Family Portrait…where the studio is your own!

We are not a particularly photogenic family. Once upon a time our four year old son would photo bomb every time he spotted a camera or mobile phone out. Until his little brother’s christening when the entire family laughed at him when he pulled his “cheese” face (which to be fair was not unlike Chandler from ‘Friends’ during his engagement photo). His confidence damaged he now runs a mile or just hides behind his hands at the mention of a photo. Sort of like me really, being short I will happily shuffle to the back of group photos and so am like the Where’s Wally of the family album! To my OH, the thought of going to get a family portait taken was painful. “Rather stick pins in my eyes” I think is what I heard muttered at the suggestion. The only family member fully up for pictures was little Jack (2 and 3/4, going on 16). I don’t know where he learnt to pose? It is certainly not in his genetics! So when my mother suggested last summer that she would love a family portrait of the four of us for Christmas I knew that no amount of “it’s the thought that counts” was going to get us out of it. Still, it didn’t stop me from putting it off, though fortunately not for too long. When I initially contacted Rupert Barker, and relayed our reluctance yet necessity for a family portrait, he immediately put my reservations to rest. I did not have to assemble the whole family, neatly dressed at the same time in his studio (other Mummies will know what a feat this can be). Instead he came to our home or whatever location we chose for the photos. There was no time limit, he was happy to work around us until the desired shot was taken. We did not really even have to pose. Brilliant. So, on the next vaguely sunny day, Rupert arrived with his extremely portable very clever mobile studio, and little Jack immediately launched into action, acting out every scenario for the camera like he was going for an Oscar! Meanwhile Freddie had not suprisingly vanished! “No problem” said Rupert who happily busied himself taking pictures of Jack kicking the ball, on the trampoline, funny face, serious face, smiley face! I was thinking, this is great, perhaps Mum could be placated with a fantastic picture of Jack. My OH bored annonced that he was going back to mowing on the tractor. No sooner was the ‘T’ word out of his mouth than Freddie had miraculously reappeared and Rupert salvaged the situation with his idea of a walk and some photos on a tractor? And so followed Freddie and Jack taking Rupert for a guided tour of the farm machinery, with Rupert snapping away while keeping Freddie on side with his constant barrage of questions and stories of his time on a farm. Cleverly Rupert managed to find several moments when all four of us (and the dogs) had forgotten the existance of the camera, and caught us perfectly just as we are. Not the nightmare I had envisaged at my mother’s request, the experience was happily a memorable one and the photos better than we imagined!