Sometimes you gotta take one for the team. That’s what a good man does.
My mother-in-law struggles with giving Christmas gifts to her siblings. Every year my wife basically tells her mom what to get for her sibling (they mix up the gift exchange each year). Usually, this doesn’t affect me, so I really don’t care how the whole thing goes down.
The 2009 gift exchange added a wrinkle. As per custom, my wife gave her mom some ideas for some gifts for her sister (my wife’s aunt). Again, at this point I really don’t care about the proceedings. It’s just the M.O. my wife and mother-in-law have worked out. After weeks of discussion, they settled on the perfect gift.
And what gift did the decide on? Good question. Apparently, they are giving my wife’s aunt a family photo session to get a new family portrait taken. Cool, right? Well…yes and no. The photographer they chose was me.
It’s not that I don’t mind taking photos for family. Quite the contrary, I love taking photos. It’s just that I’m not confident that I can live up to others’ expectations. I’m not a professional photographer. I’ve only had my DSLR for 2 years and I’m just now feeling comfortable with doing the manual settings.
Monday night was the photo shoot. I shot about 100 photos in a 30 minute window. I think I got about 15 solid shots, but I still need to print the proofs at Costco or Sam’s Club to see how they turned out.
I did get one shot I liked: one of the header photos for this site. It’s the one with a sign that reads, “#2 Tee —>.”
Oh, and I earned points with the mother-in-law and big points with my wife. Well done, sir! Thanks.
