping we would get a family picture in the style of a recent JCP catalog: colorful, minimalist, quirky. We were led to believe they would look something like this:

Instead they put us in front of an old brown sponge-painted background and we got pictures that looked like they were taken at Olan Mills in 1989. The photographer put us in unnatural poses and took one single picture in each pose, so of course we didn't get one in which we all look good. Our best option was one in which Celia is kind of smiling but not looking at the camera, Sabrina is looking at the camera but not smiling, and Marel and I both look a little dorky.

So we took our free 8x10 and bought a couple 5x7s of solo shots of the girls to give to their grandparents and went home disillusioned. Why is the photo studio model so antiquated? Why can they only take 20 pictures of us? We know from experience that when taking pictures of our kids we need to take one or two hundred to get 5 or 6 good ones. It made sense when they shot on film, when every picture they took cost a measurable, non-negligable amount. But nowadays, unless I'm missing something, each picture they take only costs the amount of electricity it takes to light the flash and move a couple megabytes through a wire to the computer. Prints can still cost an arm and leg, I have no real problem with that, but why can't they take more pictures to give us more to choose from, and increase the odds of getting a good one? In a day when amateurs like ourselves have a camera that can take 6 shots per second and holds 2,600 photos at 15 megapixels there's no reason we need to play the odds at getting one good shot out of only 20 photos.

I looked online and found that on Amazon one can purchase lights and a backdrop for around the cost of one or two photo packages at a studio. Rather than going to a studio every year or two, where the kids are a little weirded out by the photographer putting them in unusual positions and trying to make them smile, I figured we could do it at home whenever we want. If we don't get any good pictures one day, oh well, we can try again next week. It was genius.

Marel talked me out of it, but then told our parents that I wanted it for Christmas. So lately we've been testing it out by photographing the babies of friends of ours who have been born in recent weeks and months. Here we are on our first try with cousin Hazel.

Of course after seeing us take so many pictures of the babies, Celia and Sabrina want to get in on the action as well. We haven't done a planned photo shoot with them yet, but they have jumped in front of the camera when we've had it set up for the babies. Even when they're just messing around we've taken some pretty decent shots of them.

Also, for my birthday my parents got me a new lens. It adds noticeable clarity to the photos, as opposed to the two above taken with the basic kit lens.

By the way, they choose their own clothes. We don't dress them up like this.

So far we're pleased with the results, though we have yet to find out whether we can get good shots of the girls when they're dressed up and we're actually trying.

In addition to our home studio setup, now that the girls have a cousin nearby, we've taken to recreating old family pictures. Here is an old photo of young Taylor holding baby Marel, which we recreated with young Sabrina holding baby Hazel.