One advantage about being a photographer is being able to take my own family portraits. My children are usually cooperative. But there are days (the days I need them to be cooperative) where they are just not feeling it and do not feel like being photographed. These are the days I need to put in a lot of extra effort, put aside my expectations, throw in some fun, and let everyone participate in the creativity to get "the shot". That day was this past Sunday. We've been putting off taking our annual family portraits because of our busy family schedule. But I knew we had to get it done before the weather turned too cold and before the holiday hustle and bustle started. I also wanted to take advantage our beautiful fall foliage and the early sales vendors have been offering on Christmas cards (I love card sales!).

So after church, I grabbed the kids, my husband, and my camera equipment, and found a little spot on one of our neighborhood trails. Right from the start, I could tell the kids were just not into taking photos. This was evident when my pleas that this would "only take a few minutes", not only fell on deaf ears, but resulted in somber faces. And somber faced kids do not make cute photos, at least not the kind of photos we were looking for for our Christmas cards. So with a reiterated promise of S'mores after our photo session (this was promised before we left the house), letting the kids lead in setting up shots, participate in taking photos, and some fun play in the leaves, we started here.....

And ended here....

So in the end, we were able to get some great shots and I was even able to get in a couple of photos by letting my son snap a couple of shots using my wireless remote.