Back to School Shoot - 2018

I'm not sure what it was about this year's shoot, but I'm sort of in a funk about it all. It was sad to see Asylum Point (where we take our photos every year) in such disrepair. The bridge STILL is not fixed, after about 3 years. And the dock is broken now too. The lighthouse has been vandalized and spray painted. They've removed the awesome barn doors on the boathouse and replaced them with ugly metal overhead doors.

I was borrowing my sister's camera, because I'm having issues with mine. I still don't know if it's worth it to buy a new lens, pay to get the camera tuned up, or whatever. So the camera I was using is pretty unfamiliar to me and I ended up having to trash a lot of pics because the focus was all out of whack.

All of it added up to me feeling a little depressed about the whole situation. The kids did pretty well, though. The "promise" of ice cream always helps when taking these photos. I think you can see their personalities pretty well in the photos I did manage to get.

Bug does not want to smile. You cannot make him smile. No matter what, there will be no smiling. Unless you catch him unaware.

Look at this comparison of "by the post" pics:

It's honestly hard to believe it's the same boy!

And I feel like Mini has really grown up this year. She just looks so much older to me in these pictures. Maybe it's the grown up hair cut? Maybe she just really is getting old.

I mean, in the other post photos you can still see some remnants of baby or at least "little" in her:

And somehow, my little ham, Pip, has gotten all stretched out like a string bean.

He's gotten so skinny, and tall. He's grown a lot since last year:

I could be wrong, but I think he's taller than Ezra and Zoe were when they were 4.

And Squish isn't really a little squish ball anymore. Although, she still is a cuddle bug, so we do get squishes often enough anyway! Look at how old she is!

Hard to believe that my youngest is now the same age Zoe was when we started these back to school shoots.

We took photos by the trees this year, since the front of the boathouse and the bridge and lighthouse were all off-limits.

I have titled this one, "NO!" for obvious reasons - toddler stubbornness is real and out in force.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one, with Ezra sitting.

But I do like this series of black and whites:

At least the kids had fun running around by the trees while I tried to snap some decent photos. Except Ezra of course, who is too old and cool for "fun".