Christmas Card Bloopers

We’ve decided, as a tradition, to make a Christmas Card as a family every year. We’ll get to see how our family changes and grows, not to mention it’s fun! But everyone always gets to see the finished, polished result with the ONE shot that actually worked out of the 127 that you took. So I thought it would be neat to post (a few) of the ones that didn’t make the cut.

1.) No image is needed for the biggest blooper. I shot all of these photos on Aperture priority, which COULD be great, except that it set my ISO at 1250 and nearly all the pictures came out incredibly grainy. Lesson #1.

2.) Our nearly white dog insisted on just laying down in the white snow. Adorable.

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3.) She also spent several takes eating said snow. I considered getting down to join her.Image

4.) We took at least 20 shots not realizing Oakley wasn’t even in them. But it didn’t really matter. She spent most of the time staring at us wondering why we were constantly talking at her.

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5.) This is Geoff grabbing her face, hoping that by doing so and saying “Just look at the camera!” will somehow form in her mind how to pose appropriately. (It doesn’t work.)

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6.) Now, we’ve figured out the composition issues, but we haven’t figured out our canine ones. Getting Oakley to sit, stay sat, and look in the right direction was a challenge. Geoff’s patience was wearing thin.

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7.) We’re about to give up. Maybe we should resort to plan B: Hold Dog.

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8.) But the humor of the situation has given us extra resolve. We try again. But there are just too many smells and sounds and the wind is blowing east. Too many distractions.

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9.) Which leads us to literally the LAST PHOTO OF THE DAY which ends up being our winner. While grainy, the pose is perfect, and that’s all we can ask for.

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