The worse happened. When it was our turn, both of them were reluctant to be in the spot lights. AIYA~, my worse nightmare. Ashlyn was OK, she would stay “on stage” but no smile, just being COOL! Alex was a little difficult. He refused to go “on stage”, had to cling on to me. The stewpid photographer kept saying “your son looks dis-stressed”. Hack yeah, I know he looked dis-stressed, no need to emphasize. He was just holding his camera and waited. I was like, you totally wasting our time. It’s digital camera, just shot and warm them up, dorn it!! He took so long without any action even the studio manager had to try to make my rascals smile and react to the camera. I couldn’t help it anymore, so I asked if he had any toys, or props. He brought out some blocks, and sure enough that got their attention. They still didn’t look at the camera much, I think both of them just being cool. They have the tendency to avoid the camera when they’re asked to, they do that at home too. Aiya, they are growing up and have a mind of their own, and I can’t pose them any more!!
After the session, as we were viewing the proofs, the photographer kept saying “my style is very modern, this is very much my interpretation of your kids, this is not picture people at all. Your kids are very free spirited.” Thank you, that’s a pilot way of saying “your kids don’t follow instructions!” When he said that, the people at the computer next to us looked over, and I was like “free spirit my butt!!” This is my interpretation of “free spirit” — Just look at the pictures, how many of them had the rascals looking right into the camera? They always looked away from it, that’s free spirit? He wasn’t able to catch 1, I just need ONE, ONE image of them close to each other and looking the same way, at least some what looking out if not totally starring at the camera, so that I can update my wallet show and tell piece. NONE, he couldn’t catch NONE, ZERO, ZILCH. AAAARRRRGGGHHHH~~~!!!!
Despite my disappointment with that “ONE” image I was hoping for, the pictures actually surprising satisfied, some what. He was able to catch Alex’s obsession with the blocks, but I couldn’t find a good picture of Ashlyn alone. I particularly like the one with Ashlyn and Alex looking at the blocks together. Look here —-> This one!
OK, I guess I like his “modern style”, how he adjusted the colors so that pictures look more “sur-real”, that I like very much, but I don’t like his personality. Maybe he’s still young (age wise), it seems to me that he is not that good with kids. What really up sad me was that when I asked him if there’s any props for Alex to ride on, he just told me they didn’t have those any more. They used to have the train, classic car, rocking horses, and don’t know if you remember or not, well, here is the picture to remind you, they used to have the airplane which we used in our last photo session. I felt like he was frustrated and refused to supply any props. Why? cux when I was reviewing the proofs, out of no where, my aunt found the airplane and Alex was happily riding it all over the studio. I could lived with it if he told me some other photographers were using it, but he just told me they didn’t have it anymore without even looking for it or asking around? He was totally lying to my face.
The selection process wasn’t difficult at all. He tried to explained to me the package deal, what to look for in a picture. He said, don’t pick an image based on whether they are looking at the camera or not. I was thinking, of course, you didn’t take any of those, how am I supposed to pick ANY of those. Then he went on and on and on and on and….on. Within 5 mins, I picked out all the images I wanted to purchase. He said “WOW, you are quick, there’re so many customers they couldn’t decide, took them forever” I just gave him a lame excuse, I said “Oh, yeah, I have done this many time, I know exactly what I want and I set a budget, so it’s easy.” From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to tell him “you didn’t take many great images for me to choose, that’s a no brainer!”
