Baxter Family Portrait Session at St. Patrick’s Park
“With or without the pig?”
If you are following along on Facebook, you’ve heard me mention one of the best tools I have in my bag for photoshoots with children. A little $5 squeaking (err….honking? sort of a wheezing…) pig from the pet toy aisle. If you have young children and have had family pictures taken, this scenario might sound familiar…
Photographer: “Everyone smile at the camera! Little Johnny, where’s the camera? Let me see your smile!”
Parents look down at Johnny to encourage a smile, Johnny looks at camera to smile. But now mom and dad are looking at Johnny.
Photographer: “Mom and dad, back to the camera! Big smiles!”
Parents look at the camera, but now Johnny is looking at mom and dad.
Rinse, Repeat.
Well, when I welcomed this lil’ piggy to my team, I eliminated that scenario for about 95% of my shoots. With a squeeze of the pig, all eyes are up at the camera and (usually) the kids have big, happy grins going with lots of giggles!
Enter the Baxter family on a rather chilly fall evening.
I met Mama Stephanie through the Leadership South Bend/Mishawaka program (shout out to Class 44) in 2017. Learning she was a Buckeye, I already knew she was an A+ person. Stephanie is an optometrist in the area, and just all around one of the nicest people you’ll meet. So welcoming and friendly with beauty and brains! I was so honored when she reached out to schedule a family shoot with me!
We made plans for St. Patrick’s Park, easily one of my favorite places for a shoot. With both Stephanie and Kevin working at Michiana Eye Center, I knew they would want a setting that was a sight for sore eyes (weak pun, will try again later). As the evening approached it got chilly fast. Griffin and Vivian were troopers, but it was a little difficult to concentrate on anything but how cold it was getting!
It was cold! But the light was gorgeous, the family was gorgeous, and even Lola the Schnauzer was making efforts to get great family shots.
I knew my window was closing fast as their little noses turned pink, and the best bet for great smiles in spite of the weather was my trusted pig. It’s hard to focus on cold toes when a pig is wheezing at you.
I pulled the pig from his blanket (that was also in my bag) and gave him a good squeeze. Instant giggles! That pig spent the rest of the shoot on my head.
“Should we take this picture with or without the pig?”
“WITH THE PIG!!!”
honk/wheeze
Griffin and Vivian were laughing so much that mom and dad started cracking up too :) All eyes and smiles were focused right on the camera the rest of the shoot, a perfect vision (ehh…see what I did there?).
The sweetest kids, the cutest couple, a fantastic family session.
Thank you so much for being such a fun family session Kevin, Stephanie, Griffin, Vivian, and Lola! I hope to see you on the other side of the lens again!
