Aligning My Little Planets
Taking pictures of both of my girls together, both looking at the camera and smiling simultaneously, is a lot like waiting for two planets to align. It used to be almost effortless to catch Abby, the single-subject beauty, before little sissy came along. Granted, I had to constantly follow this moving target around, running, kneeling, turning, climbing, zooming in and out until I could catch just the right photo of her captivating face. It was actually relatively simple, though I would not have described it that way then. I may not always have gotten a smile or just the perfect pose, but it was enough that the picture was presentable, usually, one I could happily upload to the blog with very little reservation.
Even when little sissy was small, when she couldn’t yet crawl or move around much, getting these two celestial bodies to align was, again, relatively straightforward. “Abby, come sit here next to your sister. Thank you. Now smile” [snap!]. Easy. This was when the main issue was just getting her not to frown or make some awful grimace at the camera. I can recall several instances of this, where I coaxed, cajoled, threatened, and I think I even spanked once for her willful defiance to my smile request (I mean, I only asked for two whole seconds, for heaven’s sake!!), which merely resulted in a tear-stained subject and a defeated photo shoot; that stage seemed a difficult one to manage. Until now.
Now it’s waiting for gravity to compel these two ever-presently dynamic forces to collide and at the same time both be partially sunny about it. I’ll even go for complete apathy, if they would stay close enough for any small length of time to get even a half shot of their faces.
Sometimes I even manage to get a picture of them together, that place where I am madly fumbling to get the camera turned on and focused before they ricochet off of one another, but then they will be busy playing with a dollhouse, and one will have their back turned to the camera or will have their head aimed downwards, making the photo op, needless to say, a bit futile [delete, delete, delete].
Even when little sissy was small, when she couldn’t yet crawl or move around much, getting these two celestial bodies to align was, again, relatively straightforward. “Abby, come sit here next to your sister. Thank you. Now smile” [snap!]. Easy. This was when the main issue was just getting her not to frown or make some awful grimace at the camera. I can recall several instances of this, where I coaxed, cajoled, threatened, and I think I even spanked once for her willful defiance to my smile request (I mean, I only asked for two whole seconds, for heaven’s sake!!), which merely resulted in a tear-stained subject and a defeated photo shoot; that stage seemed a difficult one to manage. Until now.
Now it’s waiting for gravity to compel these two ever-presently dynamic forces to collide and at the same time both be partially sunny about it. I’ll even go for complete apathy, if they would stay close enough for any small length of time to get even a half shot of their faces.
Sometimes I even manage to get a picture of them together, that place where I am madly fumbling to get the camera turned on and focused before they ricochet off of one another, but then they will be busy playing with a dollhouse, and one will have their back turned to the camera or will have their head aimed downwards, making the photo op, needless to say, a bit futile [delete, delete, delete].
The main issue now is convincing Esther to not throw a fit when I’m trying to corral both of them in one spot for two seconds together, arms around one another. That is the biggest issue we face. The arms. She doesn’t want to be held by her big sister in any way, shape, or form, and that’s an unfortunate snag because when you’re waiting for two interplanetary bodies to conjoin for even a brief moment, arms are very useful things.
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