Family Portraits are never a catastrophe

My children will never understand the catastrophe that is a ruined family portrait. Before you could snap 100 selfies on your smart phone, edit one of them to perfection, and release it to the universe at large, there was "the family portrait". Ours were always taken at church when the Ladies Auxiliary would schedule a professional photographer to come in and all the church families would dress in their Sunday best to get a family portrait taken. I remember my parents always fielding intrusive and misogynist questions about a family of 3 (intelligent, strong) daughters and no sons. But the fun part was the posing.

One year, I was caught clapping my hands and trying to get my baby sister to smile. My mother is captured responding more enthusiastically than said sister.

One year I had stretched the edge of my pretty blue dress to show how wide the skirt was, and the shot was snapped just as I let go. The idea that a moment captured might not portray perfection - and that this imperfection won't be realised until weeks later when the film is processed and developed - is so foreign to my children's generation. Imagine the laughs they are missing out on!