Behind the Scenes

My friend Cherise wisely pointed out that when it comes to family pictures, you only see the end result. The precious few (of hundreds) that have been meticulously edited down with swapped heads, smoothed skin and whitened teeth.* The one perfect photo that ends up on your Christmas card. You never see the throw away images of bored teenagers, cranky children and annoyed husbands. And trust me, there are plenty of those.

And you don't hear about the dirt covered knees or burr infested fields that you go tromping through to get the perfect shot. Or in the case of one of my favorite abandoned shacks last week, the SNAKES you might run into.

I still get the heebie-jeebies thinking about it. He was bigger in real life. And not dead, like we initially thought. Ick.

*In the case of the Garn family who happen to be unfairly photogenic, NONE of that was needed. Seriously, none. Five kids, five beautiful smiling faces in almost every frame. That's unheard of.