A Family Photographer's Miracle Photo

While posing other families is challenging enough, posing my own is a whole other ball game!

Every so often I fool myself into thinking I can actually take my own family photos. After all my kids are a bit older (11 and 14) and they should behave now and do what I ask. And they should know so simply look at the camera and smile. Right?

Alas, we're still not at that maturity level.

While calling the final of our family photo a "miracle" may be taking it a bit far it kind of feels that way. Out of a couple of dozen or so shots not one "worked." (Keep in mind I am obviously not behind the lens and so can't see what's happening — I just cross my fingers and let the camera rip.)

The one shot that was in focus and relatively decently posed featured my children with less than desired faces (who wants that Christmas card hanging on their mantel?). Miraculously, I was able to triage the image by pulling in a face of my son's from a second image in the series and my daughters from yet another image. The result? What I call a (albeit tiny) miracle.

Photoshop Miracles